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Freud's Threory That the Bible is the Cause of Man's Unhappiness

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The Bible is a sacred text that has guided men and women in life to stay on this path of goodness and selflessness. According to Freud the Bible may be the cause of civilization’s unhappiness. Mankind’s freedom has been stifled because of the restrain society has put on our “primal nature”. Anything that goes against the structure the Bible has made in society has been repelled and ignored because it is no longer something that can be thought of as real or taken seriously. Freud believes that the happiness we cannot attain is due to the freedoms we lack. This belief of lacking in freedom is not correct based on the Bible’s chapters. Mans inability to be happy or remain happy is due to his or her need of having something to prove. This …show more content…

The Bible may have started these rules and regulations that Freud seems to believe makes us unhappy, but they were made due to human failure. When looking at the story of Adam and Eve, the first woman and man of the world you may notice that God did not place any rules on them toward how to act, talk, or think. His one request for Adam and Eve was not to eat an apple from “the tree in the middle of the garden” (Genesis 3:3). This tree becomes the downfall of Adam and Eve because when taking that bite they inflict themselves with knowledge of the world. Prior to this event they “were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). This apple leads to them telling God “ I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:10). The instant they ate the apple their knowledge of the world caused them to be afraid of what they knew. Their innocence and freedom is lost at this moment because they have placed rules on themselves. Freud’s theory of freedom becomes a problem when it is realized that acting on the instinctual drives he claims we have is not possible without repercussions. When Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden of Eden, they start to determine what constitutes good and evil as well as, what is thought to be appropriate in society. Adam and Eve had no worries, no wants, and no problems in the garden. This paradise is taken away all of a sudden because they

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