Sigmund Freud tackled religion in great detail and had several ideas about it. One of his theories was that religion stems from the individual's experience of having been a helpless baby totally dependent on its parents. The infant sees its parents as all-powerful beings who show it great love and satisfy all its needs. This experience is almost identical to the way human beings portray their relationship with God. Freud also suggested that childhood experiences caused people to have very complex feelings about their parents and themselves, and religion and religious rituals provide a respectable mechanism for working these out.
From here:
BBC - Religions - Atheism: Reasons people choose atheism
Anyone have anything to say on this? Seems to me to be a possible example of prototypical experiences - that first experienced possibly affecting our subsequent beliefs and/or behaviour.
From here:
BBC - Religions - Atheism: Reasons people choose atheism
Anyone have anything to say on this? Seems to me to be a possible example of prototypical experiences - that first experienced possibly affecting our subsequent beliefs and/or behaviour.