More and more, theists who take on atheists use this, that there must be some reason why they can't believe in god. As a tactic, its a smart one. But lets just take the blurb from the first post:
Most Atheists come from a family where the father was missing, dead, weak or abusive.
How one views God is directly related to how your relationship with your father was. If your father was distant than God will feel distant. If you hated your father, you will most likely have hatred for God.
This is an assertion, and since thedude is from NYU, I find it hard to believe he hasn't met a child with a father and mother who hasn't been raised as an atheist by atheists. It is freaking NYC....
It couldn't be that its a hatred for god, but the fact that god, as he is taught, doesn't exist?
Paul Vitz is also a Christian apologist, who insists on.... well, this is from his website www.paulvitz.com
It is the aim of this website to make available in on-line form the published works of Paul C. Vitz, Professor of Psychology at New York University, which address aspects of a Christianized psychology, that is, the integration of the two disciplines. In addition, the website will provide analyses of various contemporary issues in the light of Christian thought, e.g., textbooks, the future of universities, the directions of contemporary art and culture, and other topics.
So for atheists here, its good to realize he's already made up his mind about you if you don't believe in god, or are gay or lesbian. Instead of traditional psychology that endeavors to understand you first, and your reasons for or against god, what your sexuality is, and putting this as a part of the treatment, he already assumes certain things about you before even meeting you, all because of your professed religion (or lack thereof)
It's a poor mental health professional who diagnosis in such an important way without first meeting with the individual.
I understand that it is necessary to categorize and generalize. But this is junk science.
