“One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.”
Bertrand Russell
I have published five books, chronicling my departure from and life after religion. Having grown up an indifferent Italian Catholic, in college I defected and became a passionate Protestant Evangelical. After a post-graduate degree in theology and a megachurch ministerial career of many years, a crisis of faith sent me packing from my lifelong Christian faith.
Outside organized religion, my personal spirituality evolved and flourished. I encountered the difficult and complex realities of the real world beyond happy shiny Christian sub-culture and my standard theological explanations. A thorough examination of my religious beliefs, and heavy dosages of philosophy, psychology and the natural sciences, cured me of most of my Christian doctrine.
The past twenty years in my post-religion life, my professional work has involved aiding others who are navigating a significant faith transition, experiencing an existential crisis, or going through a major demolition and rebuild of their spirituality and beliefs. Many people are deeply damaged by their involvement in toxic religion, and my work has included religious trauma counseling. In 2021 I founded the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality to expand these efforts and train others for this work.
I have written a few series of articles on the evolution of religion and the religious deconstruction, as well as my recent article, The Leaving-Religion Do and Don't List.
There are countless people who are trying to make sense of the complexities of life and the world, in light of their past religious conditioning, and learning new mindsets and tools for doing life differently. There are endless nuances and grey areas in terms of how people choose to put the pieces together in their post-religion spirituality and outlook on the world. Suddenly, the cultural, political, and news topics of the day aren’t quite as simple and one-sided without the black-and-white and us-and-them lens that typifies religion.
Six months ago when I started publishing articles on Substack, I wanted to create a space for people to think through their own path forward without my pontificating what to think or do. While it’s true that I often address the fallacies, corruptions, and abuses of toxic religion, I don't write off all religion. I feel like I'm succeeding in these articles if an Atheist, deconstructing Christian, or any open-minded person of faith or philosophy, finds something that challenges or inspires them to be a more profound human being.
What Christians can Learn from Atheists
British evolutionary biologist and well-know Atheist, Richard Dawkins, created the below scale for determining one’s belief in God:
Strong Theist: I do not question the existence of God, I KNOW he exists.
De-facto Theist: I cannot know for certain but I strongly believe in God and I live my life on the assumption that he is there.
Weak Theist: I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.
Pure Agnostic: God’s existence and non-existence are equally probable.
Weak Atheist: I do not know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical.
De-facto Atheist: I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable and I live my life under the assumption that he is not there.
Strong Atheist: I am 100% sure that there is no God.
The problem with this scale, which happens to always be the problem when talking about “God” is the word, God. Obviously, Dawkins is assuming Theism as the standard conceptualization of “God”. Being someone of his intelligence, he should know better. Theism is only one system of beliefs about God. Right? There is also Deism, Pantheism, Panentheism and others. In my philosophy series, I wrote an article on Baruch Spinoza who was considered an Atheist but who used the word “God” to identify his philosophical theory of monism.
To complicate matters further, even Christian Theism is not a monolithic set of beliefs. In my view, classical Christian Theism is one of the least defensible conceptualizations of God, which I have touched upon in previous articles such as, Is Christian Theism Dead? and on my podcast. Even with Christianity, there are many different versions of Christian Theism, ranging from fundamentalist Theism (fear-based view of God) to progressive Theism (love-based view of God).
But setting all this aside, if you take the Dawkins scale, this article is essentially asking what a “Strong Theist” can learn from a “Strong Atheist”. I discussed this topic in a podcast interview with the “Graceful Atheist” (David Ames), but I want to tease it out a little more in this article.
The “God” of Atheism
You might be thinking, “Wait. What? ‘God of Atheism’??? Atheists don’t believe in God.”
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