The Atheist Syndrome: A Psychopathology of Unbelief (WTF?!)

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The Atheist Syndrome: A Psychopathology of Unbelief (WTF?!)

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Started 2 years ago by Mark the Pilgrim
Latest reply from WarbVIII

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Mark the Pilgrim
Member

http://www.equip.org/articles/the-atheist-syndrome-a-psychopathology-of-unbelief

Author John Koster has wrote a book in which he attempts to psychoanalyse atheism. He places Atheism down to a "fear of domineering and abusive fathers [which then] transformed itself into hatred of the God their fathers represented to them". Funny, my father was pretty laid back and never abused me.

He also has a YT video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2h8tBUhdmg&feature=player_embedded) where he claims atheists are sexually promiscuous, depressed, insatiable hard workers, attracted to the occult and had fanatic tendencies. Man I wish I was promiscuous.

Regardless, the person who wrote the article, E. Calvin Beisner, does go out of his way to highlight the fallacies in his premise, even if he is writing for the Christian Research Institute. However he does end the article with this beauty of a quote:

"Meanwhile, Koster does tell us enough about these champions of atheism to prove them prime examples of David's ages-old judgment: atheism appeals only to fools."

Right. That makes sense.

Posted 2 years ago #
UrsaMinor
Member

Funny, that sounds suspiciously like the psychological profile of gay men that they used to trot out.

Posted 2 years ago #
LRA
Member

"Clarence Darrow, Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin, Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus all seem to wither under his gaze.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaa!!!!!!

*wipes tear*

Isn't it AMAZING how these brainless devotees of mythos think they are SMARTER than the smartest people in the world (and how they always manage to lump the *Catholic* Hitler in with them)? I've mentioned it elsewhere, but Einstein is under attack by these idiots, too. They think they are so goddam smart. It is hilarious.

Rant time.

I'm in a creative writing class with a pastor whose recent "story" wasn't a story at all but rather a screed about how the "scientist" (really engineer) in the story was bullying his "curious" son with pesky facts when the kid wanted to find god. The message was that the "science" person was a close-minded asshole and that the true intellect in the story was the kid who kept asking questions. Hello! Irony detector broken! Needless to say, the "story" which was really just a dialogue that took place in a car (with no other plot, drama, conflict and other components that make, you know, a STORY) was completely skewered by the class. Plus it just pissed off a few of us. One comment I made was that I'm an adult with my own thoughts and beliefs and that good fiction neither preaches to me nor tries to conveniently use fiction to lecture to me.

Seriously, I'm becoming more and more convinced of the utter stupidity combined with absolute arrogance (Dunning-Kruger effect) that abounds in the vast majority of the "leaders" of the varying "faith" communities, especially that precious "solo scriptura" bunch. These people are f*cking unbelievable to me. They are actually *serious* when they critique a bunch of stuff THEY'VE NEVER ACTUALLY READ. How stupid do you have to be to think that you can be taken seriously when you critique stuff YOU'VE NEVER ACTUALLY READ???????????? I mean, really, has the author of this silly book actually READ and critically analyzed Marx or Sartre or Camus?? How about read them in their original languages so as to glean meaning not apparent in the English translation which fails to capture many of the double entendres (especially Sartre and Camus)? No? Well, then I guess he needs to seriously STFU.

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Rant over. For now.

So....... how bout them Cowboys??? :D

Posted 2 years ago #
Brian M
Member

Heck...can't say my dad was in any way "domineering" or fear inspiring. And look at me now. LOL

Posted 2 years ago #
UrsaMinor
Member

@LRA-

Well, to be fair, every story must have an underlying premise which it then sets out to prove, or else it isn't really a story. And that premise is entirely up to the author. This guy obviously has something that he is burning to say to the world, and he's chosen fiction as the vehicle. I think it's fair to say that you're not his target audience.

That said, there's no excuse for failing to provide the OTHER necessary elements of a story, like the aforementioned plot, conflict, and drama. Lectures and preaching occur in fiction all the time- sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. Sometimes the author is doing it consciously; other times the author's worldview just insinuates itself into the work without any conscious intent. I think that in most successful works, this is done consciously (and subtly) when it is done at all. A good author is aware of and in control of that.

