How Did Freud Respond To The Problem Of Religion?

Are science and religion enemies? Freud seemed to think so, and in this essay, published as a book, he discusses this question from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. Freud viewed Religious beliefs as a problem that was a delicate balance between illusion and delusion. In Freud’s estimation, religion was a problem of culture; and culture [Kultur] is hardly distinguishable from civilization; at least Freud thought.

As culture becomes the adjective, civilization becomes the noun; hence the topic is now intertwined as civilization and the problems of religion. By first defining civilization, and expounding upon its trends, Freud is able to offer an interesting response to the problems of “self-reliance,” “individuality,” and “independence,” viz.

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As Freud explains, humanity needed a reprieve from their miserable state, and their inability to conquer nature. For nature makes humanity helpless in its wake, and there must be a purpose behind the absurdity. Further, civilization imposes a privation on the individual in which they must be compensated for, or else, why would anyone ever agree to such terms? Thus begins religion, and the gods are assigned their positions;

(4) By forcing religious education on the child, they lose the ability to think freely, to explore, to actually learn from experience, etc. “Is it not true that the two main points in the programme for the education of children to-day are retardation of sexual development and premature religious influence?” (p. 60). Further, can we look at the effects of religious learning in countries today, like, the U.S?

“That the effect of religious consolations may be likened to that of a narcotic is well illustrated by what is happening in America…Men cannot remain children for ever; they must in the end go out into ‘hostile life’. We may call this ‘education to reality’” (pp. 62-63).

As factual today as it was over a hundred years ago…