Frederick Dodson, _Levels of Heaven and Hell_ (2020), 295pp., on 230
What I have found, and this will be “controversial,” is that every human being _knows_ the Creator.
Every single human being.
“Atheists” pretend not to out of a sense of rebellion.
Frankly, most atheists I have talked to, read and heard (and I have gotten to know many), actually harbor unaddressed emotional issues from childhood.
Whether they were beaten by their fathers, witnessed corruption in religion or experienced trauma, there is hardly any atheist without mental or psychological issues.
It takes some severe emotional pain, later suppressed, to think that the universe is a random and coincidental mess in light of the blatant and obvious evidence to the contrary that is all around us
> Frankly, most atheists I have talked to, read and heard (and I have gotten to know many), actually harbor unaddressed emotional issues from childhood. Whether they were beaten by their fathers, witnessed corruption in religion or experienced trauma, there is hardly any atheist without mental or psychological issues.
I dare say most humans have some sort of unhealed emotional or psychological trauma, “issues from childhood.”
The unsubstantiated suggestion that atheists are uniquely psychologically broken, that their atheism is a pretense, is an insulting and patronizing pathologization.
The passage also more than insinuates that atheists are, as a class, insincere.
I don’t know how to take an interlocutor seriously who begins from a position of presuming pathology and bad faith on the part of anyone who disagrees with him. That is basically the definition of a closed epistemic system.
Oh, but Robert, he only quoted (albeit without any conventional indication of quotation) from a crackpot self-published book! He didn’t actually *endorse* the insulting quotation from a nutter that he randomly dropped into the conversation with zero context.
If we just ask him to clarify what he meant to add to the conversation by dropping that insulting and moronic passage, I’m sure he will . . . well, deflect.
“The unsubstantiated suggestion that… atheism is a pretense, is an insulting and patronizing pathologization”
If anybody’s feelings were hurt by: [Dodson]”What I have found, and this will be ‘controversial,’ is that every human being _knows_ the Creator. Every single human being. ‘Atheists’ pretend not to out of a sense of rebellion,”
I apologize for having hurt those feelings.
If somebody says ‘God doesn’t exist,’ and Dodson doesn’t even know that person, I don’t see how Dodson is in a position to say that the person who said ‘God doesn’t exist’ is pretending.
“most humans have some sort of unhealed emotional or psychological trauma”
Agreed.
“The unsubstantiated suggestion that atheists are uniquely psychologically broken”
As you noted, it’s _not_ the case “that atheists are uniquely psychologically broken.”
This Dodson means little without a comparison with non-atheists:
[Dodson]”most atheists I have talked to, read and heard (and I have gotten to know many), actually harbor unaddressed emotional issues from childhood. Whether they were beaten by their fathers, witnessed corruption in religion or experienced trauma, there is hardly any atheist without mental or psychological issues”
Paul Vitz, _Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism_ (2013)
In this updated, expanded edition, starting with Freud’s “projection theory” of religion – that belief in God is merely a product of man’s desire for security – Professor Vitz argues that psychoanalysis actually provides a more satisfying explanation for atheism.
Disappointment in one’s earthly father, whether through death, absence, or mistreatment, frequently leads to a rejection of God.
A biographical survey of influential atheists of the past four centuries shows that this “defective father hypothesis” provides a consistent explanation of the “intense atheism” of these thinkers.
A survey of the leading defenders of Christianity over the same period confirms the hypothesis, finding few defective fathers.
Vitz concludes with an intriguing comparison of male and female atheists and a consideration of other psychological factors that can contribute to atheism.
Professor Vitz does not argue that atheism is psychologically determined.
Each man, whatever his experiences, ultimately chooses to accept God or reject him.
Yet the cavalier attribution of religious faith to irrational, psychological needs is so prevalent that an exposition of the psychological factors predisposing one to atheism is necessary.
“What’s the ugliest part of your body? …your mind”
** you do not have permission to see this link **
There is a central theme that unifies each step in the review we undertake,
which can be simply stated in these words:
² _My mind holds only what I think with God_.
³ That is a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your Father is.
⁴ It is this thought by which the Father gave creation to the Son,
establishing the Son as co-creator with Himself.
⁵ It is this thought that fully guarantees salvation to the Son.
⁶ For in his mind no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares.
⁷ Lack of forgiveness blocks this thought from his awareness.
⁸ Yet it is forever true.
For people with problem parents, Jesus redefines who parents and family are:
Matthew 12:48
48He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
There’s a similar statement in Mark 3:33
“I don’t understand why someone would post something they don’t believe”
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Richard Dawkins
In _The Selfish Gene_ (1989 edition, p. 198):
“Faith cannot move mountains (though generations of children are solemnly told the contrary and believe it).
But it is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.
It leads people to believe in whatever it is so strongly that in extreme cases they are prepared to kill and to die for it without the need for further justification.”
In _The God Delusion_ (2006), Dawkins explicitly frames belief in God as a delusion, defining it as
“a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.”
He endorses Robert M. Pirsig’s line:
“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.”
Dawkins has also compared certain forms of religious indoctrination of children to a kind of psychological harm or “mental abuse.”
Sam Harris
In _The End of Faith_ (2004):
“It is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.”
Also in _The End of Faith_:
“It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window.”
Other notable examples
Bill Maher has repeatedly called religion a “neurological disorder” or similar terms in his public commentary.
Dave Silverman (former president of American Atheists) has stated that the “hyper-religious” should be recognized as “mentally damaged” and that religion functions as a form of brainwashing.
DavidFord said
“I don’t understand why someone would post something they don’t believe”
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Richard Dawkins
In _The Selfish Gene_ (1989 edition, p. 198):
“Faith cannot move mountains (though generations of children are solemnly told the contrary and believe it).
But it is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.
It leads people to believe in whatever it is so strongly that in extreme cases they are prepared to kill and to die for it without the need for further justification.”
In _The God Delusion_ (2006), Dawkins explicitly frames belief in God as a delusion, defining it as
“a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence.”
He endorses Robert M. Pirsig’s line:
“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.”
Dawkins has also compared certain forms of religious indoctrination of children to a kind of psychological harm or “mental abuse.”
Sam Harris
In _The End of Faith_ (2004):
“It is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.”
Also in _The End of Faith_:
“It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window.”
Other notable examples
Bill Maher has repeatedly called religion a “neurological disorder” or similar terms in his public commentary.
Dave Silverman (former president of American Atheists) has stated that the “hyper-religious” should be recognized as “mentally damaged” and that religion functions as a form of brainwashing.
I’m a believer and a Christian believer at that. But I get what is said in most of this ^ post.
I was an Athiest-Agnostic for a good 25 years of my adult life. It was because of the way that God and Christianity were presented to me in my childhood and formative years. It is very much reflective of what is stated in the above post.
It wasn’t until I discovered the works of JS Spong, Bart Ehrman, and Richard Rohr, and perhaps a few others as well as a few insights of my own, that I realized that I don’t have to regard Jesus, God, or Christianity in this way.
The bible is a mixed bag. I guess it just needs to be regarded as such.
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