Posted on 04/17/2005 3:15:49 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
How does one become an atheist? Does a person's relationship with his earthly father affect his relationship with his heavenly Father? These are some of the questions we will explore in this article as we talk about the book Faith of the Fatherless by Paul Vitz. Vitz is a psychologist who was an atheist himself until his late thirties. He began to wonder if psychology played a role in one's belief about God. After all, secular psychologists have been saying that a belief in God is really nothing more than infantile wish fulfillment. Dr. Vitz wondered if the shoe was on the other foot. Could it be that atheists are engaged in unconscious wish fulfillment?
After studying the lives of more than a dozen of the world's most influential atheists, Dr. Vitz discovered that they all had one thing in common: defective relationships with their fathers. The relationship was defective because the father was either dead, abusive, weak, or had abandoned the children. When he studied the lives of influential theists during those same historical time periods, he found they enjoyed a strong, loving relationship with a father (or a father substitute if the father was dead).
For example, Friedrich Nietzche lost his father (who was a pastor) before his fifth birthday. One biographer wrote that Nietzche was "passionately attached to his father, and the shock of losing him was profound." Dr. Vitz writes that Nietzche had a "strong, intellectually macho reaction against a dead, very Christian father." Friedrich Nietzche is best known as the philosopher who said, "God is dead." It certainly seems possible that his rejection of God and Christianity was a "rejection of the weakness of his father."
Contrast Nietzche with the life of Blaise Pascal. This famous mathematician and religious writer lived at a time in Paris when there was considerable skepticism about religion. He nevertheless wrote Les pensées (Thoughts), a powerful and imaginative defense of Christianity, which also attacked skepticism. Pascal's father, Etienne, was a wealthy judge and also an able mathematician. He was known as a good man with religious convictions. Pascal's mother died when he was three, so his father gave up his law practice and home-schooled Blaise and his sisters.
Here we are going to look at the correlation between our relationship with our earthly father and our heavenly Father. No matter what our family background, we are still responsible for the choices we make. Growing up in an unloving home does not excuse us from rejecting God, but it does explain why some people reject God. There may be a psychological component to their commitment to atheism.
Nietzche and Freud
Friedrich Nietzche is a philosopher who has influenced everyone from Adolph Hitler to the Columbine killers. His father was a Lutheran pastor who died of a brain disease before Nietzche's fifth birthday. He often spoke positively of his father and said his death was a great loss, which he never forgot. One biographer wrote that Nietzche was "passionately attached to his father, and the shock of losing him was profound." It seems he associated the general weakness and sickness of his father with his father's Christianity. Nietzche's major criticism of Christianity was that it suffers from an absence, even a rejection, of "life force." The God Nietzche chose was Dionysius, a strong pagan expression of life force. It certainly seems possible that his rejection of God and Christianity was a "rejection of the weakness of his father."
Nietzche's own philosophy placed an emphasis on the "superman" along with a denigration of women. Yet his own search for masculinity was undermined by the domination of his childhood by his mother and female relatives in a Christian household. Dr. Vitz says, "It is not surprising, then, that for Nietzche Christian morality was something for women." He concludes that Nietzche had a "strong, intellectually macho reaction against a dead, very Christian father who was loved and admired but perceived as sickly and weak."
Sigmund Freud despised his Jewish father, who was a weak man unable to support his family. Freud later wrote in two letters that his father was a sexual pervert, and that the children suffered as a result. Dr. Vitz believes that Freud's Oedipus Complex (which placed hatred of the father at the center of his psychology) was an expression of "his strong unconscious hostility to and rejection of his own father." His father was involved in a form of reformed Judaism but was also a weak, passive man with sexual perversions. Freud's rejection of God and Judaism seems connected to his rejection of his father.
Both Nietzche and Freud demonstrate the relationship between our attitudes toward our earthly father and our heavenly Father. In both cases, there seems to be a psychological component to their commitment to atheism.
