On another note, has anyone heard about the lawsuits that some are
suggesting be filed against fast-food companies for "making" people
obsese and unhealthy? My health psychology class discussed this the
other day. Anyone here have any thoughts on this topic?
-----Original Message-----
From: Rod Hetzel
Sent: Wed 2/20/2002 1:46 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Cc:
Subject: RE: rethinking sin
Someone wrote:
> A better question would be why more religious types don't
> follow the excellent example of Einstein and other highly
> intelligent, scientifically-minded people.
To which Louis responded:
> Not exactly respectful or objective. So,
scientifically-minded people
> shouldn't believe in a personal god? I think Hume and Popper
would take
> you on with this one.
To which I add:
As a clinical psychologist I've been interested in the kneejerk
hostile reaction that some (not all) people have towards religion. I've
often wondered whether militant atheistic positions were based on a
reasonable analysis of the issue or some sort of deeper
emotionally-based process. The rhetoric of some militant atheists just
seems too emotionally-charged to not reflect some sort of
psychopathology. Paul Vitz of NYU conducted a study on notable
atheists and later wrote a book entitled "Faith of the Fatherless."
Vitz argues that the decision to believe in a theistic or atheistic
worldview is not the result of any rational objective decision but
rather is based on feelings which were the result of a pernicious early
childhood environment.
A review of Vitz's text reads: "Atheists, especially the
militant ones, are concentrated in academia, the intellectual world, and
government. The believers are distributed over a much wider social
spectrum. Freud, in The Future of An Illusion, gave his opinion of the
origins of belief in God -- the need for security against the
unpredictable forces of nature. Freud believed that a person develops a
belief in a personal God because of his need for an exulted father. He
wrote that when the power of the father breaks down and the child
matures, belief in God automatically diminishes. Professor Vitz has
developed an interesting theory of why some become atheists. His
hypothesis is that it is often the result of having had a 'defective
father.' This may be a result of absence, death, indifference,
hostility, weakness, cowardliness or any characteristic which would make
the father deficient."
Of course, I'm sure that those who are hostile towards theistic
worldviews (as opposed to those who simply disagree with theistic
worldviews) will find a way to discredit Vitz's ideas without even
reading his work. Does anyone know of any studies investigating the
association between atheism and psychological functioning?
Rod Hetzel
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