Freud: Maturity & Religion

Freud: Maturity & Religion Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, viewed religion and maturity together as being incapable. When he discussed religion as an illusion, he said that it was a “fantasy structure from which a man must be set free if he is to grow to maturity.” He argued that religion as a neurotic behavior locks the psyche into a pre-adult stage, which I find to be true as well based on that ideas are imposed on birth, the need of a father figure, and that religion separates man from self. The first reason as to why I side with Freud is because many of the ideas that people follow based on their religion and beliefs were imposed on them at birth. Almost all people follow the religion that their parents and previous ancestors practiced, and the ones who don’t almost immediately are viewed as atheists and are somewhat “shunned” out of society. In my view, there is diminutive space in the religious world where people who are agnostic are accepted. Since people are young and new to the world, it is an easy way to impose ideas on them that they will likely tend to follow and believe in later on in life which will then be taught to their children in a reoccurring trend. At an early age, nothing can be questioned or objected and the idea of a “large” all powerful being is easily imposed on the youth. These traditions and beliefs are then followed through by the child through his/her teenage years and when the child now begins to question his/her religion and faith it is immediately shutdown by elders on the basis of “You’ve been practicing this religion your whole life, how dare you turn your back on God now and question him”, or anything along those lines. A person’s beliefs on how the world came to be, life, the afterlife, morals, and more were never a hundred percent created on their own, but were somehow enforced, even if it be the least amount, by their parents. The second reason is because everyone has the need of a father figure. Some people are