Assessing the Importance of Religion: James vs. Freud

Assessing the Importance of Religion: James vs. Freud

The question of the importance of religion has been one that has been debated for centuries. The argument has been taken from the side of the empiricist, who desires quantitative proof and the pragmatist who fights that it is religions qualitative proofs that hold greater weight. In the Varieties of Religious Experience, William James sets forth that the argument of the pragmatist, stating that it is not the origin of religion that is of greatest importance but rather the results or fruits that have come from religious belief that are the true basis for the judgment of religion. In stark contrast, Sigmund Freud in his Civilization, Society and Religion, argues that the origins of religion are indeed…