Analyzing the Analyticals: Faith of the Fatherless.

Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism; Paul C Vitz, PhD. Stanford; Spence Publishing, Dallas; 1999

Dr. Vitz has had a number of books published, including an attack on pop psychology, an analysis of Freud’s suppressed religiosity, Science of the Mind, the psychology of religion, and others.

In this book, Vitz analyzes the records of the backgrounds of twenty of the most famous and influential Atheists. Vitz was looking for a common element in the development of these writers, philosophers, and – in the case of Freud, at least – psuedoscientists. He asked is there a connection between belief and background / behavior. His methods are historical forensic, not empirical, since most of the subjects are dead. Also, public records are used, not Abductive extensionalism, as is the case with some unrestricted historical declarations. And Vitz recognizes that there are other elements in the lives of males beyond the father figure. Yet the commonality of the findings is more than compelling.

He found categorically that the Atheists had a common feature to their backgrounds: a defective male role model, either missing entirely, or abusive, or neglectful. Many were raised with feminine influences only. The concept then is that the individual young male came to hate the missing father. And he came to hate the feminization that he received, even though the care was benign or caring. The hate bloomed into hate of all authority, including the supreme of authority, God. Perhaps this explains the frequency of the use of the “Problem of Evil” that atheists cannot seem to resolve.

As David Marshall says in his review, Vitz’s book is not a Christian apologetic. In fact,

“An atheist could even argue that the conclusion children come to who have lost their fathers is a valid inference from personal experience to the true nature of a cruel universe.”
David Marshall, author:
Jesus and the Religions of Man

And a contrary opinion from a self proclaimed “renaissance man”:

“….explain the atheism and hostility toward religion of famous atheists like Bertrand Russell. The primary problem with the book is that it is not psychoanalysis at all. You cannot do post-mortem psychoanalysis from literary biographies. It is not there. The book would carry more weight if it were composed of actual analyses.”
Gregory Olsen


Vitz was not psychoanalyzing, he was doing the job of a historian looking for clues in the recorded lives of a specific set of individuals. Olsen overlooks that in a non-starter of an objection. Actually, Olsen is full of himself, an unexpected confirmation of Vitz’s conclusion.

To put another hammer blow to the nail, Vitz analyzes the backgrounds of twenty-one famous Theists. He found a supportive father figure in every case.

I recommend this book as a good read of objective historical analysis, without projection or extrapolation beyond the actual findings.