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A review by moreteamorecats
The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
I admit, I laughed hollowly at Freud's trumpeting of Evidence and Science and Fact over mere authoritarian assertion, when the reception of his own major theories has reflected the same trajectory. That doesn't invalidate his point, but it reminds me of the danger of rhetorical overreach in my own theology.
More interesting than the main thread of argument (against universal religious education as anti-scientific; you've heard it before) is his almost by-the-way account of religion's psychic genesis as the child's desire to manipulate the father. While that's not what mature prayer looks like, there are so many preachers who make their livings inculcating exactly that habit that I can't simply dismiss Freud here.
More interesting than the main thread of argument (against universal religious education as anti-scientific; you've heard it before) is his almost by-the-way account of religion's psychic genesis as the child's desire to manipulate the father. While that's not what mature prayer looks like, there are so many preachers who make their livings inculcating exactly that habit that I can't simply dismiss Freud here.