In Praise of Atheism

                                                     IN PRAISE OF ATHEISM

My friend calls himself an atheist, I’m a Christian. Of course neither of us “are” those things, the words are just labels, handy handles employed to reveal a snippet about one dimension of our selves to anyone who might be interested.

He and I enjoy each other’s company and share many interests. He’s bright, articulate, has a quick mind and a mostly upright character, certainly as upright as mine.

Conventional expectations might assume that we hold radically different, incompatible, antithetical beliefs and spiritual values. Not so! The fact is we are more together on such matters than many who carry either of the two labels are with each other.

“Atheist” and “Christian” are both widely misunderstood and incorrectly used words. Even among those who apply the labels to themselves there is not unanimity about what the words mean.

In the first century C.E. Christians in the Roman Empire were considered atheists because they did not believe in or worship the correct deity, the Roman Emperor. Both “Christian” and “Atheist” carry a lot of historical and cultural baggage.

Some self-identified atheists interpret the word to mean not-a-theist, that is, a person who does not attribute human-like characteristics to a deity. Belief in god is OK, non-theists just can’t believe He is a he, or keeps a 24 hour day, get tired, changes his mind, walks to-and-fro, or experiences emotions like love and anger, as does the god of the Hebrew bible.

Lots of atheists don’t categorically deny that god or gods exist, they simply have not found persuasive reason to believe it.

The kind of atheists who really rattle Christian’s cages are the aggressively outspoken ones whose core, bedrock belief is that there is not, anywhere in any form, never has been and never can be, a deity. Atheism is their religion; to positively deny that god exists is their core article of faith.

Atheists of this variety can be passionately evangelical; they aggressively pursue efforts to persuade others. Indeed there are those who speak of the Gospel of atheism, Gospel meaning Good News, like 18^th century French philosopher Denis Diderot who earnestly declared, "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest".

OK – so? Is atheism a terrible thing, a danger to right thinking and a well-ordered civil society?

Atheism, as all other “isms”, is simply an opinion. It’s not what somebody is, it’s where that somebody is at a particular moment along the road of life. They may not be at exactly the same place tomorrow.

Atheists are not my enemy, or God’s. They simply are, as we all are, incomplete finite human creatures, blessed and burdened with a brain that asks questions and must find some answers, even if the answers are inaccurate or partial or put them at odds with the prevailing beliefs of their society.

Most atheists I know have open, searching minds and are far less dogmatic and absolute than their counterparts among the Theists. And they make a habit of being courteous. They rarely clang around denouncing religion or dramatically challenging God to smite them if he exists.

Atheists and Christians come in a variety of flavors. I prefer some flavors of atheism to some flavors of Christian.
©2012 Jack Wilson