Disagreement with Sigmond Freud's The Future of an Illiusion

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Recommended: Sigmund Freud's theory of religion

To a certain extent I can agree with Freud’s views on natural instinct. Without manmade laws and “coercion” or rules that are presented by God, civilization would not survive or even have been born. Yet, as is the case with many other people, I disagree with his views on religion. I do not believe that religion was created by man, but by a higher being. It is impossible for me to believe that science will destroy religion because for every question science answers many more questions arise. The more science reveals about nature the more apparent it is to me that only a higher being could have created everything. As Freud states I am one of the unpersuadable.

Civilization is not only made by technological development but also by a set of rules. The rules remove man’s foul instincts such as “killing, incest, and cannibalism”, which are the elements that work to destroy civilization. Without guidelines or laws our actions would be the same as those of wild animals. Freud says that these laws and doctrines were established so that we could unite and band against the our enemy nature.

Imposing laws upon people is a necessary element, yet it causes people to resent this

coercion away from their natural instincts. After being forced against their will these people begin

to hate civilization but at the same time they continue to love it because it provides them with

their necessities to live. Freud calls the people the “masses” because they are the majority of

civilization. He says that they are ignorant and lazy, because of this, it easy for them to lapse back

to instinctual behavior and into the chaos of nature.

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Freud says civilization is founded on religion. For example, T...

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...Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a good example of Freud’s envisioned civilization. Instead relying on a higher being, the state

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was to meet all of the people’s needs. When the country failed economically, there were generations of atheists with no belief system to guide them. This country collapsed because of many reasons but one of them could be the lack of religion.

After reading The Future of an Illusion I wondered why Freud was so strongly set against God. Instead of basing his beliefs on faith, he invested himself in the scientific method. Since he could not conduct experiments that led him to the answer, he concluded that it was impossible for a God to exist. Maybe science will one day explain the phenomenona of today, but there will always be unanswered questions. A discovery will only lead to more questions.

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