I believe Dawkins touches on the idea that god belief is a side effect of the evolutionary drive to trust in your parents.

This can be combined with psychodynamic theory (introjection). 

It is my sense, already (I comment as I read along) that you are going to be speaking about the super ego, or 'conscience'.

Our conscience can be punitive and harsh.

Some theists believe our conscience comes from "god". C. S. Lewis based his entire theological position on this belief.

Psychologists have known for more than a century that our conscience comes from our parents, or whoever was involved with our early upbringing.  From the time of infancy, we hear a calvacade of "shoulds' and "shouldn'ts' from our parents... long, long before we're able to be self aware.

This collection of oughts and shoulds becomes internalized through a process called introjection - constant repetition (inculcation), at an early age, of things we should and shouldn't do, eventually become a part of our own minds. What was once "outside' is now considered to have originated 'inside'. There are times when it feels foreign, there are even times when we can literally hear Dad, or Mom lay down a rule.

But for the most part, this process is unconscious. We simply accept the rules as rules that one should follow. Because they are 'the rules'  

So if you have a loving upbringing, you'll likely have a healthy super ego.

If not, well... you'll likely have a punitive, harsh and perhaps even cruel superego.

Would it surprise you to know that John Calvin, one of the most tyranical and hateful theists, featuring a cruel and unfair god, had a cruel father?

Yes, and I'd just like to reinforce that there is not just the teenager, with his self awareness, and the mother with her rules.

There is also the teenager's superego, which in turn IS the mother, the father, working on the side of the parents, inside the teen, yet accepted as if it is merely "the way things ought to be" and not just "what mom said when I was 2"

This is why the interaction is so difficult. If it were just mom saying X and you saying Y, well, as hard as mom might be on you, you could work most things out.

But if there is a superego, inside of you, pulling you towards mom, and your own ego, pulling you in another direction, well then, this is where the torment would really occur... inside.

Yes. This is why it's such a cosmic joke for a christian to say "I grew up a doubter, and became a christian at 22"

Bullshit. The seed of christianity was planted in you at age 2. Even an atheist parent spits out enough "jesus christs" and 'god damn its" and "god knows" to inculcate the basics of christianity.

And most parents are not atheists, most do inculcate christianity.

The evidence that this is so is found in the fact that most of the 'late converts" tend to have the same religion their parents had....

So my point here is that the superego is the seed, it's within us all.... It's powerful. Let me give you an example.

I was raised catholic. My mother was a sunday school teacher's aid. When protestants appear on our board, I have no problem setting into their miserable arguments. But even today, if someone on the board tries to rip apart a catholic argument, I find myself feeling slightly defensive.  I find those beliefs... slightly less silly.

Is it because the trinity or immaculate conception makes more sense? Obviously not. It's because I was raised in those ideas from the time I could talk to the time I could think for myself. And during that period of time, those ideas were repeated so often that they were normalized.

Whatever is repeated enough times is normalized. If mom and dad believe that people are sinners, then this will become a foundational part of your conscience.

Yes. Christianty creates the dilemma, and then offers the antitode. "God' purposely creates you as flawed, and then offers the salvation, despite yourself.

I've heard christians admit that this is the best way to prostelyze, because it DOES create anxiety in you. They feel they need to terrorize you, otherwise, you'll not hold to their belief.

And they call upon your guilts, built up through parental inculcation/introjection, to frighten you.

I have written something on Ray Comfort's recent video, where he admits that the only succesful way to win converts is to terrorize them. I will give you the post after I finish writing here.

Very good! That IS how 'god' is omniscient and omnipresent! Because 'god' is your interpretation of your conscience!

So of course, he knows what you're thinking! Of course he's always there! 

It's amazing how narcissitic it is.... yet, in a sense, it's not narcissistic, because people simply fail to realize that their conscience is simply their early life experiences of parental oughts and shoulds. In a sense, the person they are now, wasn't 'there' to be aware of the process, so they have no direct way of knowing that this process is merely introjection.

So interpreting it as a 'god' is a natural mistake. This is precisely how people 'fellowship" with 'jesus'.. this is precisely how they 'know' there is a god.... by misinterpreting the conscience's origin.... 

In a sense, wholeness, or mind health would come from grasping the true origin of your conscience, and then working to create a more mature, three dimensional conscience. The reason a conscience is so punitive is because you formed it when you were 4 years old. It's pretty hard to encapsulate people in a mature fashio when you're 4!

As an adult, you can come to better understand mom and dad, see them as humans with faults. This allows you to reformulate your superego.... you can use your more mature ego to make your superego more mature.

And when you do, the simple, angry, pathetic "Yahweh" superego will become a Buddha, or even a Dawkins if you prefer... it's your choice.