Freud argued that the origin of religion is psychological and described it as a universal obsessional neurosis.
For Freud the mind is made up of three layer: the ego which is the conscious self of which we are aware, the it the unconscious self (repressed), and the super-ego which is the socailly constructed morality which comes from our socialisation (heteronomy).
Freud argued that people want an afterlife as it is a comforting idea to find meaning in life whereas in fact it is actually an illusion - he described God as humanity's imaginary friend. In normal Freudian spirit, he links ideas of parental relationships to God. He finds close connections between relationship with God and that with parents. A mother is caring, loving and comforting (like God), while Father is strong and protective (like God)
However, Freud can be critiqued by the fact, that often when children leave home they lose faith, rather than gain it. Similarly to Anselm's ontological, Freud sets our evidence to support his original point, rather than base his idea on evidence.
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