Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (13 page)

Though she doesn’t believe any gods exist, Ursula Goodenough sounded awfully religious when she said, “I profess my Faith. For me, the existence of all this complexity and awareness and intent and beauty, and my ability to apprehend it, serves as the ultimate meaning and the ultimate value. The continuation of life reaches around, grabs its own tail, and forms a sacred circle that requires no further justification, no Creator.”

She would agree — in fact, she calls herself a
religious naturalist,
and many who share her exact views call themselves
religious atheists.
This name drives some atheists completely nuts. Others find it an inspired solution to a real problem.

No matter what your perspective, the idea of religious atheism is probably a head-spinner at first. If I say “religion,” the odds are pretty good that “God” is one of the first related words to pop into your head. Religion and God have been joined at the hip from the beginning. So it’s a good bet that when you saw the heading “Religious Atheists,” you did a bit of a snort-take.

On the other hand, maybe the Albert Einstein “Is-He-Or-Isn’t-He” game in the sidebar has you prepared for anything.

In fact, a person can be an atheist who also considers him or herself religious. Just keep God out of it and you’re good to go. Entirely nontheistic branches of Hinduism and Buddhism have existed for thousands of years, and the Jain religion is completely gods-free.

Religion has always included much more than the worship of a deity. Community, spirituality, the search for meaning, ethics, rights of passage, mutual support, a chance to have a good sing, the experience of beauty and wonder — all these have been part and parcel of the institution of religion.

Though they have usually been framed in theistic terms, not one of these elements relies on the idea of a deity. Some even feel that God gets in the way of the fullest expression of human spirituality, an idea captured in science writer Chet Raymo’s book
When God is Gone, Everything is Holy.

So even as they dismiss the idea of God, many atheists express a desire to partake of these very real benefits of religious community in a God-optional or even fully God-less way. Some have built entire movements and denominations to make it happen. They are the religious atheists. The following are three examples of religious atheist denominations or movements.

Concentrating on ethics: The Ethical Culture movement

The Ethical Culture movement, one such experiment in God-optional religion, was founded in New York by professor and social reformer Felix Adler. Adler had been trained as a rabbi, but his first sermon, given to his father’s congregation in 1873, quickly became his last when he laid out a future for Judaism without once mentioning God.

Four years later, Adler created the Society for Ethical Culture, giving a series a Sunday lectures on ethical issues and forming a mutually supportive community of religious (but God-optional) humanists. The movement gradually spread to include more than 25 Ethical Societies across the United States, all emphasizing “deed before creed” — that what we do is more important than what we believe. Many members of Ethical Culture are theists; many are atheists. All are religious.

Focusing on human values: Unitarian Universalists

The 1961 merger of Unitarianism and Universalism, the two most liberal Christian denominations at the time, created a new creedless denomination with the cumbersome eleven-syllable name of Unitarian Universalism. UUs (as they are mercifully called) gather not around shared belief in a deity or the authority of a sacred text but around seven principles emphasizing such human values as justice, dignity, equity, and compassion. Some UUs are theistic believers of one kind or another, while those who self-identify as humanists, atheists, and agnostics are religious without God. Refer to
Chapter 8
for more discussion.

Converging around Jewish culture: Humanistic Judaism

In 1963, just two years after the birth of Unitarian Universalism, Rabbi Sherwin Wine announced to his congregation in Windsor, Ontario that he hadn’t believed in God’s existence for quite some time.

“It is beneath my dignity to say things that I do not believe,” Wine said, then invited those who wished to do so to follow him in creating a nontheistic Jewish congregation. Eight families did so.

Wine developed a new humanistic liturgy that reflected Jewish culture, identity, and history while teaching humanist ethics, all without reference to God. It was the birth of Humanistic Judaism, a nontheistic religious movement that now has more than 40,000 members and is recognized as one of the five main branches of Judaism.
Chapter 8
has more discussion about Humanistic Judaism.

Moving beyond labels: The rise of the Nones

One of the most important and interesting labels refers to people who, when asked for their religion, simply reply, “None.” The
Nones
represent a much larger, more diverse, and faster growing population than any single label I discuss in this chapter. Some Nones also claim one or more of the specific labels of unbelief, but many simply want nothing to do with labels of any kind.

Even in the highly religious United States, those claiming no religion grew from 8 to 20 percent of the population between 1990 and 2012, far outnumbering the combined total of all non-Christian religions in the country. And that percentage increases dramatically as age decreases, with fully 1 in 3 Americans ages 18 to 22 claiming no religious identity — far more than any previous generation when they were the same age. Nones in several European countries are well ahead of the US curve, including more than 50 percent of the population of the United Kingdom and more than 70 percent in several Scandinavian countries. (For more number-crunching on the Nones, refer to
Chapter 14
.)

So when you hear media stories about the Rise of the Nones, know that it isn’t a horror story set in a convent. It’s one of the most fascinating and important social trends currently underway.

Chapter 3

Recognizing What Atheists Do and Don’t Believe — and Why

In This Chapter

Separating the real reasons atheists are atheists from some common misconceptions

Finding out what atheists actually believe

Reconciling science and religion — or not

I
f you want to know the beliefs of a particular religion, you can start with that religion’s scriptures. But scriptures written long ago aren’t likely to match up too well with beliefs that are held today. Few 21st century Jews or Christians think that women are the property of their husbands or that slavery is a good thing, even though their scriptures are still trumpeting those Bronze Age ideas.

Atheists avoid this problem by not having a central scripture. That doesn’t mean they have no beliefs or values, just that their beliefs and values aren’t codified in an unchanging document. Atheists also have no central authority, no Vatican or High Council to decide and transmit any approved set of beliefs.

The best way to find out what people believe, whether religious or nonreligious, is to ask them. And because those beliefs can vary from person to person, the more people you ask, the better your understanding will be.

This chapter explores what atheists tend to believe, and just as important, what they
don’t
believe — the myths and misconceptions about atheists that find their way into people’s heads through forwarded e-mails and the occasional sermon. But first I spend some time explaining
why
atheists are atheists — what it is that leads them to walk away from religious answers.

Throughout the chapter, I offer not just my own opinions, but also the general consensus of atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers whenever possible.

Understanding Why Atheists Don’t Believe in God

Not all atheists follow the same route to their disbelief. That’s partly because they don’t all start in the same place. For example, the path varies depending on whether a person is raised

In a religious family that discourages or punishes the questioning of religious ideas

In a religious family that
encourages
questioning, even of religious ideas

In a secular family that’s tolerant of religion and encourages religious literacy

In a secular family that’s hostile to all religion

In a family that’s just indifferent to religious questions

Then there’s geography, family history, a person’s own inclinations — each of these has a profound effect on the way a person encounters and questions religious assumptions. These sections list a few of the most common reasons atheists give for coming to their conclusion that God doesn’t exist.

Crossing from the will to believe to “the will to find out”

Ask an atheist why he or she doesn’t believe in God, and you’ll usually hear that the evidence just doesn’t hold up. I agree with that. But there’s another piece of the puzzle that isn’t talked about enough —
What makes it possible for a person to ask the questions in the first place?

That question may sound strange. Anyone can ask whether God exists, of course. But most people don’t ask that question in any serious way. People are presented with God as a fact from the time they’re very young, told that life and love and the sun and stars are gifts from God, and that good people accept these things without question. So why would you question, especially when it comes with the best of intentions from someone who loves you?