Russell and Hume
Bertrand Russell was one of the most famous atheists of the last century. Both of Russell's parents lived on the margin of radical politics. His father died when Bertrand Russell was four years old, and his mother died two years earlier. He was subsequently cared for by his rigidly puritanical grandmother, who was known as "Deadly Nightshade." She was by birth a Scottish Presbyterian, and by temperament a puritan. Russell's daughter Katherine noted that his grandmother's joyless faith was "the only form of Christianity my father knew well." This ascetic faith taught that "the life of this world was no more than a gloomy testing ground for future bliss." She concluded, "My father threw this morbid belief out the window."
Dr. Vitz points out that Russell's only other parent figures were a string of nannies to whom he often grew quite attached. When one of the nannies left, the eleven-year-old Bertrand was "inconsolable." He soon discovered that the way out of his sadness was to retreat into the world of books.
After his early years of lost loves and later years of solitary living at home with tutors, Russell described himself in this way: "My most profound feelings have remained always solitary and have found in human things no companionship . . . . The sea, the stars, the night wind in waste places, mean more to me than even the human beings I love best, and I am conscious that human affection is to me at bottom an attempt to escape from the vain search for God."
Another famous atheist was David Hume. He was born into a prominent and affluent family. He seems to have been on good terms with his mother as well as his brother and sister. He was raised as a Scottish Presbyterian but gave up his faith and devoted most of his writing to the topic of religion.
Like the other atheists we have discussed, David Hume fits the pattern. His father died when he was two years old. Biographies of his life mention no relatives or family friends who could serve as father-figures. And David Hume is known as a man who had no religious beliefs and spent his life raising skeptical arguments against religion in any form.
Both Russell and Hume demonstrate the relationship between our attitudes toward our earthly father and our heavenly Father. In each case, there is a psychological component to their commitment to atheism.
Sartre, Voltaire, and Feuerbach
Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the most famous atheists of the last century. His father died when he was fifteen months old. He and his mother lived with his maternal grandparents as his mother cultivated a very intimate relationship with him. She concentrated her emotional energy on her son until she remarried when Sartre was twelve. This idyllic and Oedipal involvement came to an end, and Sartre strongly rejected his stepfather. In those formative years, Sartre's real father died, his grandfather was cool and distant, and his stepfather took his beloved mother away from him. The adolescent Sartre concluded to himself, "You know what? God doesn't exist." Commentators note that Sartre obsessed with fatherhood all his life and never got over his fatherlessness. Dr. Vitz concludes that "his father's absence was such a painful reality that Jean-Paul spent a lifetime trying to deny the loss and build a philosophy in which the absence of a father and of God is the very starting place for the good or authentic life."
Another philosopher during the French Enlightenment disliked his father so much that he changed his name from Arouet to Voltaire. The two fought constantly. At one point Voltaire's father was so angry with his son for his interest in the world of letters rather than taking up a career in law that he "authorized having his son sent to prison or into exile in the West Indies." Voltaire was not a true atheist, but rather a deist who believed in an impersonal God. He was a strident critic of religion, especially Christianity with its understanding of a personal God.
Ludwig Feuerbach was a prominent German atheist who was born into a distinguished and gifted German family. His father was a prominent jurist who was difficult and undiplomatic with colleagues and family. The dramatic event in young Ludwig's life must have been his father's affair with the wife of one his father's friends. They lived together openly in another town, and she bore him a son. The affair began when Feuerbach was nine and lasted for nine years. His father publicly rejected his family, and years later Feuerbach rejected Christianity. One famous critic of religion said that Feuerbach was so hostile to Christianity that he would have been called the Antichrist if the world had ended then.
Each of these men once again illustrates the relationship between atheism and their fathers.
