The wishes of the religious

'I also don't see why seekers of wish-fulfillment would come up with Christian morality. Who needs the Ten Commandments or other such rules which make our lives more difficult by asserting a series of "Thou Shall Nots"? Even Christians recoil from the severe demands of their ethical code. Recall the church father Augustine, who kept putting off his conversion to Christianity, praying to God, “Make me chaste, O Lord, but not yet.” In other words, a project of wish-fulfillment would seem to dictate a much more libertine social morality than the one we find in the Old and New Testaments.

Bottom line: Judaism and Christianity, not to mention the other great religions, hardly look like they are the product of mere wishful thinking. In fact, they posit a God and a moral universe that makes some fairly stern demands on humans. It's almost wishful to think that God does not exist, so that we can escape those demands. This is a point that does not seem to have occurred to poor Sigmund Freud.'

- Dinesh D'Souza; 'Sigmund Freud's Illusions'.

Comments

Unknown said…
The pertinent question would be about how many of the religious people actually do follow the commandments themselves.

As is already known by most, believing in a God or not believing in Him is immaterial if the person is kind and hard working. It isnt Freud who thought up atheism anyway!
Unknown said…
The pertinent question would be about how many of the religious people actually do follow the commandments themselves.

As is already known by most, believing in a God or not believing in Him is immaterial if the person is kind and hard working. It isnt Freud who thought up atheism anyway!
Ray Titus said…
Sure the religious at times are problematic; reason enough to shun religion...?

Deepti, A Dawkins in the making?
Appreciate your thoughts.. :)

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