Freud and Religion

Although Freud Was an Atheist, the Way He Treated Religion Was Inappropriate and Ill-Informed
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Roman Rolland was the one who introduced the oceanic feeling referring to it as religious, oneness or solidarity feeling. Schreber (1995) explains that many people, millions in number, share such innate feeling which makes them feel a sense of solidarity and oneness with the reality, and it is an experience as if one feels is in an ocean (p.226). However, Sigmund Freud criticizes the term “oceanic feeling” in his book “the Civilization and its Discontents”. Freud never experienced this feeling before, although he only learned about it from Roman Rolland. Despite coming from a strong Roman Catholic background, Freud became an atheist and criticized religion (Freud, 1962, p.7). He considered religion as mere expression of psychological distress and neuroses. Freud described religion as illusion because it is a product of the human mind. Freud considered religion is a practice that causes hindrance in the society. This paper argues that although Freud was an atheist, the way he treated religion was inappropriate and ill-informed.
Freud criticizes such religious feeling; he claimed that he cannot find such psychological feeling within himself. He explains that the religious feeling is a mere feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness against fate. He argues that people, who are hopeless and powerless, search for a father figure to give them protection. This need develops religion or creates god. According to Freud, God is the father figure to people who are hopeless; giving them strength, protection and guidance; thus making them feel important. First argument is that Freud’s anti-religious sentiments are flawed as his psychoanalytic psychology. He attacks religion by considering religion as wish fulfillment. Arguing like this shows that Freud simply attacks religion because he dislikes religion. Freud (1962) considers religious feeling as something purely subjective experience, not a substance of faith and it does not guarantee personal immortality (p.14). Freud fails to present any evidence of his claim.
Freud (1962) believes that the oceanic feeling is a psychological craving for paternal (father) protection in which children continue longing for father’s protection from infancy life into adult life (p.86). Freud attributes such feelings as the feeling of eternity in which some individuals feel connected to something that is much larger than themselves. The second argument is that it is uncertain that Freud claims that religious beliefs arise from human wishes because he hates the idea of God (Preus, 1996). Freud has no evidence to justify that religious beliefs are wish thinking (p.137). In real sense, people do not have such wishes. People normally express their hopes and wishes in prayers. Freud considers unconscious mechanisms as responsible for causing religious beliefs. The third argument is that it is contradicting for Freud to develop mechanisms in which people come to believe in religious deity, yet he believes that there is no god (Preus, 1996, p.138). Why is he creating such mechanisms, but in the first place he believes that t...