Burke and Wilberforce
British statesman Edmund Burke is considered by many as the founder of modern conservative political thought. He was partly raised by his grandfather and three affectionate uncles. He later wrote of his Uncle Garret, that he was "one of the very best men, I believe that ever lived, of the clearest integrity, the most genuine principles of religion and virtue." His writings are in direct opposition to the radical principles of the French Revolution. One of his major criticisms of the French Revolution was its hostility to religion: "We are not converts of Rousseau; we are not the disciples of Voltaire; Helevetius has made no progress amongst us. Atheists are not our preachers." For Burke, God and religion were important pillars of a just and civil society.
William Wilberforce was an English statesman and abolitionist. His father died when he was nine years old, and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. He was extremely close to his uncle and to John Newton who was a frequent visitor to their home. Newton was a former slave trader who converted to Christ and wrote the famous hymn "Amazing Grace." Wilberforce first heard of the evils of slavery from Newton's stories and sermons, "even reverencing him as a parent when [he] was a child." Wilberforce was an evangelical Christian who went on to serve in parliament and was instrumental in abolishing the British slave trade.
As mentioned earlier, Blaise Pascal was a famous mathematician and religious writer. Pascal's father was a wealthy judge and also an able mathematician, known as a good man with religious convictions. Pascal's mother died when he was three, so his father gave up his law practice and home-schooled Blaise and his sisters. Pascal went on to powerfully present a Christian perspective at a time when there was considerable skepticism about religion in France.
I believe Paul Vitz provides an important look at atheists and theists in his book Faith of the Fatherless. The prominent atheists of the last few centuries all had defective relationships with their fathers while the theists enjoyed a strong, loving relationship with a father or a father substitute. This might be something to compassionately consider the next time you witness to an atheist.
That would only be logical. If God is greater than we are, then it there must necessarily be those things (I'd say the vast majority) we are simply incapable of comprehending. Admittedly, some are very uncomfortable with this idea.
Actually, you should be apologizing to Blaise Pascal. ;)
I found the same thing during my stint in the Gulf. Of course, there's something weight the stats for this perception -- those who aren't extremely nice and hospitable are those shooting at us. There doesn't seem to be much of an in-between.
I know only one self proclaimed atheist. From what I gather from talking to him is he believes that christians have started all wars. He doesn't want to feel guilt over anything he does no matter how depraved. He is a near radical environmentalist (limousine liberal style). Oddly is a registered republican but has never voted for one and is also married to a born again christian.
I also know a few radical feminist lesbians that attend church regularly. They seem to continue to look for salvation. I guess it's a struggle.
Free will really does make things interesting.
Just because you, personally, have decided to not put the effort into a life or death (resulting) search for the facts may not disqualify the results of those that have. What effort did you expend, to the point of no next breathe... needing to know the truth? Or is it the standard demon-crat response of destroy any proposal, just because it's the easy cop-out, without having any proposal of your own?
I reject all the other "gods" but one God? I chose mathematics as the proof of the infinite. You want to slap on the name... "God" of what's undeniable... you go ahead. How dare any finite, pee-on lifeform designate a name to an infinite structure, an infinite mind, and an infinite presence.
Go ahead tell me how you, or any finite anything, has the power to stop 3D space from collapsing at it's current infinite rate into infinitesimality, or the shear number of infinitesimalities from being created at the infinite rate, or infinite expanse from growth at it's rate of kinetic development. All three intertwined as a One. It is there... being just the structure and impersonal domain of my God.
Let's talk of the additive and subtractive "frequencies" CREATED when two signals pass through a non-linear device, such as in a mixer stage of ... say an AM radio. Or in our world, the huge bandwidth of all we see, and are, all the chaos (non-linear) devices all energy in our Universe must pass through as all travels from some source to a destination. Our Universe is a bit diverse and apparently chaotic. For an Infinite One to become truely a God, it must prove It is more than Infinite in it's own domain.. It can escape Infinity itself... therefore It decided to also become finite in an infinite number of ways, in any infinite number of episodes, in an infinite numbers of instances... it'll only take forever... better get started some time soon. So here we are.
Nobody is evil because because they choose to say "I don't believe in infinite 3D space, time, and especially that which is beyond our .00001% perceptive sensors" ( and that's an infinite reach at best)... what you are is what you've chosen. No cop out. My wife still doesn't understand flash point and flips out when I put the iron away still warm.
