you've probably heard of Sigmund Freud
he was an Austrian neurologist in the
late 19th and early 20th century who is
credited for founding the field of
psychoanalysis
he's almost become a joke or stereotype
today because some of his research is
famously provocative and sometimes
pretty weird but many people don't
realize that some of his earliest
research is on religion and he laid the
groundwork for later psychological
approaches to religious studies some of
this research is very provocative and
not really accepted by many scholars
today but it's very important to dive
into this research just to see how Freud
influenced later research on religion
Freud's earliest writing on religion is
his text obsessive actions and religious
practices and like the title suggests
Freud compares obsessive-compulsive
actions to religious actions he argues
that both obsessive compulsive disorders
and religious rituals are concerned with
purity guilt and repetition and he
argues that both are concerned with
making sure you don't deviate from the
rituals prescribed actions it is easy to
see where the resemblances lie between
neurotic ceremonials and the sacred acts
of religious ritual and the qualms of
conscience brought on by their neglect
in their complete isolation from all
other actions and in the
conscientiousness with which they are
carried out in every detail basically
Freud is saying that religious rituals
and obsessive actions stem from this
inner feeling of disorder and anxiety
and therefore both of these actions are
a defense mechanism meant to combat this
anxiety this leads into Freud's other
big theory of religion religion is an
illusion that humans created as a form
of wish fulfillment and his later work
the future of an illusion
Freud argues that religion stems from
childhood desires of an ideal father
figure the lengthening of our lives and
the immortality of our souls he argues
that since we're animals with this weird
sense that we know we're going to die
someday we have an instinctual need to
create a variety of defense mechanisms
to create a sense of security according
to Freud religion is that defense
mechanism a grand illusory wish
fulfillment to help us cope with life
and our eventual demise
he states in Chapter ten of the future
of an illusion religion is a system of
wishful illusions together with a
disavowal of reality such as we find
nowhere else but in the state of
blissful hallucinatory confusion now I
know this sounds really harsh
and Freud was a huge critic of religion
and I can already hear some of you
typing away agreeing with Freud or
bashing Freud but before you do any of
that you need to keep a few things in
mind
number one much of Freud's research has
been deemed unscientific his popular
theories such as the it'd go and
super-ego the Oedipus complex these are
theories that are not corroborated by
modern psychology and modern
neuroscience so keep this in mind when
you approach his theories about religion
the notion that religious rituals and
obsessive compulsive disorders stem from
the same feeling of repressed disorder
and anxiety I would argue that not many
scholars agree with that today however
I'm not here to tell you why Freud is
wrong I'm here to tell you how Freud has
shaped later research because he was
very influential for example Freud was
one of the earliest scholars to theorize
about the future of religion how
religion fits into a world of secularism
and modernity he saw religion as
dangerous to humanity and envisioned a
future of a atheistic utopia where
humans disregard religion and scholars
today are still thinking about
secularism and religion will secularism
caused the decline of religion how does
religion manifest itself in a secular
society these are questions that Freud
tried to answer and scholars today are
trying to answer to moreover Freud was
one of the first scholars to theorize
about how our psychology our desires and
our instincts shape our religious
beliefs and practices the scholar Otto
ronk for example an Austrian
psychoanalyst and pupil of Freud
strongly influenced later social
psychology research on terror management
theory the theory that our knowledge of
our inevitable death causes humans to
embrace cultural values including
religion this is research that modern
social psychologists such as Jeff
Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon are
working on today trying to answer the
same questions that Freud posed a
century ago so all this to say every
person studying religion should know a
little bit about Freud some of his
research is unscientific some
his research is just downright bizarre
but the questions he posed the theories
he put forward have resounded through
the decades sparking new research
inspiring our imagination and making us
ask the question how does our psychology
affect our religious beliefs and
practices at this point I'd say go read
his text obsessive actions and religious
practices you can find it relatively
easily online and it will blow your mind
but what about you guys have you ever
read Freud do you agree with his idea
that religion is just a grand wish
fulfillment for humanity's deepest fears
and anxieties leave your comments below
and I'll try my best to answer them and
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