Sigmund Freud's Theories Of Religion

Religion according to Sigmund Freud

Throughout the semester we learned that people have different opinions about religion and hold different beliefs about what really happened during the time of Christ. Many question whether he truly exists. We briefly discussed a famous individual named Sigmund Freud, who held a much different belief about religion than most. By comparing his views to catholic, Thomas a’ Kempis, we can see exactly how different his views were. Freud’s beliefs about our personality and our death drive are important to understand in order to know how he felt about religion. Some of Freud’s theories of religion relate to mastering the Oedipus complex, a reaction to infantile helplessness, and a universal obsessional ritual.

All of these contradict the beliefs of most Catholics, including Thomas a’ Kempis as Freud believed that religion originated much differently.
Thomas a’ Kempis, who wrote the Imitation of Christ, was a strong catholic with firm beliefs in Catholicism.

Thomas a’ Kempis was a very influential catholic and his writings in the Imitation of Christ are still found important and popular still today. He believed that believing in Christ and accepting him into your life was a very important part of being a catholic. He believed you must live a life that is most close to the life that Jesus lived. Thomas a’ Kempis believed in the importance of imitating Christ. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a’ Kempis focuses on the interior life and spirituality. He wants people to focus on what is truly important in his opinion, Christ. No material goods or money can make you truly happy. Thomas a Kempis wants people to focus on living a life like Christ because in the end He is all you will have. Many people agree with the beliefs of Thomas a’ Kempis and follow his suggestions on how to live a life Christ would be accepting

of.
Sigmund Freud would say that Thomas a’ Kempis’ beliefs are crazy. Freud believed that religion was actually an expression of an underlying psychological neuroses and distress. "The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life"(Civilization and its Discontents 1989) we resort to religion to solve our problems and as a way to help us face our fears. We turn to God and hope that he will protect us and help us in our times of suffering. According to Freud, God was created as an outlet for human kind in these times. He thought people turned to religion just to help them with their problems. Freud wrote many books on religion in an attempt to understand it and spirituality. These included Totem and Taboo, Civilization and its Discontents, The Future of an Illusion and also Moses and Monotheism. Freud had beliefs in psychology that many supported, while at the same time others disputed them.
In the first chapter of the Imitation of Christ, Thomas a’ Kempis starts out the book with a statement saying, "Whoever follows Me will not walk into darkness”(a’ Kempis). He is saying that Jesus wanted the people to follow him and do as he wanted and in return they would have eternal life without worrying about what happens after death. Freud would disagree with this statement and would say that most Catholics are crazy to believe that there is an eternal life after death where Christ takes all of His followers up to heaven to be saved. Thomas a’ Kempis wants people to resist the temptations of the material world and all of the distractions that life has. By being humble and letting go of our pride he believes we can live a more holy life. We must be humble and act in ways that helps others and puts them before ours self. Christ wants us to experience life at the lows so that he can bring us up to glory.
By having a clear and good conscience we will have more joy than the amount of knowledge that someone like Freud has learned. All of Thomas a’ Kempis’ beliefs are based on faith, just like every other believer and follower of Christ. No one truly knows the truth and what exactly happened as we learn from catholic writings and the Bible. Everything that Catholics believe in and practice on a daily basis is based on faith, a faith that Christ truly exists. Freidrich Nietzsche had beliefs similar to Freud and stated that God is a wish and that Catholics and believers are constantly wishing for God. They are hoping that he exists and hopes that he will save them and help them in times of trouble. People often turn to God only in these times. Freud would say that a belief in something that you have no proof for makes no sense. He believed in things based on science and proof more than just faith.
Freud’s beliefs of religion differ as they go back to his idea of the Oedipal Complex.

He believes that children have a strong desire to be close to their mothers but comes in conflict with the father who has a strong connection and investment in the mother. Freud believes in the importance of the mother while Catholics and most religions worship the father. In Catholicism, it is submission to Christ, who is a father-God. To Freud, God is an illusion(Holt 2008). We created this individual because of our infantile need for a powerful father figure. Religion is a “universal obsessional neurosis” according to Freud because of its repetitive rituals(Holt 2008). In order to follow a religion there is many things you must do. There is not necessarily rules, but morals and values of religions that each follower abides by. From Freud’s writings, his belief of religion changed somewhat from first finding it all to be an illusion, to accepting that God may have existed but that the idea of it all is one of the strangest thoughts in human thinking. Many people follow Christ on faith and will do things that most others seem crazy. The Bible tells us of stories where men killed their own brothers because they said Christ told them to do so, fathers abandoned their families, and people did unthinkable things all because they were asked by Christ to do so. These things all seem insane. How could someone want you to distrust your own family and hurt them in such ways but still call

themselves the Father of all of the people? A father would not ask people to do this to their own family. Freud questions stories in the Bible and questions how people can follow these beliefs and act in ways that they do, hoping that they will please God.
As a result of Freud’s Jewish upbringing he studied their beliefs. Freud believed that an Egyptian Moses brought religion to the Jews and led them out of Egypt. He believed that they did not follow him for long and murdered him. This was the murder of the primitive father and after this the Jews believed that they should worship no one else(Holt 2010). This makes Moses the founder of Judaism as a religion which contradicts what Thomas a’ Kempis and many other Catholics believe. Freud has both a historical analysis of religion as well as a psychological explanation. First off, his historical explanation includes a story of a father and his jealous sons. In Totem and Taboo, Freud discusses a father with envious sons on the women in the tribe. They are jealous of his access to the women and as a result are so overwhelmed that they kill him. Even after their horrible actions and rebelling against their own father and family, they still are not satisfied. Freud states that religion is a result of the frustration and guilt that the sons experienced after their actions. Freud’s psychological explanation of religion is based off of the idea that God is a projection of the unconscious mind(Holt 2010). Both believed that religion was wish fulfillment. People have feelings of helplessness and doubt and in turn they adopt religion into their life. They are going back to their childish ways of thought in response to these feelings mentioned. This goes back to Freud’s ideas of the Id, Ego, and Superego. We need security and forgiveness in our lives and so we come up with a way to get it. For these people, God and religion is their source of security and forgiveness they need to live and be happy. Freud sees religion as a childish delusion while on the other hand he sees atheism as a grown up realism(Holt 2010).