The following comes from a Dec. 19 release from Christian Newswire.
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre recently conducted a study on the effects of fatherlessness on children, and the results are startling: The absence of a father during critical growth periods leads to impaired social and behavioral abilities in adults and even causes a misshapen prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision-making and moderating social behavior.
Dr. Paul Vitz further shows the adverse effects of fatherlessness, or “defective” fathers, on the social and behavioral skills on prominent atheists in his controversial, updated book, [published by Ignatius Press] Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism. He proves how being disappointed in one’s earthly father, whether through death, absence or mistreatment, often leads to a rejection of God. The crisis of fatherhood in our culture has us in the midst of a 500-year period of adolescence that glorifies aggression and sexual exploitation, according to Vitz.
A biographical survey of influential atheists of the past four centuries — Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, among many others — 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 — G.K. Chesterton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Edmund Burke, among others — 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.
Throughout Faith of the Fatherless, Vitz does not argue that atheism is psychologically determined. He provides an exposition of the psychological factors predisposing a person to atheism and strongly confirms the essential importance of the role of a good father in a family.
Vitz is a former professor of psychology at New York University and was an atheist until his late 30s.
To read the original release, click here.
Well, I’m clad to find out we may not be like monkey’s. Instead we are made in the image of mice. Sounds good to me. How about the rest of you?
Well, by this logic, the children of two father should be saints!
Your Fellow Catholic -YFC-
Do you condone sexual activity by people of the same sex?
You continually refuse to answer this question.
Please answer the question with a simple yes or no.
Dear Pete, and Happy Christmas to you:
This is CCD, not the Inquisition. You are not the Inquisitor. Please refrain from deluding yourself that you are.
And yet again, Our Supposed Fellow Catholic, the same who attempts to catechize and deride faithful priests, man’s- down and avoids answering a direct question only to keep on skating. That’s courage! Speak up for what you believe in you heart. Take a stand – not.
Again, I say you should rethink who is the real homophobe, YFC. That is scared/frightened. The ‘Inquisition’ dodge doesn’t fool anybody.
YFC, as far as I am aware, regardless of how you answer the question, no one on this CCD site would even know how to tract you down to impose your punishment! Your comparison to the Inquisition is quite humorous!
We all have a loving Father whom we need but acknowledge.
I didn’t know mice were atheists. What will we learn next?
Excellent article !!!
Did our President have a father?
Yes, but he was absent much of the time and divorce and re-marrage are in his background. His Father rejected him and his mother and moved back to Affrica. From what I have read his father had a number of wives.
We all must take responsibility for our own actions.
Only the insane may have an excuse.
Pete, during this great time of crisis when very few children have a father who is married to their mother, or where the father is no where in the picture, the government has taken on the role of Father. This Is a disaster. All Christian men of high moral standards, should consider filling in the gap for these fatherless children. Married couples should consider adopting children who are abandoned in the foster care system.
Tracy,
You really need a reality check. I tried once with “Big Brothers” but was turned down because of my “high moral beliefs”. Wake up young lady and smell the roting flowers.
I eventually thank God ended up with BSA, but now even that path is closed for the most part.
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth, the truth is that caring Christian families ARE adopting foster children! I am quite aware of the Big Brother issue as well as the limits on foster parents imposed by the State. I am not denying the truth that an intact family with the Mother and Father married to one another is the best solution! But the State is always a lousy solution!
Thank you, Tracy, for reminding us all that despite the harsh realities of the struggle, there are solid, Christian families who succeed in reaching out and caring for orphaned children.
God bless!
No one wants the government to involve itself in the family, yet alone pretend to be a parent.
The government (especially those State and Federal DEMOCRATIC politicians) are anti-family and interfere where they do not belong even when families are in tact.
The government merely needs to JAIL those parents who refuse to support their own biological children until the children graduate from high school or turns 18 whichever is later. With DNA there are no errors.
The government can teachsexual abstinence in the schools and the responsibility of parenthood includingbut not limited to financial responsibility for 18 years.
PETE, you said that “the government merely needs to Jail those parents who…..” Realize that when the “State” takes away children, whether or not they jail the parents, IT becomes the parent. Every kid in the foster care system has his or her life directed by a Judge and a Social Worker, both of who work for the State. This system is not only impersonal, it cost the tax payers Billions of dollars and in the end, turns too many 18 year olds out onto the streets of our cities and towns across the country.
I applaud this solution for a few. The younger the better, but what do I know?
Almighty God demands that marriage exists between male and female. His other demand is that it takes BOTH a father and a mother to raise a child. If you do not believe me, look at the Holy Family. Christ had Mary as His Mother, and St. Joseph as His foster father. Our Blessed Lord gave us so many examples on how to live, and we are ignoring them. Shame on us for not learning the lessons that past history has shown us that lead to disaster.
Hitler’s father was horrifically abusive to him, so Hitler practically hero worshipped his mother to the day he died. Hitler was denied admission to a prominent art school in Vienna dominated by Jewish faculty. Stalin was kicked out of an Orthodox seminary in his early 20s. The selection of a few prominent atheists doesn’t provide much science to the prove the author’s point. Better to actually conduct very large random samples in our own country than just hand select a few famous members of the atheists club and call it science..
