One of the goals of Apologetics is to deal with the objections that people have regarding the existence of God. For the last several weeks, we have been listing some of these objections and the arguments that address them. Here is how Norm Geisler addresses the issue of God being an illusion:
An Illusion. Sigmund Freud insisted that God is an illusion—something we wish to be true but have no basis for believing, beyond our wish. His apparent reasoning:
1. An illusion is something based only in wish but not in reality.
2. The belief in God has the characteristics of an illusion.
3. Therefore, belief in God is a wish not based in reality.
Of course, in this form the theist challenges the minor premise. Not all who believe in God do so simply because they wish for a Cosmic Comforter. Some find God because they thirst for reality; others because they are interested in truth, rather than feeling good. God is not only a comforting Father; he is also a Judge who punishes. Christians believe in hell, and yet no one really wishes this to be true. Freud, in fact, may have it backwards: perhaps our image of earthly fathers is patterned after God, rather than the reverse. Certainly the desire for God is not the only basis for believing that God exists (see God, Evidence for). Freud’s argument would, at best, apply only to those who had no other basis than their own wish that God exists.
What is more, the reality of God’s existence is independent of the reasons people do or do not wish him to exist. Either God does not exist or he does. Desires cannot draw the truth an inch either way. Freud’s disbelief might itself be an illusion, based on his own desire not to follow God and obey God (cf. Ps. 14:1; Rom. 1:18–32).
Geisler, N. L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics (p. 293). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.