07.29.07
How to Understand an Atheist
I am afraid there is a general trend in certain segments of the population to assume that anyone who is an atheist is a bad person. This is simply not the case and my purpose here is to argue this point.
To be sure, there are some people who do not believe in God at all and who are also unprincipled. Because they are unprincipled, they can be known to do things most of us would consider bad. If they do too many things we consider bad, we begin to say of them, and rightly so, that they are bad people. But I maintain that this type of person is not likely to call himself an atheist. In fact I am pretty sure this type of person gives little or no thought to whether he believes in God or not and no thought at all to how such a belief might alter his behavior. A totally unprincipled person would generally fall into the category of M. Scott Peck’s Stage One (see my paper on Religious development for Dummies) These people are motivated by their own will and are not inhibited by the strictures of conscience that govern behavior for most of us. It is not because of their beliefs that we would call them bad, it is because of their actions and their motivations.
Now, for the most part, someone who has thought things through enough to actually call himself an atheist does not belong to the above group. Self-proclaimed atheists in general are people who actually care what they believe and have thought it all through enough to discern that they do not have need of the rules of an organized religion (and threat of punishment) to hold their behavior in check. These people are generally self-reliant and self-governing. For the most part they were once religious at some point in their life – or at least were brought up within some sort of religion and have reasoned themselves out of that belief. In Peck’s stages, they are Stage Three – that means they have surpassed the traditional believers in Stage Two and have moved on a higher level of growth. Now this may be hard to accept for any traditional believers reading this but I think it is clear if you read some of the other true faith stories on this site. You can see that these folks have moved on from traditional faiths and yet they are more solid in a way because they accept nothing on faith and are strong enough to draw their own conclusions.
At least half of the people reading this will see these folks as quite unfortunate – either they are to be feared because they don’t seem to need the same supports the stage two’s do – or they are to be pitied because they have not yet glimpsed the mystery and miracles of the world that keep the Stage Fours enthralled.
And if someone chooses to see them as unfortunate, well, so be it. But please don’t call them evil! In most cases they are very principled and in many cases much more deeply so than those whose source of principle comes primarily from rules laid down by their church or some other external institution.
Steve Van Helfteren said,
January 27, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I think most people I have met who call themselves an antheist do so without really thinking about it. When I get to talk to one of them I see them changing their mind as we talk. I explain there is at least more than one ideia of God. The God proclaimed by religion is one thing. The God of religion is an ideia developed in people’s mind in order to fulfill a human emotional need. Man created this God of religion. I tell the atheist he has an option of believing in a God which has nothing to do with any religion but he will find no structure in this belief system and he will have to make up his own mind. As a third option I tell the atheist maybe God is not a single being or anything we have already imangined. Maybe the power that created us is a single, or a group or matter, or a consequence of something else currently developing.
MPJ said,
January 27, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Thank you for your comment. I agree completely that people mean different things when they use the term “God.” Before we argue about whether there is or is not a god- I think we need to define terms. For some people, god is not even a being and may not even be the creator. He may be Love, or Truth or Beauty or some other type of goodness. In any case, I have a hard time with those who proclaim (and try to force upon others) that they absolutely know the mind or wishes of God - and in so doing are usually promoting some end that they themselves would like to see.
Steve Van Helfteren said,
February 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Well, going a little further it seems that since there is no way to be sure of anything as far as the idea of God about all one can do when talking to an atheist or someone going thru a belief stage in religion is to listen to him and be patient and not disagree with anything he says. Since this person being spoken to is going thru a stage in belief all one can do is try to identify what stage he is at and follow up on his thinking. If his thinking is interfering in his way of life the best a therapyst can do is to try speed up his progress in the sequence in stages of belief so the person can feel more confortable spiritually or as a human being.
Steve Van Helfteren said,
February 6, 2008 at 3:49 pm
As far as the main comment in this section where it is mentioned an atheist might be an unprincipled person and have low morale does not seem to be the case. Although religion has been in the past and to some extent a part of a way of administrating people by government we can say that we have come a long way and religion has become something still necessary in any country, more so in some countries than in others sometimes depending on the average belief stage for a country as a whole or the average of belief stage of people in government which may govern large or small masses of people. Morale and honesty for most people seems to be the rules people have agreed to in order to live together. People who do not live by certain norms society has established thru politicians and people representing them that make laws in the community, state and country will end up paying for the consequences for not following the rules. As generations go by these rules as taken for granted and people follow them without paying much attention to them and accept what is there.