02-01-2002, 06:14 PM
This is the title to a small 100 page book written by Sigmund Frued. It is a straightforward and simple explanation of why it is that primitive man had to create the concept of a 'God'. Basically HE is the logical extension of the essential relationship between a child and his father - i.e.
to the child, the father is the protector and benefactor who is also very much feared. Our father (not our mother) is the person that keeps us safe in a strange and hostile world, while at the same time we fear him (hate him?) for his absolute authority and control over us. As primitive man formed into more organized groups (tribes, clans, villages) this essential need for a 'father' continued due to the universal fear of the great unknown - i.e. death.
I think this book was partly responsible for a large sway of resistence to Frued's work. Since up until the time he wrote it, even though he had published his radical ideas on psychology he hadn't as yet described them as being contrary to religion or Christianity.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, et al., just a silly extension of a very basic need we carry forward from our infancy?
to the child, the father is the protector and benefactor who is also very much feared. Our father (not our mother) is the person that keeps us safe in a strange and hostile world, while at the same time we fear him (hate him?) for his absolute authority and control over us. As primitive man formed into more organized groups (tribes, clans, villages) this essential need for a 'father' continued due to the universal fear of the great unknown - i.e. death.
I think this book was partly responsible for a large sway of resistence to Frued's work. Since up until the time he wrote it, even though he had published his radical ideas on psychology he hadn't as yet described them as being contrary to religion or Christianity.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, et al., just a silly extension of a very basic need we carry forward from our infancy?