This story was written by author and apologist Lee Strobel. It appears in the latest issue of his email newsletter, Investigating Faith with Lee Strobel. You can sign up to receive Investigating Faith here.
Two findings emerged in a new national poll that I commissioned on fatherhood and faith: the younger the generation, the more people report having difficult relationships with their fathers. At the same time, the younger generation reports the highest percentage of people who are struggling with belief in God.
I’m wondering: are these findings related?
The poll itself can’t prove or disprove a direct correlation between those findings. Certainly, there are a lot of factors that influence a person’s belief in God. But in my case — and in many others I’ve seen through the years — a person’s relationship with their earthly father can influence whether they’ll be receptive to a heavenly Father.
I commissioned the Barna Group to conduct the poll in conjunction with my new book, The Case for Grace, in which themes of faith and fatherhood are intertwined. In the book, which came out this week, I describe my own rocky relationship with my dad, which was one of the factors that moved me toward spiritual skepticism. I was an atheist for much of his life, until a nearly two-year investigation of the evidence for Christianity prompted me to become a Christian in 1981.
Among the findings of the poll:
• The younger the responder, the more likely they are to report difficulties in their relationship with their fathers. Among the Elder generation (ages 69 and up), 15 percent said they had a poor or below average relationship with their dad while growing up. For Baby Boomers (ages 50-68), the number was 17 percent; for Gen X (ages 31-49), it was 22 percent. And for Millennials (ages 18-30), the number grew to 26 percent — or one in four.
• More than one-third of Millennials are struggling with belief in God, compared with one-quarter of Gen X and one-fifth of Baby Boomers and Elders. Put another way, 62 percent of Millennials are certain God exists, compared with 74 percent of Gen X, 82 percent of Boomers, and 79 percent of Elders.
So two findings can be identified. First, a higher percentage of Millennials report having subpar relationships with their fathers than previous generations. And second, a higher percentage of Millennials are uncertain or doubtful that God exists, compared to older Americans. While this particular survey can’t establish for sure whether there’s a correlation, I think these findings are definitely worth further exploration.
Some findings by other researchers are also relevant:
• In his book Faith of the Fatherless, psychologist Paul Vitz of New York University showed that many well-known atheists through history — including Friedrich Nietzsche, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Schopenhauser, Ludwig Feuerbach, Baron D’Holbach, Volatire, H.G. Wells, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and others — felt abandoned or deeply disappointed with their fathers.
“That a child’s psychological representation of his father is intimately connected to his understanding of God was assumed by Freud and has been rather well developed by a number of psychologists, especially psychoanalysts,” said Vitz. “In other words, an atheist’s disappointment in and resentment of his own father unconsciously justifies his rejection of God.”
• In the 2014 book Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down Across Generations, published by Oxford University Press, Vern L. Bengtson and his coauthors found that for religious transmission through generations, “fervent faith cannot compensate for a distant dad.” He found that “a father who is an exemplar, a pillar of the church, but doesn’t provide warmth and affirmation to his kid does not have kids who follow him in his faith.”
While my dad provided for our family and was a good father in many respects, we never really connected emotionally. In our case, there was always a distance between us.
In fact, The Case for Grace opens with a confrontation in which my dad finally declared, “I don’t have enough love for you to fill my little finger.” At the age of 18, I stormed out of the house, intending never to return — and unwittingly launching a life-long quest for grace.
My new book puts together the puzzle pieces of grace. I traveled thousands of miles to capture the inspiring stories of people whose lives have been radically transformed by God, with each story shining light on a different facet of grace. Included are prodigal sons, addicts, and even murderers who have found new hope and purpose. It’s my hope that readers will see how God’s grace can revolutionize their own eternity and relationships.
The poll included 1,001 telephone interviews conducted among a representative, nationwide sample of adults ages 18 and older. The interviews were conducted from August 25 through September 10, 2014. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The cooperation rate was 78 percent.
This post has been slightly edited from its original published form.
Lent is the 40-day part of the church liturgical calender leading to Easter, and millions of Christians around the world mark this season with prayer, Scripture reading, and acts of self-denial—all aimed at drawing closer to Christ by reflecting on the message of Easter.
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