The more I learn, about myself, how I believe the world to be like, how I believe God to be like, the more I find myself drifitng away from organized religion, and I find myself more drawn towards labeling myself as 'Spiritual.' Throughout my searching, my belief in the supernatural, whether it be God, the spirit, or the afterlife, have all been strengthened immensly. However, I've also found myself less drawn to the church for Sunday morning worship.
I most certainly have no animus towards religion, and I find much spiritual growth from reading the Bible, and I find a lot of historicity in Jesus Christ - and on that last point I would differ from many people, like the example blog I'll bring up. Perhaps, in short, I can say it best that I find some of the doctrine emphasized in the church to be wrong, or at the very least overemphasized, and have disagreements about some of religions side-effects.
In some ways, it reminds me several articles I read months ago. A quote by Stephen Prothero, from God is Not Great, says:
"If you let the concept of God float a little bit, almost everybody is theist."
The above could be taken in several ways, but one way to look at this is the notion that religion seems to have a claim on what characteristics 'God' holds, and perhaps more importantly, in what ways he should be worshiped. It also makes me think of Anne Rice, who, fed up with her congregation, announced she was through with Christianity, but still regards her relationship with Christ as the most important aspect of her life. It makes one wonder - what constitutes being a Christian?
I want to analyze a blog I stumbled across today, one that is apparently pretty well-known, and look at this man's story, as well as another post or two from his blog. He brings up a lot of good points, some that I think religion should accept in stride. He also has other thoughts, that i'll try to point out, where I think he is simply mistaken. In seeking the truth, one should be open to hearing the views of others. If one is grounded in their worldview, then analyzing others should be a beneficial exercise. So here we go, and if you want to look at the full text, here is the mans overall bio. He starts out his blog talking about worldviews, and then moves into the specifics of his life, and then the implications.
I will title this part of the summary: The Birth of an Atheist
What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Is there a God or isn’t there, and if there is a God, what is its nature? Of all the world’s religions, which one is the most correct? Is there an afterlife? Are we primarily physical beings or spiritual beings?
The way we answer these questions will provide the ultimate context for everything else we do with our lives. If we place any value on our lives at all, we must give some consideration to these questions.
I couldn't agree more. I urge my volleyball group to ask the tough questions, and to seek the truth, and try and ask the tough questions. It goes back to philosophy, which gives one the tools to attempt to tackle these difficult questions, and look at areas where others have tried as well.
The next part of the story is very significant, as it can epitomize how many atheists are formed.
For the first half of my life, until the age of 17, I was Catholic/Christian, baptized and confirmed. I went through eight years of Catholic grammar school followed by four years of Catholic high school. I was a boy scout for several years and earned the Ad Altare Dei award. I prayed every day and accepted all that I was taught as true. I went to Church every Sunday with my family. All of my friends and family were Christian, so I knew nothing of other belief systems. My father was an altar boy when he was young, and his brother (my uncle) is a Catholic priest. One of my cousins is a member of Campus Crusade for Christ. In high school I went to optional religious retreats and did community service, both at a convalescent home and at a preschool for children with disabilities. I expected to be Catholic for life.
It's important to note that he was brought up very religious, and, I can only assume, fundamentalist leaning. His family sounds about as religious as they come, and his upbringing sets the stage for the retreat his life takes.
But near the end of my junior year of high school, I went through an experience that I’d have to describe as an awakening. It was as if a new part of my brain suddenly switched on, popping me into a higher state of awareness. Perhaps it was just a side effect of the maturation process. I began to openly question the beliefs that had been conditioned into me since childhood. Blind acceptance of what I was taught wasn’t enough for me anymore. I wanted to go behind the scenes, uproot any incongruencies, and see if these beliefs actually made sense to me. I started raising a lot of questions but found few people would honestly discuss them. Most simply dismissed me or became defensive. But I was intensely curious, not hostile about it. My family was closed to discussing the whole thing.
