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The Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of (strong) Atheism

Forever_Jung

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I imagine also "Strong Atheists" would also be people who either really got screwed over by their particular church, or got screwed over while their church looked the other way while it was happening. I've seen plenty of that. It's pretty damaging when the thing that was supposed to protect you ends up messing you up. One of my goals when I left my religion was to not fixate too much on it, which was by far the healthiest move. People who jump from Christianity to reactive Satanism or militant-Atheism are still on the same shitty trip. Of course, zealots of any stripe are the worst, especially new converts to whatever belief they think will save them/make them special.

Yeah, these are good points.

Anecdotally, there's a dude at my work who left the Church because of their LGBT stuff, but he swerved hard into "The Satanic Bible", Wicca, etc. Which would be fine, but he's a Wiccan the same way your ex is totally into Chad, and is in no way dating him just to make you jealous.

He acts like he's more enlightened than Christians, but he just comes off as extremely bitter and miserable.
 

Lark

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I imagine also "Strong Atheists" would also be people who either really got screwed over by their particular church, or got screwed over while their church looked the other way while it was happening. I've seen plenty of that. It's pretty damaging when the thing that was supposed to protect you ends up messing you up. One of my goals when I left my religion was to not fixate too much on it, which was by far the healthiest move. People who jump from Christianity to reactive Satanism or militant-Atheism are still on the same shitty trip. Of course, zealots of any stripe are the worst, especially new converts to whatever belief they think will save them/make them special.

This is interesting because perhaps it applies to those who seem to switch between radical left and right or extremes of position in a variety of different opinions, for instance Atkins and Veganism or vice versa.

The thing about this though is that I would think of churches and religions as being human, all too human, they have their place, I think they are important institutions and traditions transmit learning from one generation to the next and properly understood or constituted ought to operate as memory does in an individual, but they are a pretext or context or platform, if that makes sense, no substitute for God, community/fraternity, future/omega point to which it is hoped a virtuous/righteous direction of travel points.

Anything is only as good as the individuals who make it up and those individuals can easily betray whatever the purpose was in the first instance, even believe that doing so is the right thing to do and invent a rationalisation for it but it is what it is. Its probably why I'll only ever be neutral good, as opposed to lawful good or chaotic good :newwink:
 

Andy

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In my experience, the most militant atheists are those that someone tried to shove down the path of religion a little too hard. Sometimes, the harder you try to ram something down a persons throat, the more violently they vomit it back up again.
 
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In my experience, the most militant atheists are those that someone tried to shove down the path of religion a little too hard. Sometimes, the harder you try to ram something down a persons throat, the more violently they vomit it back up again.

Funny that. You mean daddy isn’t to blame? I find when that shoving is given with a mountain load of self righteous smugness it really helps to dissuade one from wanting any part of God. I don’t think God turns away followers so much as his followers turn away followers. Some of the most convincing arguments for not joining a religion have been made by it’s members actions.

Militant atheists aren’t any better however. They’d be burning people at the stake for believing in god. At the end of the day, I’m not so much concerned with who’s doing the burning as I am with the fact that people are being burned.
 

Hive

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Is God a stand-in for your absent father, and your religious belief underpinned by daddy issues? I'd like to think so, as it caters to my worldview, and the opinions of my opponents are more comfortably explained by their flawed psychology as that gives me a reason to dismiss them right off the bat, rather than doing an honest examination of their views.
 

Mole

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We are meaning creating animals. And the prime way we create meaning is by putting the particular into a context, then we take the context for granted, and seek advantage with the particulars.

And to threaten the context is to threaten meaning itself, the very way in which we live.

So those who threaten context have been called apostates and heretics, and tortured and put to death. Why, in 1826, not so long ago, the Catholic Church hanged Cayetano Ripoll, and burnt his body, for being a deist, click on Cayetano Ripoll - Wikipedia .

In exactly the same way anyone who threatens the context of Typology Central, that is, mbti, suffers character assassination, their free speech is attacked, their account is hacked, they are accused of breaking the rules, and permanently banned. I know because all these things have been done to me.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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We are meaning creating animals. And the prime way we create meaning is by putting the particular into a context, then we take the context for granted, and seek advantage with the particulars.

And to threaten the context is to threaten meaning itself, the very way in which we live.

So those who threaten context have been called apostates and heretics, and tortured and put to death. Why, in 1826, not so long ago, the Catholic Church hanged Cayetano Ripoll, and burnt his body, for being a deist, click on Cayetano Ripoll - Wikipedia .

