Atheism

=== Reductionary accounts of religion ===

{{Further|Evolutionary origin of religions|Evolutionary psychology of religion|Psychology of religion}}

Philosopher [[Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach|Ludwig Feuerbach]]<ref>Feuerbach, Ludwig (1841) ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]''</ref>
and psychoanalyst [[Sigmund Freud]] have argued that God and other religious beliefs are human inventions, created to fulfill various psychological and emotional wants or needs.<ref>Walpola Rahula, ''What the Buddha Taught''. Grove Press, 1974. pp. 51–52.</ref> [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]], influenced by the work of Feuerbach, argued that belief in God and religion are social functions, used by those in power to oppress the working class. According to [[Mikhail Bakunin]], "the idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, in theory, and practice." He reversed [[Voltaire]]'s aphorism that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him, writing instead that "if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html |title=God and the State |last=Bakunin |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Bakunin |year=1916 |publisher=New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association |access-date=April 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521195435/http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html |archive-date=May 21, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>