Freud’s Thesis in “The future of an illusion” is that religion is a false ideology of belief and is based on teachings and animosity. The first quote from his book i want to elaborate on is “Religious doctrines … are all illusions, they do not admit of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them as true or to believe in them.”. This quote aligns directly with his thesis because Freud is basically saying that these doctrines haven’t been proven to be true people only believe in them so therefore it is “false” in his view. Illusion’s can’t be proven but he does not define them as false, he says these illusions come from wishful thinking, where someone wants something to be true and because of that it causes them to believe it is true. This quote has a very strong and till this very day causes much controversy. Doctrines such as the bible are constantly being studied and applied to our lives now as if it is a text that predicts our future of this world.
The second quote is “It would be very nice if there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence, and if there were a moral order in the universe and an after-life; but it is a very striking fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be.”, and this quote is exactly what i mentioned in the previous paragraph about “wishful thinking”. Many people today believe in a god and a set way to live your life or “morals”, and also believe that following these set ways will lead you to an afterlife. But once again, this is the product of wishful thinking according to freud and this quote corresponds with his thesis because of belief. This quote is very strong because, How many times do you hear someone say “life is what you make it to be” therefore is we wish it then we unconsciously pursue our wishful thinking.
The third quote is “The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.”. I can honestly say this quote threw me off a bit, but from my understanding i would say that freud purposely used “fruit of knowledge” in reference to the bible and the adam and eve story with the “forbidden fruit”. But this quote is saying that the more people become aware of how religious systems and belief work with not just wishful thinking but everything else Freud goes into depth about like illusions, then and only then will people and the world steer away from religious belief. There will be a decline in religion because people will see the world for what it is without dogmas and animosity. Although Freud may have said this (the quote) this is a very weak statement in the sense that many people today consider religion as a way a life, it is what your are born into and has been apart of history since the very beginning. Therefore many people will always choose religion, even after learning “the facts” Freud enlightens us with because religion is our “safe place” it is what brings communities together and is apart of our social system.