A very natural reaction to growing up. At some point, mans rationality continues to grow to the point where 'blind acceptance' or 'following the herd' is not good enough. If one is raised in a strict religious household, then, as Eric Reitan points out on his blog, it is much easier to go from one God to no God, then it is to go from one God to a more pluralistic sense of religious purpose. Often, atheism is a knee-jerk reaction to this 'maturation' that takes place in the teenage years.
I was disappointed though. What I found was that regardless of their education and their much greater life experience, very few of my friends and teachers ever bothered to question their beliefs openly. And that really gave me a huge shot of doubt. I thought, “If everyone is just accepting all of this blindly and no one is even questioning it, why should I believe it?” Over a period of months the doubt only grew stronger, and I transferred more of my faith from my Catholic upbringing to my own intelligence and senses. Eventually I just dropped the whole context entirely, and in the absence of any other viable contexts to choose from, I became an atheist.
It is very sad indeed when churchgoers either shy away from defense of their faith, or lack the knowledge of why they believe what it is they believe entirely. Obviously, as I've found out, some of the most intelligent, and this is important, intellectually honest, people I've read are theists, so I most certainly do not accept that the belief in God is unfounded, as our blogger seems to imply at this point. But as you can see, if people are not around a youngster who questions their faith to help them understand it better, or if, in my opinion, he is brought up in too fundamentalist of a household, the reaction is often atheism.
It reminds me of C.S. Lewis, who, when he converted to atheism as a teenager, remembers being mad at God that he didn't actually exist.
Having shed all my old beliefs, I felt like my brain had gotten an intelligence upgrade.
And here, stated baldly, we see something that permeates atheism itself. That is, of course, a sense of superiority over the 'dumb, religious believers,' who don't know why they do what they do.
My family was not happy about all this, especially when my subscription to American Atheist magazine started coming in the mail (I got good at intercepting the mail early). But I was doing so well in school that it was hard for them to complain, and they didn’t want to openly address any of my questions, even though I’d have been happy to do so. They did force me to keep going to church though, which I tolerated for a while because I knew I’d be moving out in a year anyway. But eventually I started sitting in a different part of the church and would sneak out the back and go for a walk and return just before it ended. But one time the mass ended earlier than expected, and I got back too late. My family was already at the car and saw me walking down the street. Whoops! They drove off without me. But instead of walking the two miles home, I stayed out the entire day and didn't return until midnight. Aside from weddings and funerals, that was the last time I ever went to church.
He also goes on to talk about how he became much better at school when he dropped his religious beliefs. He started to get amazing grades, and from this we can see another theme in this man, and that is the affirmation that the beliefs one holds will directly effect the outcome, and, 'successfulness' of your life. I put 'successfulness' in quotes not only because it's not a word, according to spell-check, but because 'successfulness' is obviously so subjective that it's almost laughable.
The main purpose of this background though, is to see how, and I believe this is the typical case, an atheist is formed. Also note this - does he at any point give a rational argument for why atheism is correct? No - it's just assumed that because he finds religious doctrine silly, then there is no God. There are more steps than that in the thought process, but nowhere in his testimony does he give a reason for his disbelief, other than the fact that he did better in school when he stopped believing in God, and because those around him had no answers.
But this is just silly, in my opinion. I doubt my parents could have rattled off reason upon reason to believe in God, but I figured this might be the case, and I went out and found literature, found resources, found other believers that did do a significant deal of searching. To take a sample size of several, and draw a worldview based on that is rather weak, so I would assert that his initial justification for atheism is at the best, very weak. As far as his better grades, I'm sure one could delve deeper into this, but at face value, it's obvious that in no way does 'better grades' or a 'feeling of intelligence' mean you have discovered truth. But this leads us to a deeper distinction, and that is whether 'empowerment' can entail 'truth' and vice versa, and if his understanding that beliefs that empower are keepers is justified.
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