“The idea that men make the gods in their own image might be as old as the ancient Greeks, but Freud added the claim that men make their gods in their father’s image.”
–Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for our Time
“The significant feature which both Mithraism and Christianity have in common, but which differentiates them from previous mystery religions, is that they concern the relationship of a son with a father, not with a mother. The feature which distinguishes them is that, in Mithraism, the son slays the father, symbolized by the bull – a traditional symbol of father deities – while in Christianity the son submits to the father and himself is slain. Mithraism is a religion of conquest, Christianity a religion of submission. In Mithraism aggression is turned outwards (sadism); in Christianity, it is turned inwards (masochism).”
–G. Rattray Taylor, Sex in History
“And it would seem that identification with the father involves a transformation of guilt into aggression.”
–Norman O. Brown, Life against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History