[this guy should be fired, stat!... wtf!]
Dr. Paul C. Vitz, professor of psychology at New York University and a former atheist, is the author of Faith of the Fatherless. In this thought-provoking book, Vitz diagnoses the root causes of atheism and agnosticism. In studying the biographies of many of the leading atheists of the past three centuries, Vitz concludes that virtually all had an absent, distant, harassed or abusive father early in their childhood — often before 18 months of age.
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Not true here. My dad's great and we get along fine. He's very close to my husband (I don't have any brothers) and my 3 kids love him to death.
He's devout Roman Catholic, but I don't hold that against him. It was hard for him at first when I stopped going to church and didn't bring my kids up in church at all. But he knows there is nothing that is going to change all that so he accepts it.
Try again.
Bullshit, I am an atheist because of reading the bible incessantly as a child. I had a good, kind and hard working father. He just believed something that does not stand up to the light of honest examination, fundamentalism.
Wouldn't that lead people TOWARDS a belief in God, to fulfill their need for an authoritative father figure?
Freudian Psychology Fail.
...Aha. He may be onto us. Atheists are the creatures born of abusive parents.
Great. Now there're people who are shifting the blame FOR us.
Have we really outsourced every job?
Hilarious! Interestingly enough, this used to be one of the root causes of why I was gay. What about the overbearing mother I was supposed to have? All of it was and is bullshit but hey, if you want to malign yet another socially unacceptable group, why vary the pseudo-causes?
Did the good doctor ever publish his results in a peer reviewed journal?
Edit: I failed to mention. I'm a father and I'm none of those things. I'm also raising my kids to question the existence of god/gods.
@GreenEyedLilo: I'm a leading atheist, and I never heard of the guy. The qualifications, incidentally, are good looks, charm, erudition. In my instance, bribery proved to be the key.
Okay, I officially appeal to have this guy to have his degrees revoked unless he comes up with a good reason for why this outlandish assertion is not just supported by actual evidence, but also statistically signifcant in comparison to the religious population. Who wants dibs on his doctorate?
Also from this website: "Instead of discerning which side is theologically correct, non-Christian audiences tend to side with whomever seems “nicest.” "
Is it just me or is "theologically correct" an oxymoron?
"Dr. Paul C. Vitz, professor of psychology at New York University and a former atheist, is the author of Faith of the Fatherless. In this thought-provoking book, Vitz diagnoses the root causes of atheism and agnosticism. In studying the biographies of many of the leading atheists of the past three centuries, Vitz concludes that virtually all had an absent, distant, harassed or abusive father early in their childhood often before 18 months of age."
Yet you didn't bother to actually publish a peer reviewed scientifically valid paper on these findings. No, instead you publish a fucking book, rake in the cash and kudos from the fundy crowd and become the "expert" all the nutjobs quote.
Can you say "sellout" Dr. Vitz?
Hmm. Got an abusive fundie mother. Does that count? 'Course I have seven siblings who also grew up with an abusive, fundie mother and I'm the only atheist into the bunch, so there goes that hypothesis.
Seconding the request for PEER REVIEW. Statistical significance of al this, please?
Also: over the past three centuries, what Vitz thinks of as "leading atheists over the past three centuries" were probably born in majority-Christian, western countries. Maybe the actual correlation is "People who had an unhappy childhood are more likely to hold different religious beliefs to their parents than people who enjoyed a happy childhood". Are children of abusive *atheist* fathers still more or equally likely to become atheists than children of good atheist fathers?
As an (eventual) psychologist, I have actually read some of Vitz's stuff. One of his articles involves a lengthy discussion of how the Oedipus Complex can be linked to atheism. (You know, hating the father, hating the Father...) Immediately after that, he then mentions that the Complex is complete bullshit. Way to waste everyone's time.
Vitz has never seemed to manage to progress beyond reversing Freudian theories that have long been discarded. Basically, atheism is a daddy issue for him.
Probably lost his cognitive functions when he regressed. Increased religious mania and delusions are symptoms of degeneration. Has he disavowed the TOE yet? That signals the total disruption of higher brain functions.
(Sorry, been doing a marathon of House MD Season 4)
Well, Dr. Vitz, my father is certainly not abusive. HIS father, a devout Roman Catholic, certainly was. Care to reconsider your point?
It's funny, because my grandfather, a devout Catholic, lost his father at 10. And, following your logic, like 30%, at least, of the population who was born inmediately after WWII should have been atheist. And by the way, how do you explain atheist women?, or those who are atheist because their parents are atheist?. Or the case of Francisco Franco, whose father was.............exactly the three things you've explained?.
My father wasn't absent, distant, harassed, or abusive. His job was right next door to our house, and he often worked from home, and almost always had time for us. Yet here I am, an atheist, and he didn't even complain about that, what with him being a minister and all..!
I'd reckon that a large portion of the population could say that one or both of their parents was absent, abusive or distant, including Christians. All three of those words are fairly generalized ways of describing ones relationship with someone -- "distant" in particular can mean just about anything. Almost no one had a perfect, 1950's "nuclear family" childhood, yet the majority of people are theists.
In any case, since "God" is supposed to be our ultimate father, and the bible itself portrays him as absent, distant AND abusive, why isn't every single person on this planet an atheist?
My father loves me, and I love him, and he was involved in every aspect of my live growing up, and he's still married to my mother. And I'm an atheist.
So there.
And I don't care if Dr. Vitz rejects my anecdotes as contrary to his thesis. He's not doing good science if he does.
Oh, fuck you sideways with a chainsaw. My parents have been married since 1990 and except for a brief time (he was in another country), they lived in the same house as me!
I probably don't count though, I'm a deist.
My grandfather was a very kind and loving man, yet my father is an atheist. Dad is also a very kind and loving man, yet I am atheist. Hit it, Aretha!
"Chain, chain, chain, chain of fail..."
Guess what, Mr. Vitz? I love my parents to death and they love me to death, and I'm an atheist. You know something else? They are (and I was, to some extent) Trinitarian Christians.
One thing studies DO show is that nearly every convert to a form of theism had went through hard times (drug addicts, abusive parent, sudden loss of a very close person, etc.). The others (like the Christian Identity sect, which is largely converting to Norse Odinism, since they think the Odinists have more 'pride in their whiteness') tend to use it to convince themselves of their superiority.
Interestingly, in contrast, people tend to 'convert' to atheism when they look at science and/or the overall cruel nature of this world (and they often don't put themselves in this context at all... I know I didn't.).
But, really, what can I expect from an organization that asked its members to pray for rain during the DNC? You guys are truly pathetic, although I can't tell whether you really believe the shit you spew, or whether you just help recruit voters for the Republican Party.
And the irony of this is, of course, that the fathers and mothers of the Christian children brainwash their kids into believing their fruity little religion and their dusty book. And their grandparents did it, and their great-grandparents did it, and so on.
Yeah, some very selective 'research' designed to reach a particular goal.
This isn't his idea, Christian debaters have tried this scam for years with very few examples they try to wedge in as all encompassing, When one points out prominent Christian leaders who lost their father while young they quickly counter with "uncles, grandfather or older brothers' which, you guessed it, aren't EVER a factor in Atheist lives.
This is such a weak lame ass argument it a favorite of Ray Comfort and you know how his arguments are only assertions or you don't know his game.
And I think this one isn't going away because they also can convince relatives or neighbors to 'recrute' fatherless children with it. The idea that Atheists are 'rudderless', 'in need of leadership' and 'looking for something' no matter what their age, that the Church can take on that role.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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