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How to ruin a perfectly good muffin.
Feb. 28th, 2007 09:54 amLast night between work and trivia I stopped by the Atlanta Bread Company (for those of you in the northern or western United States, or not in the US at all, Atlanta Bread Company is a chain--I haven't relocated) for a chocolate chip muffin and to use their WiFi for an hour or so.
While sitting there, minding my own business, a group of folks slowly trickled in and sat in a circle around the fireplace, chatting and introducing themselves and giving out handouts. I had headphones in, and was staring at a laptop screen, so they mostly ignored me, although for a group gathered around a fireplace, none of them seemed capable of using an indoor voice. At six thirty one of them stood up and addressed the group:
"We're here for our discussion group on Paul Vitz's Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism," he announced, then introduced the next speaker, who explained that the fundamental tenet of the book was that atheism had a relationship, somehow, with having either a weak, abusive, or absent father, and that the disappointment with the lack of a positive guiding force led to the rejection of the notion of God. The author's example case studies included Freud, Neitzche, Hitler, and Stalin, which seems to me to indicate he examined people for whom atheism was the least of their psychological problems. I wasn't participating in the discussion, though.
Then the discussion group broke into an argument over semantics. What is atheism? What is agnosticism? What is God? The Atlanta Bread Company closes at 8, and while I left early, based on the path the discussion was following I doubt they got much of anywhere.
I gave it a little thought over the rest of the evening as we were getting our asses handed to us at trivia. I'm not an atheist, and have a relatively healthy relationship with my Dad, who did an admirable job of child-rearing. I know a couple of atheists online (precious few in real life, living as I do in the World Wrestling Championship Bible Belt), but I have no idea about their paternal relationships. Still, it seems a very narrow view, and VERY Western-focused. The author would appear to have a giant axe to grind with Freud, and therefore ignores completely the course of polytheistic history in favor of embracing the Judeo-Christian-Muslim concept of God, mostly because that God was the one rejected by his examples.
But then I remembered Godwin's Law, and realized that it didn't merit further consideration.
While sitting there, minding my own business, a group of folks slowly trickled in and sat in a circle around the fireplace, chatting and introducing themselves and giving out handouts. I had headphones in, and was staring at a laptop screen, so they mostly ignored me, although for a group gathered around a fireplace, none of them seemed capable of using an indoor voice. At six thirty one of them stood up and addressed the group:
"We're here for our discussion group on Paul Vitz's Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism," he announced, then introduced the next speaker, who explained that the fundamental tenet of the book was that atheism had a relationship, somehow, with having either a weak, abusive, or absent father, and that the disappointment with the lack of a positive guiding force led to the rejection of the notion of God. The author's example case studies included Freud, Neitzche, Hitler, and Stalin, which seems to me to indicate he examined people for whom atheism was the least of their psychological problems. I wasn't participating in the discussion, though.
Then the discussion group broke into an argument over semantics. What is atheism? What is agnosticism? What is God? The Atlanta Bread Company closes at 8, and while I left early, based on the path the discussion was following I doubt they got much of anywhere.
I gave it a little thought over the rest of the evening as we were getting our asses handed to us at trivia. I'm not an atheist, and have a relatively healthy relationship with my Dad, who did an admirable job of child-rearing. I know a couple of atheists online (precious few in real life, living as I do in the World Wrestling Championship Bible Belt), but I have no idea about their paternal relationships. Still, it seems a very narrow view, and VERY Western-focused. The author would appear to have a giant axe to grind with Freud, and therefore ignores completely the course of polytheistic history in favor of embracing the Judeo-Christian-Muslim concept of God, mostly because that God was the one rejected by his examples.
But then I remembered Godwin's Law, and realized that it didn't merit further consideration.
