Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism Paperback – April 1, 2000

I first heard of this book in an article, "Unreasonable Doubt," in the magazine, Christianity Today ([...] Fascinated by the premise, and having previously read "Saved by an Atheist" ([...]) in the same magazine a few months prior, I determined I would one day read this book.Upon locating the now-out-of-print book on Amazon.com, I was stunned to see a book originally listed for $12.95 to be selling for around $45. Secondly, I was struck by the fact that it seems to be a "love it or hate it" book, judging by a glance at the reviews. It averages three stars with a scant 41 reviews now, with 13 being five-star and 13 being one-star. Perusing the critical reviews shows a group of angry and bitter individuals who fit the profile of intense atheist, mostly making straw man arguments about the premise of the book, then knocking down said straw man. Most of them seem entirely unaware of Dr. Vitz's standing in the academic community and specializations, and re-frame his arguments in fashions that do not accurately synopsize his directly stated intentions. That a minor (based on the number of reviews) volume such as this should provoke such vitriol from such a small percentage of the population is, in itself, fascinating.Atheism has likely existed nearly as long as theism. In my years of reading a variety of Christian apologetics works, I have mostly seen the subject matter experts note that atheism is usually caused either by a traumatic incident that leads one to reject God as a proxy for rejecting certain people who claim to follow Him, or by a strong desire to escape accountability for libertine lifestyles. Other than being aware of Nietzsche's infamous "God is dead" quip, I had little awareness of the early origins of the New Atheist movement, where people go from simply lacking faith in the supernatural to actively opposing same. I had presumed it to be a natural outgrowth of the Enlightenment and pseudoscience like neo-Darwinism (not to be confused with legitimate scientific study of evolutionary ideas).Similarly, I was unaware of the Vetter-Green (1932) and Caplovitz-Sherrow (1977) studies referenced in a textbook, Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary. It would seem to me that Vitz built on a history of similar findings, though his failure to reference the earlier studies could indicate a lack of awareness of said. Given the dearth of material available on the subject of the causes of atheism, it is not entirely surprising that Vitz mentions nothing of earlier studies. In these aforementioned studies, it was discovered that members of an atheism advocacy group had "exceptionally prevalent ... [d]isturbances in childhood and adolescence" and that an increasingly poor relationship with one's parents correlates directly with increasing tendencies to reject religion. These findings, coupled with those in Faith of the Fatherless, match a statement made by a secular psychiatrist of my acquaintance: "Rejection of God is the ultimate father rejection."But what to do with all this information? One might be tempted to pedantically declare atheism to be a symptom of some sort of mental illness. Indeed, it may be, but we also have plenty of examples of mentally ill who not only believe in God but believe they are Jesus or Moses. Given that, one might be tempted to surmise that extreme positions, like atheism or delusions of being Jesus, could indicate a tendency in mental illness to gravitate toward something related to the supernatural, either in extremes of affirmation or rejection. Likewise, though, that would be needlessly speculative.So, again, what good is this information? I think the author puts it best when he says: "Since both believers and nonbelievers in God have psychological reasons for their positions, one important conclusion is that in any debate as to the truth of the existence of God, psychology should be irrelevant. A genuine search for evidence supporting, or opposing, the existence of God should be based on the evidence and arguments found in philosophy, theology, science, history, and other relevant disciplines."In the cases where psychological disturbances have led to atheism, I again defer to the author's words: "[W]e must not forget or oversimplify the pain and the complex causes that lie behind individual cases. And for those whose atheism was conditioned by a father who rejected, or denied, or hated, or manipulated, or physically or sexually abused, or abandoned them, there must be understanding and compassion."I believe it would be safe to say that while this book is an important analysis of the historical bases for the New Atheist movement, and while it demonstrates how a father's influence on his children has far-reaching consequences, we should not dismiss atheism out of hand as nothing more than a mental disorder, or a symptom of a disorder. Just like with any sort of study, we should not get bogged down in the details, but look at the big picture that came from an analysis of those details. If we are to take anything from this in the light of Christian apologetics and evangelism, it should be that we have open hearts to the hurting, some of whom may be atheists due to some sort of tragedy or trauma.Read this book. Read it with an open mind, an open heart, and--above all--an open line of prayer to God.

