Implications of Vitz's "Defective Father" Hypothesis for the Intergenerational Transmission of Religious Belief in South Asia

Abstract:

Two related and oft-repeated criticisms of religion are that it promotes regressive sexual mores and patriarchal archetypes. Such criticisms are not very surprising, considering that apex deities in each of the world’s three largest religions—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—are all portrayed as male, and each of these religions frown upon non-marital sexual relationships. But this raises a question: why are the world’s most successful religions more patriarchal and less sexually “liberated” than society at large? This article suggests that promotion of marriage and of patriarchal archetypes may be crucial to the transmission of religious values from one generation to the next, as Freudian “Father Complex” theory holds that a healthy relationship with a father is a critical factor in the formation of religious belief. The article provides evidence that, consistent with Vitz’s “Defective Father” hypothesis of atheism, a rise in out-of-wedlock births is highly correlated with a rise in irreligiosity in the United States. The article concludes that this finding could have implications for Islam and Hinduism, and suggests that future studies conducted in India (a religiously-pluralistic, Hindu-majority nation) and Bangladesh (a religiously-pluralistic, Muslim-majority nation) would complement existing research conducted in the United States (a religiously-pluralistic, Christian-majority nation).