Even in so called “intact nuclear Catholic families” one husband, one wife, with children, there is considerable abusive behavior between marriage partners and against their children, all of which our Church ignores. Dysfunctional families produce dysfunctional children who create new dysfunctional marriages with more dysfunctional children, etc. Halting the intergenerational damage that abuse causes in the Catholic family unit should be the #1 priority for Church efforts to support Catholic families, but they pretend the problem doesn’t exist because they want parents to be violent with their children, think it’s God’s will. In California prisons, 85% of inmates are abused children. 85%!
We know where the problem is about passing on the faith, and that’s in our families. Stop the violence and other forms of abuse in the Catholic family and you have a far better chance of passing on the faith and keeping the future in the hands of those that joyfully believe and practice their faith positively. “Ex Catholics” is the now the second largest religious denomination in the US, and it’s not hard to see why.
ALL PEOPLE MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS – unless they are insane.
Blaming others does not produce moral, lawful citizens.
Bishops and their Priests must actively, publically and often encourage the reading/study of the Bible and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”. The knowledge contained in these Books is critical for morality, etc.
good cause, where are you getting your info that there is much abuse in “Catholic” families? There is nothing to support your personal beliefs.
Many people leave the Church because they have not be properly taught the Faith – by their Bishops, Priests or Parents.
Many of today’s parents can not pass on the Faith accurately and completely because they do not know it themselves. This failure needs to be corrected.
You place the cart before the horse. Behavior follows belief, not not vice -versa. Therefore, instill the faith, and proper living will become more prevalent. And BTW, Hitler was an abysmal artist, irredeemable by any art school.
I think this just more annoying psychobabble. Draw a conclusion and then find individuals that fit into the parameters. Many men I know grew up as orphans, coped with a sadness only know to them, and still succeeded in life. None I ever knew turned to drugs and atheism. It’s all a matter of individual courage and, may I use a word no longer heard much: Virtue. Blaming the circumstances for one’s failures is a cop-out.
Anton I totally agree with you.
Abeca, I agree! Isn’t Anton a breath of fresh air, cutting right through the distracting selective slices of excuses for bad behavior. Who needs more research telling us why they think the bad are bad? Why are those who are supposed to be good being bad? Faith is a gift and all you need is a mustard seed. Today many shepherds who think they are good are destroying the mountains that were moved and built on the faith of that tiny mustard seed. My father’s dad abandoned his family when my dad was seven and then my dad’s mom died at age eleven. His relatives did not want a boy so they adopted my dad’s two sisters and sent my dad to an orphanage.
My dad’s sisters once told me that they cried every day for what happened to their brother. Then as a teen my father was shuffled from foster home to foster home. Later my dad met my mother and became a convert and my father always said that he loved the Catholic Church because it’s teachings covered EVERYTHING with such clarity and common sense. The first time I ever heard the then uncommon but now common phrase of “Cafeteria Catholic” was from my dad. My dad did cope with sadness only known to him but he overcame each hurdle one at a time and never used his childhood as a reason to deny God, break laws and offend God.
Catherine I agree…Anton is also a breath of fresh air, he does contribute good comments which are clear and faithful with also a clear tone of reasoning well capabilities. Common sense and common decency expressed so well.
Wow your dad’s story is an inspirational one. Your papa went through so much and so did his sisters. God bless them. It must have been really tough. I am grateful that he was kind and humble of heart enough to embrace the good graces available to him. You are blessed to have someone in your life, in your papa, to set a good example to you. God bless you for honoring your parents well. You are a good person, sometimes even in good families, there are those bad seeds that don’t honor God’s commandment “honor thy mother and father”….many do not. But by your comments here, I can see that you are honoring God’s commandments and it is inspiring, especially since you are consistent.
Ever notice how the homosexuals and their sympathizers find every avenue they can to thrust their evil agenda of their evil homosexual topic rudely into unrelated subjects? See how a band of misfits making up 2% (at most) of the general population with the devils resources have infiltrated not only our communities, our society, but also our government, and worst of all our churches, and they are proud of it and won’t quit until the wicked can rest. They must have read Mein Kampf.
The two most common factors shared by Males in the Prisons are Growing Up Without a Father & Homosex Abuse as a Boy.
Misandry – the Separatist / Exterminationist Hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity and Normal Heterosexuality that is The Tenure Track in Academentia, promotes the ‘Turkey Baster Creationist’ Courts in their systematic destruction of not just Fatherhood…
But the very existence of the Immutable Inherited nature of Male Gender (XY) – present in Boys at the moment life begins at conception and found in every cell of their body – mention of which Scientific Fact is itself a Thought Crime in the Age of Abomination…
Which is why ‘catholic icons’ (small ‘c’) Like Assemblymember Tommy ‘TP’ Ammiano (and the rest of his Larry Brinkin Pederast Posse) are pushing the ‘Tranny Toilet Law’ so furiously up the public wazoo.
In the service of ‘tolerance’ – because in an Age of Abomination, Tolerance Macht Frei!
“Anyone, then, who desires to live chastely in Christ Jesus, must flee not only the mouse of lust, but even from its very scent.”
– Saint ANthony of Padua Quote