Psychology is possibly the last topic I would choose to read. However, after hearing the speaker give a talk a few years ago, I was determined to tackle this book. In spite of my fears, the book was not traumatic to read, and I even enjoyed it. The basic premise is an inversion of the theory made popular by Freud, that people believe in God as a wish fulfilment based on their father figure. The author examines the inverse by proposing that historic academic atheist rejected God due to experiencing an absent, dead or weak father in their early years. The evidence is surprisingly strong. Unless you had some other reason to doubt the hypothesis, the evidence seems to carry the argument. Interestingly, we tested the idea on two young atheists. The first acted offended and spewed a series of semi-logical complaints. Then second asked if this was not obvious, suggesting that of course if the one was true, so should the other be. The essence of the book was only dealing with historic atheists whose writings were highly controversial at the time. In the last chapters he explains this more completely, first by discussing his own atheist phase, and second by discussing how the thesis does not apply in the twenty first century where it is far more radical in the academy to be a theist than an atheist.

Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheismby Paul C. VitzDallas: Spence Publishing Company, 1999 (hardback); 2000 (paperback)Pp. 174 including notes and indexISBN 1-890626-25-2 (pbk.)Review-essay by Reverend Brian Van Hove, S.J.Alma, MichiganPublished in The St. Louis Review, 21 December 2007, p. 18Posted on Ignatius Insight, 25 January 2008This precious book has been out for just a few years, and it deserves to be recalled frequently with renewed attention.The crisis of fatherlessness is partly cultural. We experience it acutely in the United States. Teachers and pastors witness its devastating effects every day. An abnormal ideological feminism at times enters the vacuum created by fatherlessness. Fatherlessness can also generate homoeroticism or a frantic search for some "spirituality of masculinity".Indeed, both boys and girls need a wise father who encourages them and strengthens them, and who provides what a mother cannot. In our society today, the need for true fathers has become desperate, though by the grace of God generous grandfathers have stepped forward to care for the young. Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote movingly about this in My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir (HarperCollins Publishers, 2007).Dr. Paul Vitz takes a broad historical sweep of atheists from the Enlightenment to our own day. In most cases alienation from God was a reaction to an absent or defective father. Similarly, a survey of staunch believers of the last two centuries shows that most of them had a close relationship with their father or instead enjoyed an effective father substitute.An example is the life of Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) whose father died when he was two. Henry Edward Cardinal Manning of Westminster was a real father figure to the young Hilaire, and Hilaire matured in the way men do whose biological fathers helped them along the way. (p. 98-100) As an Anglican clergyman, Manning lost his wife. He knew the sorrow of widowhood personally. Later as a Catholic, when he became cardinal-archbishop, he maintained his role as father and found time to spend with the teenage Hilaire despite the many pressing duties of office.Vitz gives us an autobiographical section in which he explains his own "superficial" atheism as a young American academic. His atheism was more a social conformity and a career need than the result of a damaged relationship with his father. A positive father relationship probably helped him overcome temporary atheism and made possible his serious adult conversion to the Catholic faith. (p. 130-137)Faith of the Fatherless does not mention the strong rumors that the dying Jean-Paul Sartre converted to theism, and it was written before the aging Antony Flew converted from philosophical atheism to philosophical theism. And of course he wrote well before atheist Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass became so well known. We eagerly await information on Pullman's relationship with his father.But Vitz's selection of authors to analyze is interesting and adequate. On the atheist side we study twenty-nine intellectuals or world leaders from the eighteenth century to the present. (p. 20-57; 104-129). These include those who suffered from deaceased fathers, weak fathers, absent fathers or abusive fathers. On the theist side we get thumbnail sketches of twenty-four historical examples of believing Christians and Jews. (p. 58-93) Some of them, such as Don Bosco, who himself became an effective substitute father to hundreds of industrial-age orphans, found effective substitute fathers. (p. 95-98) There are exceptional cases as well as cases with qualifications, but these tend to support the hypothesis. (p. 122-125)This book is short and readable. High school teachers could use it for class. The book would actually introduce students to Western Civilization by way of the "glue" that has traditionally held it together¯religion. Students could draw their own conclusions as to what happens when a failed father fuels atheism, especially the atheism of great thinkers, artists and leaders. And the "decline of the West" makes more sense when we consider the consequence if the role of the father decays.The psychology of unbelief is a fascinating field, and according to Vitz it is mostly about fatherlessness. This field is a corollary to the traditional Christian teaching on marriage and family.