Sigmund Freud presented a serious atheist challenge, in the early decades of the 20th century. He said our religious aspirations were the result of our fear. We are so terrified of death, we invent an afterlife and God, to console us.

Then why did the ancient Hebrews and Greeks think of the afterlife as a pale meager shadowy existence underground? If they were trying to console themselves, they could have done a much better job, dont you think?
Remember- Freud always thought in terms of universals. For his theory to be correct, it had to apply to everyone, at all times.

I dont deny that Freud offered us some real insights. I just think his thought was bit too speculative and philosophic to really be the way things are, in total.

Example: Freud thought toilet training and neatness were intertwined- a strict toilet training resulted in a neat adult. But studies show that when people are actually interviewed about this, they report that they became neat just because they were trained to be neat; parents report that they would train the child to be neat, while at the same time, maybe the toilet training may have been less strict....It seems Freud was wrong, or at least partly wrong. This is but one example...

However, I do accept the reality of the unconscious mind as a distorting influence upon our lives...dreams should be analyzed for meaning.