Erich Fromm was a Marxist, a humanist, a follower of Freud, and mostly wrong about the human being. However, as I was studying him, (because my liberal nihilist professor was teaching Fromm), I found a very interesting observation.
Erich Fromm, like many others, believed that we have needs that go far beyond the basic, physiological ones that some people, like Freud and many behaviorists, think explain all of our behavior. He calls these human needs, in contrast to the more basic animal needs. And he suggests that the human needs can be expressed in one simple statement: The human being needs to find an answer to his existence.
Fromm says that the major purpose of culture is to help us answer this question. All cultures, he says, are religions, in trying to provide us with the answer. Some, of course, do so better than others.
A more negative way of expressing this need is to say that we need to avoid insanity, and he defines neurosis as an effort to satisfy the need for answers that doesn't work for us. He says that every neurosis is a sort of private religion, one we turn to when our culture no longer satisfies.
Fromm's point is excellent: we all have a sort of religion, i.e. a worldview or frame of reference. Even secularism, ironically enough, is a frame of reference and therefore a "private religion." In the end, its not a question of religion versus science, but what religion is the best religion to ascribe to.
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