16. Sigmund Freud and religion
Freud was the descendent of Orthodox Jews, who lived most of his life in antisemitic Vienna, which for a period following the First World War was also the home of Adolf Hitler, who struggled to survive by selling his paintings on the street. His thoughts on religion were revealed in several papers published in the early 20th century, and many of them brought harsh reactions from representatives of different religions, both clerical and laic. The monotheistic God of Judaism was regarded by Freud as stemming from emotional needs based in infantile urges.
To Freud, religion had once served a purpose by helping to restrain humanity’s barbaric impulses, but in the face of advances in science and the development of human reason, it was no longer of value and was actually the source of much harm. Freud considered religious beliefs to be a form of self-imposed and maintained delusions, which restricted the development of reason. His several papers addressing the subject of religion and religious beliefs were considered to be controversial at the time of their publication. Several of them remain controversial today, where they are considered at all, and fundamentalist religious groups dismiss than out of hand.