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LIVING FREUDIANLY

I will always remember Freud not because he was Sigmund Freud, but because of his ideas. Sigmund Freud died, but his ideas would able to live for hundred years. Freud has taught us about ‘the Godlessness’. If man put aside God in their life, than the basic instinct (sex drive) would able to work maturely. But when we stick with religion, there are several noir soul-eagerness which we are not able to do. Religion has become our personal control in life, whether it’s related with economy, sexuality, or even in self-identity. As mankind produce sins, fears, and guilty, they need Supreme Power that able to hold on. It is a normal thing. But to Freud, religious belief is “…illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most insistent wishes of mankind.” I can see why this kind of statement appears in his writings. Since Freud just an ordinary human being, he had the same thought just like us, about Godlessness in our life when we have our freedom cut off by our Father. That is, Rebel! The different is we still have taboo to opening the mouth to rebel. Or perhaps we got scared to thought that ‘God has not done so much to me’, or maybe we see God has done his Justice and Freud has not realize it. Somehow, Freud’s theories showed these to me.

      John Hick has put Freud’s ideas about religion in one chapter of his book, Philosophy of Religion. He considered Freud’s theory as grounds for disbelief in God. Hick stated, “Perhaps the most interesting theological comment to be made upon Freud’s theory is that in his work in the father-image he may have uncovered the mechanism by which God creates an idea of deity in the human mind”. In another words, Freud saw religion as having as quilt that man supposedly feel in hating their fathers.

I don’t quite sure if Freud disbelief in God. I have a reasonable doubt about it since I just read a bit about his writings. I mostly read Freud from the second-hand writings, which obviously would tell how deep Freud’s hatred to religion was. But I thanked Freud for many reasons. He taught me like Lennon did in his song, Imagine.[1]

1)    God without religion

People got scared when we have another person said that he/she killed God or he/she might choose not to practice any religion. If we consider that religion is a path to Ultimate Reality, we should consider that there is another paths lead to the same way, and could be the path he/she chooses (being atheist) is a path to his Higher-Self. Some might say that having religious life, one should believe in God and having religion. But what is religion? What is God? Are you sure that One you worship is God? Consider that life is a quest, and you will keep questioning more questions.

2)    How deep is your Love?

This is not (only) Bee Gees’s song title. It is more a rhetorical question. Freud implicitly taught us about what kind of worship we gave to our God. Is it because of a frightening-thread of Hell, or God’s blessing in Heaven, or simply because we Love God. And how deep is your love? Do you eager to enter Heaven? Does Hell scare you off? If you kill human being to defend your God’s existence, does it represent your love to God? If you cursed Nietzsche and Marx for spreading their ideologies, does it shows the deep of your love to God and religion?

We should remember Freud by his Ideas. The way he described religion is a unique way that not so many people dare to speak about it. Because sometime it is true that religion is a place where we only having delusion about meeting God, while we still unable to define GOD. Freud has been honest in his theory about religion. I suppose people may give critics for his theories, but may not kill the soul’s freedom to enter Freud’s World. Like Hick said, “Freudian theory of religion may be true but has not been shown to be so” (Hick, 1987, p. 36). []