In exactly the same way anyone who threatens the context of Typology Central, that is, mbti, suffers character assassination, their free speech is attacked, their account is hacked, they are accused of breaking the rules, and permanently banned. I know because all these things have been done to me.

I was joking, you know.
 
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We are meaning creating animals. And the prime way we create meaning is by putting the particular into a context, then we take the context for granted, and seek advantage with the particulars.

And to threaten the context is to threaten meaning itself, the very way in which we live.

So those who threaten context have been called apostates and heretics, and tortured and put to death. Why, in 1826, not so long ago, the Catholic Church hanged Cayetano Ripoll, and burnt his body, for being a deist, click on Cayetano Ripoll - Wikipedia .

In exactly the same way anyone who threatens the context of Typology Central, that is, mbti, suffers character assassination, their free speech is attacked, their account is hacked, they are accused of breaking the rules, and permanently banned. I know because all these things have been done to me.

Yet you’re still here.

The TypeC secret order of assassins failed to eliminate their greatest nemesis? Somehow I doubt you rocked the foundations of MBTI with your ‘heresy’. Wow. You never fail to make things all about you. Sure you’re not a narcissist?
 

ceecee

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I am not denying the need and importance of a strong father figure, or in the very least, some form of positive masculine role model, even if that might be an unconventional arrangement with a butch lesbian who works on motorcycles :laugh: and I would agree to an extent with the tradcons who say the rise in single mother households has had a detrimental effect on society.

I'm just having difficulty seeing the connection between lack of said role model and predilection for atheist worldviews. I think one's tendency toward agnosticism/atheism is going to have a lot more to do with personality/temperament (not necessarily strictly in the Jungian/Keirseyan sense) than with the presence of or lack of a strong and positive masculine/father-like figure. Of course I can no more prove that assumption than you can yours, so it is what it is, take it with a grain of salt.

I would say that the people with the most weak/ineffective/absent fathers would be more drawn to the structured, even authoritarian aspect of religion. I suppose the same could be said for militant atheism, such as the OP is claiming but that argument seems to only come from the militantly religious. This is why you see ridiculous claims - such as people with weak fathers become atheists. They have to say something over the top to get the non-believers to hear them.
 

Andy

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Funny that. You mean daddy isn’t to blame? I find when that shoving is given with a mountain load of self righteous smugness it really helps to dissuade one from wanting any part of God. I don’t think God turns away followers so much as his followers turn away followers. Some of the most convincing arguments for not joining a religion have been made by it’s members actions.

Militant atheists aren’t any better however. They’d be burning people at the stake for believing in god. At the end of the day, I’m not so much concerned with who’s doing the burning as I am with the fact that people are being burned.

Not unless he is the one doing the shoving...
 

Mole

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Very few are strong atheists, most are agnostic, of course there are those who substitute a totalitarian belief for God, and although they might call themselves atheists, it is plain they are believers.

So when we ask so called atheists, can they prove God doesn't exist, all will say no.
 

Riva

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Unfortunately I can't play the video at this time. I would probably forget to reply to this thread if I don't do so now.

I don't think there is a co-relation between the two. However, any person who grew up without a father figure probably learned to do things on their own and depend less on others.

This is exactly what belief in a higher power is about. You are unable to face the stresses/anxieties of life therefore believe in a higher power to save you or guide you or to feel comfort in knowing that by living in a way he dictates that you will have a good afterlife.

A person who has grown up without a parental figure - due to learning to handle things on their own - might not see the need for a higher power.

----

I grew up in a Buddhist background with extremely dependable parental figures. There is no creator in Buddhism/according to Buddha and Buddha specifically says that there is absolutely no use of worshiping a higher power (god or gods) or him. He specifically says that you should rather attain good karma/do good deeds and reap the karmic effects of it.

However, Buddhism does believe in Karma and re-birth. And despite Buddha saying that there is no point of worshiping a god/gods or him people do tend to do so hoping to receive blessing. I think this is a direct conflict with its atheist roots. It also conflicts someone from identifying as a atheist.

----

Since late I have come to believe that 'we only live once' therefore enjoy our life to the maximum, while NOT hurting anyone and trying to help others as much as possible. I have also come to question the beliefs of re-birth and karma.

However, none of these would stop me from being a good person and the best person I could ever be. So I am totally comfortable in being an atheist or agnostic (leaving room to the possibility that I might be wrong).

---

It's actually quite a liberating feeling - to know you only live once so just enjoy your life, just be a good person and if you are in a huge rut ask people for help.
 
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