The Greed Behind Religious Devotion: Desire, Psychological Dependency, and the Human Need for Divine Authority

This paper examines the psychological relationship between religious devotion, human greed, desire, and the need for external authority. It explores how personal expectations and self-interest can be presented as prayers, divine blessings, religious rights, and spiritual entitlement. It questions whether the concept of God sometimes functions as an imagined authority for fulfilling human desires and preserving psychological dependency. The paper further examines why freedom requires observing desire rather than seeking an authority to justify or satisfy it.