People often describe an antagonism between Freud and religion, and this observa tion is well-founded.  Yet it’s also possible to reconcile the two.  When I do as I think God wills I should do, I am worshipping a false god, because God never wills that I should be doing anything.  Only the superego, the conscience we create based upon societal influences, tells me what I should be doing.

The superego projects its own plans onto God.  In this respect, Freud seems to have been correct about the pacifying function of religion and the human use of God as a kind of wish-fulfillment.  However, perhaps Freud erred in rejecting the concept of a deity in its entirety.  If there is God, it resides beyond the shoulds, beyond the superego, and beyond any human concept of what we think God to be.  People invent what they think God should be, and project that onto the God that may actually be.  This projection is, in essence, inherent to some degree in every human religious system. Yet in rejecting the existence of a God altogether, it’s possible that Freud threw out a good idea when he took out the garbage.

© 2023 by Michael C. Just