Pillar
#4: "God is Created in the Image of Man"
Well, we made it! This is the last post in my series of
Secular Fundamentalism and I pray that you really learned something about this
dangerous religious movement that cleverly disguises itself as a "secular
tolerant non-religious" movement. This final post is really important to
understand as we get to the emotional reasons for the rejection of Father God
which has led to the worship of Mother Earth in His place.
The Faith of The Fatherless
The one thing about humanity that
drives the secular fundamentalist crazy is the fact that human beings, in spite
of the increase in education, are incurably religious. If one posits a purely atheistic
outlook on life then one would suppose that man created religion for some
evolutionary survival purpose.
From a secular standpoint this makes perfect sense given their view that
no god exists for any religion to be true about. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis and one of the
most influential scientists of the twentieth century,[1] provided a
psychological argument on why there is the existence of religion that he tied
to Darwinian evolution.
Freud argued that the concept of
God originated during the ignorant period of human development and
psychologically is tied to an illusionary desire to have a cosmic father figure
to comfort us during the woes of life.[2]
Freud based this on his clinical observations that showed a child’s
ambivalence (i.e., strong negative and strong positive feelings) toward his or
her father. What Freud seemed to
miss is that this sword cuts both ways.
If the strong positive feelings toward the father can cause a projection
of one’s desire for a protective father figure god to exist, then one can
reason that the strong negative feelings could cause a deep-seated wish
projection of a cosmic father figure god not to exist.[3]
Moreover, one can more effectively
argue that the negative side of this ambivalence is even more influential than
the positive side!!! Imagine if
you will the child, especially the boy, who has a physically absent, or
sometimes even worse, physically present but emotionally absent father during
the critical time in life that we know as childhood. In addition to the normal emotional needs of children during
childhood, there is an early emotional developmental stage that only occurs in
boys between the ages of three and five that was not known in Freud’s day. This first crisis in male child
development is known as ‘disconnection and differentiation’ and is the process
by which a little boy emotionally disconnects from his mother and begins to
move more emotionally toward his father.[4] In an effort to formulate a masculine identity, the child
recognizes during this stage of development that he is not like his mother but
more like his father. It is not at
all unusual during this time to find the little boy trying to emulate his
father’s behavior and mannerisms.[5]
When the father is absent during this time the boy is left behind to
virtually pull his masculine identity out of thin air.[6] Using Freud’s own theory of the Oedipus
complex, the negative consequences of an absent or abusive father during these
years would cause an intense desire for a father god to not exist.
Paul Vitz, a professor of
psychology at New York University, makes the case that the negative side of
this ambivalence is exactly what led some of the most famous atheists in the
world to desire that God not exist, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul
Sartre, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, and you guessed it, Sigmund Freud
himself. In his book Faith of theFatherless, Professor Vitz postulates “the defective father hypothesis” as a
theory to explain what he refers to as intense atheism:
"Yet in postulating a
universal Oedipus complex as the origin of all of our neuroses, Freud
inadvertently developed a straightforward rationale for understanding the
wish-fulfilling origin of the rejection of God. After all, the Oedipus complex is unconscious, it is
established in childhood, and above all its dominant motive is hatred of the
father (God) and the desire for him not to exist, something represented by the
boy’s desire to overthrow or kill the father. Freud regularly described God as the psychological
equivalent to the father, and so a natural expression of Oedipal motivation
would be powerful, unconscious desires for the nonexistence of God. Therefore, in the Freudian framework,
atheism is an illusion caused by the Oedipal desire to kill the father (God)
and replace him with oneself. . . .The belief that “God is dead,” therefore, is
simply a Oedipal wish-fulfillment—the sign of seriously unresolved unconscious
motivation."[7]
In summary, by Freud’s own
scientific model, an atheist who is left disappointed and resentful of his
father has an unconscious justification for his rejection of God.[8] This is the type of atheism that I
would say lies under the surface of the Secular Fundamentalists of our day who
are trying to "kill the Father" and His views most evident in
historical Christianity. So, reflect a moment on a friend, a leader in the
world, or even your own view of your earthly father and how that has fueled a
possible irrational belief that God does not exist. The cure is to simply allow God the Father to re-father you
all over again. Begin first by
taking the tools of Faith & Reason and check out this letter from me to
you.
Click this link to my letter
Secular Fundamentalism Series
Conclusion
The atheistic foundation and four
pillars of secular fundamentalism hold up the rest of the secular house of our
society that is being constructed with the blueprints of the humanist
manifestoes. Furthermore, the
media frames the way that the debate is presented to the public because they
themselves have been involved in building this secular temple. The media levies the straw man fallacy
by only focusing on the religious beliefs of the theistic scientists and
philosophers that are crowded outside of this secular temple. As an example, Richard Dawkins has
never been asked about how his secular faith shapes his scientific views. After all, Dr. Dawkins is one of the
signers of Humanist Manifesto 2000; thus, he has made his faith public.
The four pillars of secular
fundamentalism that hold the load of the secular house of our society has
severe cracks that are beyond repair.
The shifting in the foundation of atheism has caused enough cracks in
them to condemn the house and it is time to begin building again, but this time
on a new theistic foundation. The
new fideism of a dichotomy between faith and reason has proved to be
unreasonable and begging the question. The very scientific methods and first principles that the
secularists used to propose the ‘death of God’ are the very same tools that are
bringing Him back to life, one might even call it a resurrection. The first principles of all rational
thought that science itself relies on have proved useful in reasoning back to a
universe that has a beginning; moreover, the Beginner of the universe has been
shown by the evidence to be an intelligent cause. Bringing something into existence out of nothing makes miracles
a reality, for creating something out of nothing is the greatest miracle of
all. If that were not enough, the
psychological evidence points to wish-fulfillment of the atheist desiring God
not to exist.
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Building men of virtue in a culture of
vice,
Peter P. Lackey, Jr.
Founder, Man's Ultimate Challenge
"It is essential to a virtue to be about the difficult and the
good" - Thomas
Aquinas
[1] Associate clinical professor of
psychiatry Dr. Armand Nicholi lists in his book The Question of God some
fascinating facts that highlight Freud’s enormous influence on the
secularization of our culture. The
list is as follows: He appears on most lists of the greatest physicians in
history; he is ranked sixth in a book on the hundred most influential
scientists; and, some scholars refer to the twentieth century as “the century
of Freud”; he appeared on the cover of Time next to Einstein for an issue
dedicated to the greatest scientific minds of the century; and his photo even
appears on Austrian currency.
[2] Geisler, “Freud, Sigmund” in
Apologetics., 264.
[3] Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., The
Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and The
Meaning of Life, (New York: The Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 2002), 46.
[4] Dr. James Dobson, Bringing Up
Boys, (Wheaton, Illionois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 58.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Paul C. Vitz, Faith of the
Fatherless, (Dallas, Texas: Spence Publishing Company, 2000), 13.
[8] Ibid., 16.
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