Oh, now I understand why I don’t believe in an all powerful invisible daddy in the sky who in spite of his perfect goodness allows his children to suffer horribly and for no good reason — it’s because I hate my dad! “Professor” Paul C. Vitz tells us all about it in “The Psychology of Atheism“, published at Leadership U, a site run by Christian Leadership Ministries, which is the faculty arm of Campus Crusade for Christ.

…the Oedipus complex is unconscious, it is established in childhood and, above all, its dominant motive is hatred of the father and the desire for him not to exist, especially as represented by the desire to overthrow or kill the father. Freud regularly described God as a 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 and replace him with oneself. To act as if God does not exist is an obvious, not so subtle disguise for a wish to kill Him, much the same way as in a dream, the image of a parent going away or disappearing can represent such a wish: “God is dead” is simply an undisguised Oedipal wish-fulfillment….

And, of course, the Oedipal dream is not only to kill the father and possess the mother or other women in the group but also to displace him. Modern atheism has attempted to accomplish this. Now man, not God, is the consciously specified ultimate source of goodness and power in the universe. Humanistic philosophies glorify him and his “potential” much the same way religion glorifies the Creator. We have devolved from one God to many gods to everyone a god. In essence, man — through his narcissism and Oedipal wishes — has tried to succeed where Satan failed, by seating himself on the throne of God. Thanks to Freud it is now easier to understand the deeply neurotic, thoroughly untrustworthy psychology of this unbelief.

Well, gosh, doesn’t that seem way more plausible than just noticing that, you know, the evidence all goes against the existence of God?

And I love my mom, Paulie, but, um, not like that — got it?