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“Twentieth-century psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud described religion as a collective fantasy, a “universal obsessional neurosis” – a cosmic projection and replaying of the loving and fearful relationships that we had (and have) with our parents.  Religious belief gives us an external God who is so powerful that He or She can protect us from the terrors of life, and will reward or punish us for obedience or non-obedience to social norms.  From Freud’s extremely skeptical point of view, religious belief is an illusion springing from people’s infantile insecurity and neurotic guilt; as such it closely resembles illness.”

Living Religions – Mary Pat Fisher