Does Mental Illness Cause Atheism?

On a broadcast of Evidence for Faith, Keith and Kirk discussed a study from the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia called "Mentalizing Deficits Constrain Belief in a Personal God". It shows that people with a tendency toward mental disorders, especially autism, are more likely to be disbelievers. The more severe the autism, the stronger the disbelief.

Several projects attempt to determine the causes of atheism. There is probably no single cause, however. 

• Most atheists appear to be Caucasian adolescent males (which is not a surprise, considering the complaints of sexual harassment from the less numerous atheist females)
• A majority of atheists seem to have had bad or nonexistent relationships with their fathers
• A desire for attention
• Sociopath behavior (especially trolling, personal attacks, unhealthy amounts of time on the Internet in efforts to antagonize Christians)
• Further, it is seen in their irrational insistence on asserting their own "facts", such as "Children are born as atheists and learn theism", which is simply not true)
• Atheists have a higher suicide rate

The last three points, above, seem to emphasize the findings in the autism study.

Now I will take this out of the realm of scientific research and personal experience to apply it to spiritual matters.

There is a term that I learned a couple of years ago that is used in certain apologetics and theology circles. It is the "noetic effect of sin". Without getting too deep, I will just say it means that sin affects the entire person, including reasoning abilities as well as morality. This is most strongly emphasized in Romans 1.18-28, with the emphasis that "God gave them over". I have encountered people who are brilliant in some ways, but when it comes to anything related to God, Jesus, the Bible, salvation and so forth, they not only become antagonistic, but their reasoning abilities become nonexistent.

This is the spiritual version of "atheism causes brain damage". That is, the spiritual nature is continually damaged by rejection of and hatred for God. Their sin increases, they hate God more, commit more sin, their sin increases, other areas of life are impaired (especially reasoning)...

So, I think that perhaps both "atheism causes brain damage" and "autism impacts atheism" (I am using unrefined descriptions for simplicity and emphasis) are true. One feeds the other.

The only way out of this vicious circle is salvation through Jesus Christ. All have sinned (Romans 3.23) and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ (Romans 6.23). When someone humbles himself and says, "I am a sinner" and accepts Jesus Christ through faith, he becomes a new creation (2 Cor. 5.17) and receives new life (1 John 5.11-12).

While physical, emotional, psychological and sociological influences cannot be erased, they can be managed by becoming a new person in Jesus Christ.