Ask for the big one and want it more than wanting to breathe.
Mean it to the bone... wait a few years, 20-30 or so. Maybe 1 or 2, I have no idea. What have you got to lose?
How can any soul carry on with the background foundaton that upon death is [ ]? Same as I offer to you the challenge... here is a room, imagine removing all the matter and energy, a pure vacuum. Now remove the 11 dimensions of space-time. Can't can you? Hurts to even try and focus on such a lack of, a presence of a lack of, the removal of the lack of...I give up. How is your life force awareness going to also get stripped of it's dimensions? Why all the bother of creation in the 1st place? Doesn't matter what you or I believe, or want, what matters is what ever force placed us all here wants. Boy, does that suck, huh? Pawn-boy like me?
Pascal was such an otherwise smart man that it's strange he'd come up with something as incredibly stupid as his wager.
I think God makes them that way, for whatever reason He has.
Faith of the Fatherless: Psychology of Atheists {Liberal thinking explained!!).
This book and its central arguments form a cornerstone of reference when I teach Sunday school. Too many teens, I'm afraid, witness their Dads screwing up big time ... and say things to me that directly connect to how God himself must not be trustworthy.
Anyway, great find ...
BUMP
The big picture on Darwin was losing his daughter Anne to a wasting illness .... she was his joy evidently, and she died young.
That said, his grandfather was known to conduct experiments on pond scum using some kind of electrical charge ... which was more than enough to cook up M. Shelly's mind at the tender of age of 18 when she wrote Frankenstein ... and we've been a society of Frankensteins pretty much since then ...
Clams are never trivial....and molusks hate being dimissed as well.
molusks = mollusks
“I think, therefore I am” [cogito ergo sum] --- Descartes
Why "counter" it? It's correct.
“If I believe in God and He does not exist, then I have lost nothing. However, if I do not believe in God and He exists, then I have lost everything…” --- Descartes
It was Pascal, and the problem with it is that it is an equally "good" argument for worshipping Odin, Shiva, Quetzelcotl, and Cthulhu.
The universe had a beginning…i.e., a creation moment [The Big Bang Theory]
Actually, according to Big Bang Theory, the BB wasn't so much a "beginning" as the time when the Universe transformed into the kind of Universe we know, from something else previously (if "previously" is even a valid word in that context, since time as we know it also came about then).
If there was a creation moment, then the existence of Creator is established ipso facto.
See above, that doesn't necessarily follow. But even if it did, the "creator" could have been some natural thing or process or configuration -- there's certainly no logical necessity for it to be some conscious entity, much less a "god" in any sense.
For example individual lightning bolts have distinct beginnings and "creation moments", but their creator, thunderclouds, aren't gods, or even conscious. The Big Bang could have been simiarly "sparked" by some extraordinary (at least by our standards) natural process as well. "Creators" need not be "some guy in the sky with a long white beard", as it were.
What a bunch of tripe.
A Christian personally picks 12 historical Atheist and 12 historical Christians to suit his needs and you call this a study.
Me & my two brothers are Atheist and we all have a great relationship with our father.
It's pretty telling that so many Christians have so little faith in their belief and morals that the only way they can prop themselves up is to attack others who don't believe in the same invisible man in the sky they do. Posting a three year old article - sad.
You're right, Pascal's Wager has convinced me -- to worship Odin. After all, if Odin doesn't exist, I've lost nothing, whereas if he does, it's a good thing I've worshipped him, because if I didn't I'd be screwed out of Valhalla.
...Right?
Another dumb part of Pascal's Wager is the implication that one "loses nothing" if one follows and worships a non-existent god. On the contrary.
Yet another problem is the question of whether a god would be likely to reward someone who didn't necessarily believe in the god, but went through the motions because of the results of a cost-benefit analysis on whether to act as if one actually believed...
"God help me!!!!"
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