A friend once caught a taxi one Sunday morning after church. Seeing her Bible, the driver sneered dismissively. “Religion is just a psychological crutch,” he opined, “something for weak-minded people who lack the self-reliance to take responsibility for their own lives. People believe in God because it makes them feel good.” Realising he’d probably blown any chance of a tip, he attempted to recover with: “What’s a nice girl like you need religion for anyway?”

Psychology is everywhere. We’re told psychology can explain everything from what we do in the bedroom to our religious preferences: psychology can explain sects as well as sex. The claim is not a new one, however: it goes back to Sigmund Freud (d. 1939), the father of psychoanalysis. Freud believed religion arises when we project our fears into the sky (especially the fear of death) and invent God to give us comfort in the face of our mortality.