Freud defines religion as an illusion, consisting of "certain dogmas, assertions about facts and conditions of external and internal reality which tells one something that one has not oneself discovered, and which claim that one should give them credence."

"For masses are lazy and unintelligent; they have no love for instinctual renunciation, and they are not to be convinced by argument of its inevitability; and the individuals composing them support one another in giving free rein to their indiscipline."

7) So destructive is human nature, he claims, that "it is only through the influence of individuals who can set an example and whom masses recognize as their leaders that they can be induced to perform the work and undergo the renunciations on which the existence of civilization depends."

In Freud's view, religion is an outshoot of the Oedipus complex, and represents man's helplessness in the world, having to face the ultimate fate of death, the struggle of civilization, and the forces of nature.

18) Freud's description of religious belief as a form of illusion is based on the idea that it is derived from human wishes with no basis in reality.

"[2] In Freud's words "The gods retain the threefold task: they must exorcise the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common has imposed on them."

[3] The psychiatrist Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, wrote that The Future of an Illusion "gives the best possible account" of Freud's earlier views, "which move within the confines of the outmoded rationalism and scientific materialism of the late nineteenth century.

[5] Today, some scholars see Freud's arguments as a manifestation of the genetic fallacy, in which a belief is considered false or inverifiable based on its origin.