An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: “According to a new Pew survey, 21% of American atheists believe in God or a universal spirit, 12% believe in heaven and 10% pray at least once a week. What do you make of this?”
The Pew poll results could simply be a curiosity. Without a definition of “God” or “atheism,” who really knows the state of unbelief that an atheist feels? If you take the common image of God as a patriarch sitting above the clouds, it’s entirely possible to reject a personal God while retaining a religious spirit. Einstein spent years explaining this as his position, and few understood what he meant. The fact that Judaism forbids physical representations of God and that Christ describes no such image, either, hasn’t stopped the literalists. They demand comforting pictures and mindlessly equate “abstract” with “Godless.” By the same standard Buddhists are atheists, along with non-dual Hindus and many other flavors of Eastern spirituality.
Disapproval will never expunge “the will to believe,” and as familiar as William James’s phrase is, a mystery still hides behind it. Is the will to believe an automatic human trait, part of our genetic package? If so, as some geneticists believe, then what triggers the gene in some people but not in others? One envisions the believing atheists captured in the Pew poll fighting against their inheritance like children of alcoholics against theirs. In the blossoming field of epigenetics, which studies how gene get triggered or suppressed, we are gaining a glimpse of many behaviors being passed down from one generation to the next, not as a matter of survival but because they mean something. In essence the will to believe, which can be traced back to prehistory, spread around the globe like a God virus – it could be as universal as art, another genetic trait that has zero value for survival but infinite value as meaning.
How will belief evolve next? Maybe these believing atheists are showing us the way, along with Einstein, beyond a personal God on to the shores of eternity. Einstein had his sights set on a secular spirituality that, he said, was most closely approximated by Buddhism. He believed that the universe contained a deepest layer of reality that couldn’t be rationally comprehended but only witnessed with awe and wonder. He famously said that great discoveries in science need this sense of wonder before the infinite. To me, that implies a shift in consciousness. The rational mind cannot go beyond words and concepts, but consciousness can expand within itself without limits. Whether accidentally or by intent, I hope at least a handful of believing atheists have set out on the journey that begins with the will to believe and ends beyond images, even beyond thought itself.
www.intentblog.com
www.deepakchopra.com
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/deepak_chopra/
Beliefnet
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posted July 2, 2008 at 7:57 am
This survey simply tells me that 21% of SO-CALLED atheists do not even understand the meaning of the word “atheist”. An atheist is one without a deity. If you believe in God, you are not an atheist.
posted July 2, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I was a believing agnostic for a long time, as I discovered the word “pantheist.” The all-reaching, universal God, a benevolent energy which exists. An act of grace, yes, changed my life. I needed the words, the communion with the spirit. The study of the saints, the miracles, in Christianity (and Buddhism also), empowers. Faith in spirit when the world is turning revives many individuals.
posted July 3, 2008 at 2:35 am
The word on the survey was actually “unaffiliated”, not atheists.
“Is the will to believe an automatic human trait, part of our genetic package? If so, as some geneticists believe, then what triggers the gene in some people but not in others?”
Proof of this, please? Can anyone link me to some peer-reviewed studies on the subject? Because right now, I’m thinking this has about as much scientific merit as intelligent design (that is to say, none).
posted July 8, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Having been an RN for 20 years I find I dont believe in Atheists.I havent seen one that was willing to go to the grave as an atheist, at the last minute they ask for a Pastor. This really suprised me when some very adamant atheist family members of mine were dying.I knew them so well and heard their veiws for years and never expected they also would ask for a Pastor in the end, but they did. This just further convinces me that deep in the soul of everyone they know there is a God. When I hear an atheist speak about their beliefs I just smile and think to myself “we’ll see”.
posted July 9, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Thank you. Beautiful post, beautiful discussion. For me the interesting question does not break down into atheist, theist, or agnostic, but the philosophy of life that each individual holds.
My own: I learned a little something about myself when I was watching my step-daughter’s favorite show, “Charmed.” This is a show with faeries, warlords, all sorts of supernatural characters. My favorite character hands-down is Death. Death is a grave, intelligent man dressed appropriately in black. He has sandy hair and a vaguely British accent. Death is very powerful and doesn’t stay long when he comes. But you can talk to him if you’re persistent enough. Most people beg him to return their loved one to life. To which he replies, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I only lead them to the next place. They die because it’s their time to die.” In outrage and grief, people then tell Death how cruel he is for taking their loved one. Death looks mildly surprised, and responds, “But you see, I’m not good or bad. I’m just death.”
I was captivated by this character. How liberating it is to not be good or bad! I think God is neither good nor bad as well. My personal philosophy does not support the radical division of people, situations, and events into “good” or “bad.” It seems to me that both deists and scientific realists are united in their desire to control life’s outcomes, maximize the “good.” Holistic spiritual types and scientific quantum tpes are united in their awe at the mystery of it all.