Quote from volente_00:
sorry stu,
there have been scientific studies showing the correlation
it is what it is
"In relation to the Oedipal desire, psychoanalysis suggests that when oneâs father is absent or so weak as to die, or so untrustworthy as to desert, then it becomes easy for that person to place his hostile attitude towards his earthly father on his heavenly Father. The evidence for this theory involves the linkage between atheismâs greatest philosophers and their poor fatherly relationships. For example, Diderot was an avowed atheist-indeed he is one of the founding brothers of modern atheism. Yet Freud made an insightful comment concerning him: "if the little savage were left to himself, preserving all his foolishness and adding to the small sense of a child in the cradle the violent passions of a man of thirty, he would strangle his father and lie with his mother (Le neveau de Rameau 331). Although Voltaire was not an atheist, he did not accept the existence of a Personal God. He also strongly rejected his father-so much that he rejected his father's name and took the name "Voltaire." Sigmund Freud's father was also was a poor role model for Freud. Specifically, his father was a weak man unable to financially provide for his family, and Freud writes that his father was a sexual pervert. Karl Marx also made it clear that he didn't respect his father. Ludwig Feuerbach's, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and Baron d'Holbach are other examples of atheistic intellectuals who had poor relationships with their fathers. In addition, the most prominent atheists in more recent times are Bertrand Russell's, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre's, and all of them lived most of their lives knowing their fathers had died. Although the theory is far from being a universal representation of unconscious motivation, it appears to be an undeniable factor in motivating atheistic belief."
