Religion As An Illusion: Freud

Question 1

Sigmund Freud denounced religion as a ?: “the religions of mankind must be classed as among the ? ?”.

Answer 1

Lie.

Mass delusions.

Question 2

According to Freud, religion is a product of ? ?, the experience of vulnerability and helplessness that humans experience as children is made more tolerable by the invented belief that there’s a ? to life; a deity, or divine force, is invented to replace the sense of ? with something uncontrollable.

Answer 2

Wish fulfilment.
Purpose.
Uncertainty.

Question 3

Religion represses human desires that are destructive to society, like sexual violence, theft and ?

Answer 3

Murder.

Question 4

“In the end all good is rewarded and all evil punished…anyone who knows nothing of [religious ideas] is very ?; and anyone who has added them to his knowledge may consider himself much the richer” (“The ? of an Illusion”).

Answer 4

Ignorant.

Future.

Question 5

Religious beliefs and teachings demand to be believed because they were believed by our ancestors and passed down to us and, historically, ? punishes those who challenge them.

Answer 5

Societies.

Question 6

According to Freud, religion assuages infantile ? we have of things we can’t change, and represses negative human behaviours, believing religion to be ?

Answer 6

Fears.

Unhealthy.

Question 7

Freud can see that religion is produced by uncertainty and anxiety about things beyond our control, but creates something unreliable and ?

Answer 7

Unhealthy.