Wish fulfillment
A psychological motif occurs that helps the reader to re-conceptualize their own experience of reality. He is offering a lens through which one might reassess their relationship to God and reality. He argues that the functions of religious piety are suspiciously oriented around wish fulfillment. For instance, one obeys and prays, secretly hoping that God will fulfill our desires. He explains that this is merely an animal desiring its fulfillment in a world of threats and chaos far beyond the limits of its consciousness.
The church tradition
The cathedrals and libraries of religious tradition make an appearance in the book, as portraits of an undeniable phenomenon. Freud is up against a lot of people by suggesting that there is no God—or at least if there is a God, human religion might not be such a reliable way to understand the truth of him. The imagery of the earth is religious imagery; as soon as humans were on the face of the planet, they began worshiping and praying, and also imposing religious strictures on each other. The tradition is an imagery depicting the abstract qualities of human psychology for religion and for instilling order in a society—but are they reliable and true?
Skepticism
Freud writes similarly to Nietzsche by explaining that religious belief is not tempting to him in the slightest. His argument is that religion seems to be completely antithetical to the human experience. For instance, a human longs for power, sex, money, and satisfaction, and surprisingly, those are the exact things that most religions withhold him from. This is evident because Freud looks through the lens of skepticism. By saying religion is a psychological Illusion, he argues for an imagery of skepticism.
Reality and truth
These writings are obviously encouraging the reader to take a closer look at their beliefs about reality and truth. Instead of making religious assumptions and deriving conclusions from that, he argues that a higher truth could be attained by refusing to believe assumptions at all. What is the real cost of this approach? One has to face with all sincerity the harsh reality of the situation; that human life is suffering, perhaps meaningless suffering, with only one real promise: death and oblivion. If religion helps people avoid that fact, then it is not truthful; that is ultimately the suggestion of The Future of an Illusion.
