The title of this paper, "The Psychology of Atheism," may seem strange. Certainly, my psychological colleagues have found it odd and even, I might add, a little disturbing. After all, psychology, since its founding roughly a century ago, has often focused on the opposite topic-namely the psychology of religious belief. Indeed, in many respects the origins of modern psychology are intimately bound up with the psychologists who explicitly proposed interpretations of belief in God.
William James and Sigmund Freud, for example, were both personally and professionally deeply involved in the topic. Recall The Will to Believe by James, as well as his still famous Varieties of Religious Experience. These two works are devoted to an attempt at understanding belief as the result of psychological, that is natural, causes. James might have been sympathetic to religion, but his own position was one of doubt and skepticism and his writings were part of psychology's general undermining of religious faith. As for Sigmund Freud, his critiques of religion, in particular Christianity, are well known and will be discussed in some detail later. For now, it is enough to remember how deeply involved Freud and his thought have been with the question of God and religion.
Given the close involvement between the founding of much of psychology and a critical interpretation of religion, it should not be surprising that most psychologists view with some alarm any attempt to propose a psychology of atheism. At the very least such a project puts many psychologists on the defensive and gives them some taste of their own medicine. Psychologists are always observing and interpreting others and it is high time that some of them learn from their own personal experience what it is like to be put under the microscope of psychological theory and experiment. Regardless, I hope to show that the psychological concepts used quite effectively to interpret religion are two- edged swords that can also be used to interpret atheism. Sauce for the believer is equally sauce for the unbeliever.
Before beginning, however, I wish to make two points bearing on the underlying assumption of my remarks. First, I assume that the major barriers to belief in God are not rational but-in a general sense- can be called psychological. I do not wish to offend the many distinguished philosophers-both believers and nonbelievers-in this audience, but I am quite convinced that for every person strongly swayed by rational argument there are many, many more affected by nonrational psychological factors.
The human heart-no one can truly fathom it or know all its deceits, but at least it is the proper task of the psychologist to try. Thus, to begin, I propose that neurotic psychological barriers to belief in God are of great importance. What some of these might be I will mention shortly. For believers, therefore, it is important to keep in mind that psychological motives and pressures that one is often unaware of, often lie behind unbelief.
One of the earliest theorists of the unconscious, St. Paul, wrote, "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it . . . I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind . . ." (Rom. 7:18, 23). Thus, it seems to me sound theology as well as sound psychology that psychological factors can be impediments to belief as well as behavior, and that these may often be unconscious factors as well. Further, as a corollary it is reasonable to propose that people vary greatly in the extent to which these factors are present in their lives. Some of us have been blessed with an upbringing, a temperament, social environment, and other gifts that have made belief in God a much easier thing than many who have suffered more or have been raised in a spiritually impoverished environment or had other difficulties with which to cope. Scripture makes it clear that many children-even into the third or fourth generation-suffer from the sins of their fathers, including the sins of fathers who may have been believers. In short, my first point is that some people have much more serious psychological barriers to belief than others, a point consistent with the scriptures' clear statement that we are not to judge others, however much we are called to correct evil. READ rest of article
The famous story of Helen Keller which became the play and movie The Miracle Worker, is recreated in reality with a mother and her autistic son. Tenacity is really the key to success in anything! This video shows a mother doing what science said couldn't be done.
The miracle that cured my son’s autism was in our kitchen
By Mackenzie Dawson
When a doctor told Susan Levin her 4-year-old son, Ben, was
autistic, she was shocked. It was October 2007, and autism wasn’t
mentioned in the media nearly as much as it is today.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God. What are we going to do?’ ” Levin
recalls. “Everyone knew autism was a lifelong disorder and couldn’t be
cured.”
Except that in Ben’s case, it could be. And it was.
The family’s journey — the many treatments tried and dismissed, from
biomedical interventions to speech therapy to occupational therapy and
more — is detailed in her new memoir, “Unlocked: A Family Emerging From the Shadows of Autism.”
Levin doesn’t call this particular cure a silver bullet for autism:
There is no silver bullet, no one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, she
credits his transformation to a number of things, including a home based
and child centered social-relational program called the Son-Rise
Program.
Enlarge ImageSusan
Levin, pictured above with son Ben, documents her family’s journey in
her memoir “Unlocked: A Family Emerging from the Shadows of Autism.”Tim Daley
But one of the biggest factors was what was on his plate.
“Hippocrates was right when he advised, ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,’ ” she says.
Levin is part of a growing group of people who are paying more
attention to diet — organic, gluten- and casein-free among them — as a
way to treat the symptoms of autism and other disorders. So strongly
does she believe in the healing possibilities of food that she’s now a
family wellness coach working exclusively with families of autistic
children.
While the scientific verdict is still out on diet as a cure,
statistics point to a definite link between gastrointestinal issues and
autism.
A 2012 study published by the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
found a direct link between GI issues and behavior. As many as 70
percent of children with autism have gastrointestinal issues at some
point during childhood or adolescence — and diarrhea, food sensitivity
and constipation can cause extreme discomfort, leading to irritability,
and erratic or withdrawn behavior.
But not everyone is convinced.
“Over the years I’ve been privy to a million parents, a million
cures,” says Andrew Baumann, president and CEO of New York Families for
Autistic Children. “Parents are willing to try just about anything.” And
while he concedes that diet can have a very positive effect, he just
doesn’t see it as a cure for autism: “You can’t cure something [when]
you don’t know what the cause is.”
Parents are willing to try just about anything. You can’t cure something [when] you don’t know what the cause is.
- Andrew Baumann, president and CEO of
New York Families for Autistic Children
Kathleen DiChiara begs to differ. The former Fortune 500 executive
was diagnosed with sudden onset neuropathy, which left her unable to
walk. When the doctors told her there was little to be done, she went
back to school to study. She’s now a nutrition educator, chef and
speaker who credits an all-organic diet for healing not only herself,
but her 11- year-old son, Steven, who’d been diagnosed as autistic but
is no longer considered to be.
Why are people resistant to the idea of food’s effect on illness?
“It’s socially inconvenient,” DiChiara says. “They’re already
struggling, and the idea of removing things from the diet is so
daunting. But it’s the difference between the children who get well and
the ones who don’t.”
Maria Rickert Hong, author of “Almost Autism: Recovering Children
From Sensory Processing Disorder,” credits a gluten-free, dairy-free
diet with the recovery of her two children from sensory-processing
disorder.
“In a child with neurodevelopment disorders, the brain is inflamed,
and the gut and the brain are connected,” Hong says. “Most of these kids
have gut dysbiosis — an imbalance of good versus bad bacteria, like
having too many weeds in your garden. When you have that, the body’s
immune system is off.”
Levin and her family initially started Ben on a gluten-free and
casein-free diet, later eliminating soy, corn, potatoes and rice. But as
soon as one offending food was removed, she says, a reaction to another
popped up. Then they tried the Body Ecology Diet, an anti-yeast diet high in
grain-like seeds such as amaranth, quinoa, millet and buckwheat. Almost
overnight, Ben calmed down and started making eye contact.
Now 12, Ben is studying for his bar mitzvah. Eight years after that
chilling diagnosis, he’s become more empathetic, frequently saying “I
love you” to his mother, his father and sister.
Levin says his newfound compassion is nothing short of a miracle.
“It doesn’t matter what people say,” says Levin. “I have my kid back.”