There's nothing to say that a story can't be a well-written one, and still piss you off with its assumptions. It simply means that you and the author aren't on the same wavelength- it's back to that whole "target audience" thing.

This guy doesn't sound like he's truly interested in creative writing, though. He sounds like he's interested only in preaching, in which case he's in the wrong class.

Posted 2 years ago #
LRA
Member

True, but the voice in the story was preachy. The kid was preachy. The father was preachy (and an asshole), and so the whole piece wasn't about human experience or the expression of it in an artwork, it was a dialogue-- and a bad one at that. This guy is no Plato.

My opinion is that characters or even the narrator may have thoughts and beliefs that are expressed in a piece but that the author should be invisible. If you can see the author's fingerprints all over it (in short, that he failed in his world-making and you are not transported to the world of that fiction piece), then why bother to read it at all? If I dislike an author, I want to do so for technical reasons. Otherwise, I'll dislike a character for certain thoughts or beliefs, but not necessarily the author. Does that make sense?

Posted 2 years ago #
UrsaMinor
Member

He's no C.S. Lewis, either, from the sound of it. Now there's a man who could write screed! I thoroughly enjoyed Lewis's books like the Chronicles of Narnia and Out of the Silent Planet, even though they were nothing but Christian propaganda.

Posted 2 years ago #
LRA
Member

Yeah... exactly. The Christian references weren't so subtle, but they were entirely within the tradition of allusion/allegory. If one knew nothing of Christianity, one could still enjoy the story and the world in which it takes place.

Posted 2 years ago #
Siberia
Member

Funny, I don't even HAVE a dad, though when I did he was far from domineering.
I wish I was promiscuous, too. Really.

Posted 2 years ago #
Eudaimonist
Member

Is this like a twisted response to Freud's silly idea that all believers were just longing for a perfect father?

Posted 2 years ago #
Joe B
Member

"domineering" Nope
"abusive" Nope
"God their fathers represented to them" Nope

0/3. I can't remember a single word my father every told me about religion, or any cues at to what he did believe.

Posted 2 years ago #
LRA
Member

Hey! Nope is neither domineering nor abusive!!!!!!

:P

Posted 2 years ago #
Joe B
Member

Oh, and on preachy/lack of subtly writing. If you are good you can be straightforward (though if you're bad you're options are probably only being straightforward or clumsily hiding the message), just finished "Breakfast of Champions" and loved how absolutely blunt Vonnegut was.

Posted 2 years ago #
raptor not rapture
Member

My dad is the coolest guy ever. He's nice to everyone and fun and was a very caring and loving father. Guess what, he doesn't go to church either.

Posted 2 years ago #
Yoav
Member

where he claims atheists are
sexually promiscuous: I would if I could find women willing to be promiscous with me.
depressed: While I'm not the most cheerful person I know it's not even close to depression.
insatiable hard workers: Is that suppose to be a bad thing?
attracted to the occult: Hell no.
and had fanatic tendencies: Only when exposed to fundies.
And my dad is anything but abusive and domineering.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kodie
Member

Sexually promiscuous: no.
Depressed: sometimes
Insatiable hard worker: mostly no; depends on the task
Attracted to the occult: I think it's a normal teenage phase, but it passed.
Fanatic tendencies: mostly no - and I'm not really sure what this means. I get enthusiastic about very few things but not to the point of fanaticism. My praise is very hard won. I am Mikey from the Life cereal commercial - I hate everything (except what I don't hate). I hate to like things too much, even when I do like them. (That may be weird). I don't really hate everything, that's not the same as not liking everything. It's just like atheism is not the same as satanism.

My father, no. My mother, yes. Is atheism a fear of my mother? (Does this guy have problems with reversed gender stereotypes? Yes) If she's responsible for making me an atheist faster than I would have otherwise, it's because she was real about stuff when it mattered - she didn't put a coat of sugar on anything, ever.

Posted 2 years ago #
Ty
Moderator

Sexually promiscuous: married and scrupulously faithful for 20 years
Depressed: pretty much never
Insatiable hard worker: I am, in fact, one of the laziest people I know
Attracted to the occult: Does playing D&D occasionally count?
Fanatic tendencies: Nope, I ditched fanaticism when I became an atheist. I think someone is projecting again. . .

