Freud's psychoanalytic theories
According to Freud, religion originated in pre-historic collective experiences that became repressed and ritualized as totems and taboos. He states that most, if not all religions, can be traced back to early human sacrifice - including Christianity, in which Christ on the cross is a symbolic representation of killing the father and eating the father figure. This is shown with ‘the body of Christ’, also known as Communion. In this work, Freud attributes the origin of religion to emotions such as hatred, fear, and jealousy. These emotions are directed towards the father figure in the clan from the sons who are denied sexual desires towards the females. Freud attributed totem religions to be a result of extreme emotion, rash action, and the result of guilt.