Date

4-29-2026

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Apologetics (PhD)

Chair

Benjamin C. Shaw

Keywords

Atheists, atheism, emotions, disbelief, skepticism, fatherless, doubts, intellectualization, culture, evangelism, belief, faith, parenthood

Disciplines

Practical Theology | Psychology

Abstract

The lack of sufficient evidence has been signaled by atheists as the main reason for their disbelief, identifying arguments such as God’s silence and the problem of evil as intellectual reasons against the existing of God and the plausibility of Christianity. While Christians found in arguments from Natural Theology, Scripture, morality, and the like, reliable sources in order to recognize God’s wonders and purpose for humanity, for atheists it seems that no argument seem sufficient neither rational. But what about if these so-called intellectual reasons are the product of an underlying emotional condition, affecting negatively the way atheists reason the evidence available.

There is no doubt that emotions are an important aspect of human rationality, helping individuals when exercising judgments and making decisions. If emotions are part of evaluative judgments, it will be crucial to know how they could affect the appraisal of religious ideas. It seems that the strong attached value individuals grant to religious and political ideas among others, could be affected by the experience of pleasant and unpleasant feelings, what Psychology describes as emotional valence.

Emotions do not take place in a cognitive vacuum detached from experience, but are the result of collective events, knowledge, and assumptions, motivating the individual’s judgment to be directed in a particular direction as the product of reflective thoughts, fostering or preventing the individual to respond in a particular way.

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