ABSTRACT
God does not exist. God is merely an idea—a mental object, the invention of imaginative thought championed by reason yet conditioned on desire. We as humanity have devised this myth and it is likely here to stay because world masses cannot live without it. Although there is a rational tenor to predicating God’s existence, reason is ultimately mediated by fantasy.1 God is the product of a collective ideological fantasy fueled by unconscious illusion ensconced in the basic desire for wish-fulfillment. It is easy to appreciate why the human psyche is compelled to invent the notion of God as an ultimate metaphysical reality, because billions of people have a profound need for God. People want consonance, love, enjoyment, satiation, perpetual peace, joy—no one in their right mind would deny these universal yearnings! Yet for believers, a secular existence fails to meet this felt necessity. It is deeply comforting to believe in an Ideal Being, for one’s anxieties, conflicts, and emotional pain are mitigated by believing in a divine beneficence that promises a satisfying afterlife. This hegemonic fallacy—the belief or faith in such an afterlife—makes personal, daily existence more tolerable with the dream, that deep down, sometime in the future, when you perish you will have everything you desire but are deprived of in your momentary life. Death no longer becomes an ending in-itself, but rather an Eden where all cherished wishes and values are realized—the Perfect World. God is a signifier for flawlessness, salvation, everlasting tranquility, or any qualitative value that signifies perennial happiness or bliss. As the product of fantasy life, God is solely a coveted fiction.
