To remember
- God = a ‘wish fulfillment; a fictional father figure projected in the sky of our imagination + created by our desire for security.’
- Heaven = imaginary projection of our extinction + death
- religion = psychological escape mechanism => we don’t have to face life as it really is.
- atheism = flight from reality > projection of desire not to have to meet God one day + give account for your life.
The new Atheists quote Sigmund Freud, that God is a ‘wish fulfillment; a fictional father figure projected in the sky of our imagination and created by our desire for security.’ On this view, Heaven is an imaginary projection of our extinction and death. And religion is simply a psychological escape mechanism so that we don’t have to face life as it really is. Well, of course, that’s all true; provided only that God does not exist. But if God does exist, exactly the same Freudian argument will show you equally convincingly that it is atheism that is the flight from reality. A projection of the desire not to have to meet God one day and give account for your life. If God does exist, then atheism can easily be seen as a psychological escape mechanism; to avoid taking responsibility for one’s life.
–John Lennox
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