Future of an Illusion, The

By Freud, Sigmund, James Strachey (Trans. and Ed.)
Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., Paperback, 80 pp., ISBN: 0393008312, $10.95

In the manner of the 18th Century philosophy, Freud argued that religion and science were mortal enemies.

Early in the century, he began to think about religion psychoanalytically and to discuss it in his writings. The Future of an Illusion (1927), Freud’s best known and most emphatic psychoanalytic exploration of religion, is the culmination of a lifelong pattern of thinking.

In this book Freud shows how the need for religion and a god who will protect us at all times stems from the helplessness of our childhood. Basically, there comes a point in our adolescence when we realize that we will die one day. This thought is much too threatening for our immature and underdeveloped brain to deal with. In order to satisfy our infantile wish of never dying, primitive humans invented a god figure who will save us from the inevitability of this. Freud shows how the protection we received from our mother/father/guardian easily converts, in our older age, to the concept of god. If logic, reasoning and science are the tools you use to run your life read this book. If faith is the method in which you acquire your information, read at your own risk.

This book details the logical argument for atheism yet remains respectful of religion.