Hi On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Rod Hetzel wrote:
> 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. Well, I hope that Louis takes you to task for not being respectful or objective!! 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. They are based on a reasonable analysis, followed by emotional frustration resulting from, for example, school boards and politicians who continue to fight against such obvious truths as evolution. > The rhetoric of some militant atheists just seems too > emotionally-charged to not reflect some sort of psychopathology. It is good to hear that psychological health implies non-emotionality. I'll have to pass on the word to such emotional people as Martin Luther King. Sounding calm and rational is not a good indicator of rationality, at least not in my experience. People with the most bizarre ideas can appear quite reasonable in demeanor ... I have in mind some of the spokespersons for parapsychology in a recent TV special. Nonsense stated with the utmost sincerity, certainty, and calmness. 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. See my comments below. > 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. So being concentrated in academia and the intellectual world is a bad thing, I take it? If true (I'm not familiar with the evidence), does that not suggest to you that people whose minds have been trained to reason and think critically might be less likely to believe? > 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." I believe it is true that scientists and some other creative groups do tend to have an absent father. I'm not sure that the general explanation for this is a negative one, as opposed to other more positive possibilities (e.g., the positive impact of a strong mother figure). Oh, yes, my father did die when I was 6, although I, and certainly not my mother, would probably not choose to describe this as "deficient," although that is obviously one possible label. > 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? In studies that have included the atheistic extreme (as opposed to simply more or less religious), I believe that there tends to be a curvilinear relationship with such things as psychological well-being. That is the atheists and the highly religious tend to obtain higher scores. So this is one area where perhaps sitting on the fence is not the best option (keeping in mind of course that we are talking about correlations). Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
