Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Years ago, at a Christian college, I took a course in Christian Philosophy . I don’t remember much from the textbook but I do recall the title of another book, Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell. Looking back, I wondered why the professor chose such a text for a course in a highly conservative college. Was he trying to prepare us to challenge the author? Was he struggling with his own faith? Spiritual Struggle / Bing Free to use/share Arguably, the leading atheist of recent decades is the biologist Richard Dawkins . Following the 911 attacks on America, Dawkins and his atheist friends published several challenges to religion. A best seller, The God Delusion , caught my attention. After all, as a psychologist, I know something about delusions. And as one who studies and writes about the psychology of religion, I wondered what might be new in this arena—new since Russell, that is. Five Things Christians Can Learn From Atheists I’ve written an academic ...

Coventry Cathedral 2002/ by Geoff W. Sutton On a cold winter’s day Sarah sat across from me in the restaurant and declared, “I’m an atheist.” We were at a conference and her friends had left to go somewhere—I forget where. Sarah is a brilliant young woman with a bright future. I don’t know her well but she made some good points during a conference presentation. She knows I write about the psychology of religion so I’ve asked her about her opinions. Sarah was raised as an Evangelical Christian—a bit on the fundamentalist spectrum, I guess. She doesn’t like the Old Testament—too much murder, too many rules. I ask about the “Sermon on the Mount.” She thinks that’s ok. She likes Jesus’ moral teaching. She’s left of center politically and socially. She’s about to graduate from a Christian university. Somewhere along the line she lost her faith. She’s not come out as an atheist—except to a few people. She’s aware of the risks. She can’t doubt outloud. Her litany of complaints focus ...

THE FLAMING RHETORIC OF RIGHTS How many similarities do you need to link one rights movement with another? Freedom for U.S. slaves was a lengthy process and even after they were emancipated, civil rights were not codified in law until a century later. A key word here is law because attitudes are slow to change even when laws set limits on behavior. The battle against racism continues. Leaders supporting and opposing same-sex marriage and other rights and protections for sexual minorities have referred to the civil rights movement. Some assert similarities. Others point to differences. The statements are often intensified by emotional rhetoric shrunken to bite-sized statements suitable for T-shirts and video clips. The civil rights arguments are not just academic because the reasons come with powerful emotions attached. One can easily imagine students being asked to write an essay about the subject. And I can imagine some professors having a difficult time gradin...

How are children raised in religious homes different from those raised in secular homes? A friend of mine once told me he warned his son about declaring himself to be an atheist on the internet. My friend was raised in a Christian home but gave it up along the way. Now he is an atheist but kept it quiet. Being an atheist has career and personal costs in the U.S. But atheists and agnostics have become better known in recent years. Still, my friend kept his silence whilst his son braved whatever discrimination might come his way. Atheistic and theistic worldviews can be quite different and in conflict. A substantial percentage of U.S. children are exposed to Christianity at home, in church, and in schools. They learn Bible stories. And they read fictional stories –both secular and religious. The Bible contains many stories that delight children when illustrated in pictures and movies. But the stories contain fantastic events not seen in daily life. Kathleen Corrivea...

Christian Counseling &Beliefs I’m on a quest to better understand the concept, Christian Counseling . And I’m interested in the Christian beliefs and practices of counselors and clients. I wonder if there is a significant relationship between counselor and client Christian beliefs and practices, Christian interventions, and treatment outcomes. The criteria for identifying counseling as Christian are imprecise . A comprehensive conceptual definition is doomed to failure at this point. An operational definition is crucial to comparing findings across research studies that purport to add something of value to an understanding of Christian Counseling. But operational definitions can be too narrow when attempting to be sufficiently inclusive. I suggest a feature list approach to defining Christian Counseling and Psychotherapy . I approach this conceptualization from the notion of Wittgenstein’s family resemblance . Here’s my current take on Christian Counseling criter...

UNBELIEVING  CLERGY The clergyproject.org People convert to faith and people lose faith. But what happens when clergy lose their faith? Last year (2014) I posted an article about conversions, deconversions, and transformations . In December, Philosopher Daniel Dennett and Clinical Social Worker, Linda LaScola reported the results of their qualitative study of 35 clergy and seminary students who lost their faith. The title of the book, Caught in the Pulpit , captures the dilemma. Who did they study? All of the participants were Caucasian Americans.  Most were clergy with pulpit ministries (27) but some were in seminary (5 students, 3 professors). There were Jewish Rabbis but the rest were Catholic or Protestant Christian clergy. There were men (30) and women (5) from theologically conservative and liberal denominations. The authors use the word literal to refer to fundamentalist groups. By literal they mean religious groups that view the Biblical text as in...