For Atheists; a serious question...?

Question

This is for atheists only. I was having a discussion with a colleague of mine tonight and he stated that: "I am fatherless...as most atheists are." He then expanded his statement by saying this "Most atheists have a weak father figure, no father figure, or a SOB as a father figure". I was very startled by his theory. I do not know what to make of it, as I have never considered such a thing.

My question to you is,
1. How was your relationship with your father/father figure?

2. Among those that are atheists that you have among your circle would you could their relationship c father/father figure as poor?

3. Though he cited quite a few historical accounts of poor father/father figures and athiests, please assist me in citing those that had decent, good fathers and STILL atheists. I could only come up with one: Karl Marx.

Reposted due to Yahoo eating previous post.

Answer 1

Hmm. This seems like a pretty weak "theory".

I think that a solid father is generally important to one growing up to become an effective mature adult, and therefore it's clear that atheists should in general have had good relationships with their fathers. I did. It sounds like your colleague is suggesting that atheists somehow overcame bad parenting. But without any evidence that atheists really did have bad fathers, I don't see any point in pursuing the theory.

If it were to turn out that atheists did generally have these kinds of problems, it could be that they were forced by those circumstances to mature abnormally quickly, or to take extra responsibility, thus leading to the achievement of atheism.

Answer 2

I'm not an athiest, and I never had a father figure...hmm.....