Posted 2 years ago #
Revyloution
Member

sexually promiscuous: Married and faithful for 16 years

depressed: Quite the opposite. People often compliment me on my cheerful disposition

insatiable hard workers: I do tend to be obsessive about doing a good job and working hard, but I have no problem deciding when to stop and go play with the kid.

attracted to the occult: Occult? Like Catholicism? Or astrology? Nah, never went with that stuff.

fanatic tendencies: Er... Im not to fanatical about anything.

Fear of domineering and abusive fathers: hardly, my dad (atheist and Vietnam veteran) was anything but abusive or domineering. Quite the opposite.

One out of six is pretty pathetic, and I'd hardly call being a hard worker a fault. I think I'll call this myth DEBUNKED!

Posted 2 years ago #
Mark the Pilgrim
Member

Sexually promiscuous: Only ever been sexually active with one person and that person is *still* my girlfriend of two years.
Depressed: Never.
Insatiable hard worker: I wish I was. Honestly.
Attracted to the occult: No. That's something I disdain with a passion.
Fanatic tendencies: Nope. That's pretty broad anyway.
Fear of domineering and abusive fathers: My father was a very quiet man. I don't think during the time he was alive we ever had an argument.

So if I'm the total opposite of what an atheist should be, what does that make me? A Catholic?

Posted 2 years ago #
Custador
Moderator

Sexually promiscuous: Somewhere around twenty sexual partners in the first ten years of being sexually active followed by the last five years of happy monogamy. Doesn't seem that promiscuous to me.

Depressed: Sadly, yes. Inheritted a genetic thing from Pappy and Grand Pappy, have to be periodically medicated - but I'm well aware of it and it's very well controlled. The Ed. Psych. who diagnosed me with dyspraxia this week thinks it's connected to that.

Insatiable hard worker: Oh hells no! I'm a lazy bum, unless it's work I enjoy like being on a ward. Then I do work hard, but hardly insatiably.

Fanatic tendencies: What, as opposed to blind faith in an invisible Sky Daddy, he means?! Hardly!

Fear of a domineering and abusive father: My father was both, but I certainly don't fear him!

So.... I'm half an atheist?

Posted 2 years ago #
Mark the Pilgrim
Member

Agnostic. Pick a side. Quit sitting on the fence.

Posted 2 years ago #
Custador
Moderator

I'd better be a Christian then, or I might start sleeping around again. Or something.

Posted 2 years ago #
WarbVIII
Member

Sexually promiscous...I was I stopped counting at 120 partners(though I blame that on a step mother who said I was to much like my father and would never get laid...he's on his 7th wife right now) but have been faithfull since marriage 7 years ago Dec 25th.
Depressed no,definitely not clinically, clinically bored perhaps.
Sometimes, as in occasionally lasting for a few years...then well not giving a crap as far as any work goes so that comes and goes,lol
I am fanatically loyal to the Cleveland Browns(yet I don't go out of my way to do so...) so fanatical overall probably not the Browns thing is more likely a sign of general insanity.
Kind of was afraid of my dad when real young,I suppose he could be described as dominerring somewhat,vaugely. Since 15 afraid of him no,the one and only time I saw him raise his hand to one of his wives(no he has not had them,any of them at the same time) I stepped in and he stopped....instead of hitting her...and in that case he was likely right to do so..as she had started the physical portion of the argument,at least the part I saw.

Yes I am an atheist I just don't fit his definitions.

Posted 2 years ago #
swmr1
Member

sexually promiscuous: nope. Married and faithful.
depressed: nope. Can be melancholy at times but mostly upbeat.
insatiably hard worker: yes. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. Which is probably one reason mission work didn't work for me. Hardly anyone on staff with my christian organization knew the meaning of hard work.
attracted to the occult: nope.
fanatic tendencies: if so, that is likely what fueled my 10+ year stint as an evangelical. Thankfully, I cared too much about finding truth to be hoodwinked for longer that that.

Posted 2 years ago #
WarbVIII
Member

oops forgot occult tendancies....as someone above asked(Ty I think) does D&D count?

Posted 2 years ago #

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The Atheist Syndrome: A Psychopathology of Unbelief (WTF?!)

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