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“The situation in the academy is such that to refer to God in any serious way would bring the legitimacy of one’s scholarship into question…..there seems to be a widespread assumption, throughout much of our intellectual community, that belief in God is based on all kinds of irrational, immature needs and wishes, whereas atheism or skepticism flows from a rational, grown-up, non-nonsense view of things as they really are.” (1)

Paul Vitz in his work on the psychology of atheism, wrote about those atheists who were intense in their passion for atheism. His thesis, is that these particular individuals, have strong psychological needs associated with their atheism. In particular this is related to an individual’s relationship with their father. It seems that this pertains more to men than women. (5)

I have worked with a number of atheists who did not have the intensity that Vitz has noted. In all cases, they have been men. However, their relationship with their father was still prominent in their relationship with God. I’m not saying that this relationship is entailed by a poor relationship with one’s father (I know of at least one person, a female, who believes in God whose father committed suicide). I know of another, a male, whose father committed suicide in front of him and struggles greatly to believe. But I noted the association (between the relationship of the fathers of men, and men themselves) before reading Vitz’s book.

Also, I have noted psychological factors distorting the faith of believers based on their experience with their father and other factors. This usually involves the realm of guilt, over things done in the past. (2)

Sigmund Freud is given both much credit and much disdain in the field of psychology. He was an atheist who had problems with his father. (3, 4) Men are approximately 7 times more likely to be atheists than women. (5) So, it seems that there is either a ‘glass ceiling’ for women and atheism, or some other factor is at work. I, for one, believe it is some other factor.

I think it has to do with the fact that men have the tendency to, identify with their fathers, and women identify with their mothers. God is represented as a male figure in the Bible, and because of these tendencies of identification, males are more likely to project their feelings onto God than females. I realize that this point is highly speculative, and that there may be other explanations.

(1). Paul C. Vitz. Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism. (1999).

(2). Hindsight is 20-20 and guilt, The Country Shrink (2008 )

(3). Some Psychological Aspects of Atheism, The Country Shrink (2008 )

(4). Paul C. Vitz. Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism. (1999), pp. (47-48 )

(5). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism