Examine Freud’s View of Religious Belief. Essay

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856; he lived most of his life in Vienna. His family were Jewish so was brought in a religious faith. Freud fled the Nazi’s in London then died the following year on the 23rd of September 1939. He was an atheist. He saw himself as â€Å"The Godless Jew†. He rejected both America and Religion. Freud had a Neurotic and obsessional character. Freud’s view on religious belief was a form of neurotic illness. Freud believed that religious activities bear a striking resemblance to the activities of a neurotic person. Neurotic conditions such as OCD repeat actions which. Primal Horde Theory, Freud’s principle contribution was the idea of the murder of the primitive horde â€Å"one day, the brothers who have been driven out, came together killed and devoured their father and so made an end to the patriarchal horde. The leader was killed out of jealously, as he was taking all the women. In guilt for the murder of their father figure they put up a Totem, symbol or animal which is believed that their spirit is inside in place of their father figure. Guilt was eventually paid of by praying or sacrificing to them Totem. Over millions of years the Totem becomes God, guilt then passed. The Totem is seen as sacred and must be protected. After a year the animal believed to be the Totem could be killed then eaten. The Oedipus complex, Freud believed that everyone suffered a dramatic trauma which was the Oedipus complex. This is when a boy at the age of six would have sexual desires for his mother and wants to kill his father, in jealousy. The suckling child was used to having its mother’s attention, where the libido is transferred