This diary is in response to DarkSyde's "What It's Like To Be An Atheist." I doubt it'll garner the same kind of attention his piece did, and it doesn't need to. I'm willing to bet that atheists are far more familiar with religious perspectives than vice versa.
Still, there are a few things that you all should know, if you don't already.
- First among those is that we can't all speak for one another. A Hindu is not a Muslim is not a Jew is not a Christian, obviously. There are also considerable differences within individual religions. An Orthodox Jew is not a Conservative is not a Reform is not a Reconstructionist. And it just keeps working its way down the line: in the U.S., most Christian denominations are functionally congregational in their ecclesiology, which is just a fancy way of saying that each local church charts its own path. That's true of even supposedly monolithic organizations like the Roman Catholic church. And each congregation has a range of opinions, and each individual believer--well, let's just say that we're not even sure we can speak for ourselves sometimes. Long story short: we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tar us with the brush of Fred Phelps. He's a hateful sack of crap who just happens to call himself a "Christian." He doesn't speak for us, and no amount of lobbying or moral suasion is going to get him to allow us to speak for him.
- We're not stupid, we're not deluded, and we're not crazy. I have to admit, this one gets to me. I have a Master's degree from a very reputable institution, thank you very much. I am also someone who is certifiable: there's a piece of paper in a doctor's file somewhere that says I'm bipolar II, and just yesterday I got turned down for life insurance because of it. I find it more than a little insulting to be told that I'm crazy because I don't agree with some folks on some basic premises. No, I'm crazy because my brain chemistry doesn't work right. I believe because I've chosen to believe.
Now, let me make this very clear: what I heard DarkSyde saying was that it seems to him that religious people are all nuts; not that we are nuts. That's empirically verifiable, by the way. If you tested my ability to reason and track reality on say, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, I'd place somewhere in the middle compared to the general population, and so would you.
But the basic point here is that I don't think, as DarkSyde says, that's he's angry because he doesn't agree with me, and you shouldn't think we're mental because we don't agree with you.
- Speaking of disagreeing, we don't hate atheists, we just don't see eye-to-eye with them. I can appreciate that DS is receiving an avalanche of hate mail via the internets at the moment. But I at least am proud to call him a friend (a friendly acquaintance, at least). Many religious people have atheist or agnostic friends, and not nearly all of us think you all are going to hell. In fact, many of us find that kind of "evangelism" embarrassing at best, and offensive at worst.
Okay, DarkSyde is going to hell, but that's only because he appears to be a Pink Floyd fan.
- We don't hate gays and lesbians, either, though I can certainly understand how you'd get that impression. Personally, I find the homophobia in religion disturbing and offensive. I may be an exception on that; I know for certain that my denomination is much more gay-friendly than most. But there are people like me, a lot of them, and we're doing what we can.
- We're not all literalists. I don't believe that the Book of Genesis explains the origins of the universe, at least not in a modern scientific sense. I certainly don't believe that there was such a thing as Noah's Ark, a giant named Goliath, or that Joshua stopped the sun. These things are stories that attempt to make sense of history and the world around us, and they should be appreciated as such. Again, let me repeat that I can't speak for all my fellow believers. Some people do believe these things, but they're a pretty small minority.
Yes, yes, I know the polls say that a majority of Americans believe in a "guided process of creation," but what the hell does that mean? People have a magnificent ability to hold contradictory ideas in their heads. Scratch the surface, and you'll find that folks may say they believe in creationism, but when they're pushed on it, they don't really.
I worry about the folks who think dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time, though.
You might ask about God: isn't "he" a being somewhere, perhaps in the sky? Well, some people believe that. But some people believe, as St. Augustine did, that "God is like a principle." And how shall we prove that a theorem exists? Theism is not the same as believing in a physically embodied God. Nor is it the same as belief in supernatural forces, and that's where the analogy to Santa Claus or "sky fairies" breaks down. You can test for those things, and they don't exist, at least not to anyone's best knowledge.
- Casseroles are really, really neat. Jell-O with fruit inside it is also one of the highest forms of cooking known to man. If you're a Unitarian, coffee is necessary for life.
- For many, if not most, religious people belief is a given. I'm not thinking of a priori belief, though that's certainly part of it, so much as the sense that faith isn't useful. Which is to say, I don't believe because it's better than not believing. It doesn't get me anywhere, other than perhaps lowering my blood pressure. Even that gets cancelled out when I work in a congregation.
Let's face it: religious practice can be a real pain in the ass. You've got to get up early on Sunday morning, know all the secret handshakes and voodoo incantations, you have to wear funny clothes, you fast on certain days or avoid certain kinds of food altogether, you have to explain your beliefs to your neighbors and co-workers, who think you're a loon. Worst of all, you have to teach it to your kids.
And if you take it really, extra super seriously, you might have to make real sacrifices, up to and including your life.
So why do it? Because it needs to be done. If you don't feel that, you can't understand it, and I can't explain it. It's just there--in the same way that an atheist's sense of right and wrong is just there. That something seems intuitively obvious doesn't make it right, of course, but that cuts both ways. Perhaps you're right; perhaps there are no gods. Perhaps we ticked off Zeus somewhere a long time ago, and we've been paying for it ever since. There's just no way to know, and saying "isn't it obvious?" doesn't get anyone anywhere.
- Which brings us to the next point: faith is not a certainty, but a method. I have argued all along that there is nothing in this world that can remove from us the burden of choice. Religion, if it "does" anything beyond socialization, helps to structure the choices we inevitably face. You want to know why preachers get up every Sunday morning and talk about what people "should" believe until they're blue in the face? It's not because the people need to be led around on a nose ring. It's because they need--and want--to sharpen their understanding of the underlying values that will help them make decisions like how to raise their children, what sort of lifestyle they want to live, or what to do when Mom has a stroke. Half the time, we get up and sermonize, and the people tell us we're full of crap, anyway.
But faith is also an exploration of meaning in the world, in the same way that science is. I think this is why people say that "you have to have faith to be an atheist." For some religious folks, the idea that you can make sense out of the world without something to guide you makes little sense. I don't agree with that perspective, though I'll admit that I believe atheists have a little more input into their ways of making meaning than they sometimes admit. In any case, the stories and insights of religion are simply different ways of structuring meaning. Though there are certain precepts that are agreed upon by nearly everyone--sacrificing babies is wrong, no matter how you, er, slice it--to a large extent, no one system is particularly more moral than the next.
That's not to say that we can't express an opinion as to which system is better. I personally believe that Christianity makes the most sense out of the world. But I don't expect you to share that. If you don't agree, more power to you. You won't hear me saying that atheists shouldn't be allowed to hold elected office.
- Faith is not the opposite of action. I'll agree that religious people are sometimes more passive than they ought to be, but who isn't? But prayer, praise, and singing aren't "doing nothing," as I sometimes hear. They should at the very least be motivators to action. And action itself can be a form of prayer, as in Shaker furniture or when Rabbi Heschel said he felt his legs had prayed after he marched with Martin Luther King.
- We could be wrong.