atheism I

Someone asked me if I'm an atheist who goes to church, what do I worship?   My quick response was: 

I worship ideas, the best qualities of humankind, and what we can accomplish if we put our minds to it, to name a few things. I worship the earth and plants and animals and the universe.

I wrote a reflection for an atheism service at our church last year.   Here's the text of that.  Maybe that explains it a little more.  This summer we are going to do another service I think to report on where we've gone since last year.

How an Atheist became Religious

Thomas has described how he went from a religious path to atheism, and I’ll tell you how an atheist found religion. (I’m still an atheist).

I first became an atheist after I took a religion course in college called “Atheism”! Now this sort of thing is what makes parents fear a liberal education, but I assure you I was the only one in my class who became an atheist, if that helps at all. I was already heading in this direction before taking the class, and as it turned out, the pro-atheism readings convinced me more than the pro-God arguments.

Just to clarify my definition of atheist. I realize I can’t be 100% sure there is no God, just as many believers aren’t 100% sure there is a God. I just find a worldview without God to be the most plausible. I attribute the beauty of nature and the universe to nature and the universe rather than God. I attribute the goodness of humans to humans, which I find more uplifting and inspiring than attributing it to God. Of course, we are responsible for our evils also. This worldview puts my focus on life on earth rather than an afterlife. Life is precious and short and we should get out as much as we can. Also, the earth is the only place we have to live on, as there is no heaven, so we’d better take care of it. And I don’t feel we humans have a special place in the world compared to other life forms, and so for me that means we should respect them as we do ourselves. Regarding the immense suffering in the world, now I don’t wonder how an all-powerful God wouldn’t want to do something about it, and I realize that we are the only ones who can do something about it, and we should. So to me this is an uplifting view of the world. And to prove atheists have morals: I have morals, I’m an atheist, therefore atheists can have morals.

After college, I felt my life philosophy was reasonably well-established and it was time to be a productive member of society rather than to keep asking questions…if you call being an astronomer a productive member of society... I relished life and tried to make the most of it but I didn’t really continue to ask the big questions after I became an atheist, maybe because I thought I had it all figured out. I had a largely negative view of organized religion, as I think a lot of people do, even those who believe in a diety of some sort. I object to religions telling people what to think and not allowing their doctrine to be questioned, even when it conflicts with science or advancement of cultural norms. For example, religions should be at the forefront of civil rights advancements, but sadly they are usually the last. And that brings up the more emotional reason I disliked organized religion which is the oft-heard view of homosexuality as a sin. And then there are all the wars fought in the name of religion.

So what is a spiritual journey for an atheist? Is there one? This is the question I started asking myself a couple of years ago. To help answer these questions, I thought I would update my knowledge and read a few recent books on the topic. One is “The God Delusion” written by world-renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist, Richard Dawkins.  He’s a very...outspoken. The other book I read is “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris.  Neither addressed my question. Dawkin’s book ended when he was done proving the arguments against God and trashing religion. I did find some of the new evolutionary arguments to be interesting. He even suggests that there is an evolutionary instinct for religion. Harris’ book argued that what you believe matters and that some religions are more dangerous than others, and inspire suicide bombers for example. He argued that Islam is most dangerous and Christianity is not too far behind and therefore we need to do away with all organized religion. I was looking forward to seeing what alternatives he offered for organized religion but there were none. I mean, if you are going to take away something from a few billion people, shouldn’t you offer an alternative? And if Dawkins is right that the desire for religion is an instinct, you are now fighting instinct as well as not suggesting an alternative. Good luck with that!

What I finally realized after thinking about this for a few months (I’m a slow thinker), is that Harris and Dawkins are objecting to irrational beliefs, but that is not necessarily the same as religion. As I learned during my time here at James Reeb, religion means community. You could conceive of a religion that doesn’t force you to believe crazy stuff without question, that.."affirms and promotes a free and responsible search for truth and meaning."  Hmmmm.

Neither of these books addressed a positive aspect of human nature that attracts a lot of people to go to church: that is the sense of community, the acceptance, and the opportunity to do good works. Now I didn’t realize this either until a few years ago. I always thought the reason people went to church was, 1) eternal salvation, or 2) for appearances, or 3) because their parents make them. (you can guess which one applied to me). But finally, some evidence creeped into my brain that made me realize that it’s about something more, thanks to some people I got to know.

The first is my partner’s sister Cheryl. She and her husband are very involved in their church and help out a lot. For a long time I got the impression that this was just the church taking advantage of them. But after many years I realized that this is, second to her family, this is what gives Cheryl meaning in life and she really enjoys it. I suddenly understood the good side of religion for the first time in my life. This, by the way, is an example of how anyone (i.e., me) can have their judgment clouded by pre-conceived notions, not just those who believe in their religious doctrine.

The other person who influenced me is the nice little old lady who lives next door, named Louise. An example of her generosity occurred when a public announcement was made that a convicted sex offender was moving into our neighborhood. It was the talk of the neighborhood, and some of us felt noble for concluding that he has a right to live here. But Louise baked some chocolate chip cookies, brought them to his door and said “I just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood.” She is very religious and attends a traditional church, but has similar political leanings as me, even on those hot-button issues like gay-marriage.

Since then I’ve had conversations with people I knew who went to church and I discovered that most of them take their doctrine with a grain of salt. I do agree with Harris that organized religions can be dangerous and corrupt when they are not democratic and their followers don’t question what they’re told. So we just need a religion that, say..."affirms and promotes the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large."  ahhh.

So, how did I become a church-going atheist? At first, I decided I wanted to start giving back to the community after a life of great opportunities. I did a bit of volunteering for a political campaign, and tried to do a little bit in the biking community but I really didn’t do much at all and was kind of going nowhere with this plan. I happened to be chatting with John Mathis about this, and he started telling me about this church he’s really excited about called James Reeb. “But I’m not proselytizing!” he said. He said he feels he can do more as part of a larger community, which is the UU church. I knew nothing about UU besides the jokes I heard on Prairie Home Companion, but I was curious to see what John was so excited about. So I showed up the next Sunday and have to admit I was pretty freaked out about being in church. Besides funerals and weddings, I hadn’t voluntarily gone to church in 25 years. The singing was fun. But when Darrel started talking about the central “sacrament”, the sharing of joys and concerns, I thought, oh man, this is communion! which was just an old catholic sacrament in new garb. eek. Then after Joys and Concerns was over, I thought, oh, that was very nice; and then I relaxed a little. And there was more singing which was fun. Then came Darrel’s reflection. Was that ever perfect timing for that reflection. I was tired of being negative and down about politics and the world. I was tired of hearing people blame all our problems on a certain politician. That’s a great way to take no responsibility of your own and do nothing about it. and I wanted to do something positive and start feeling positive. And Darrel was talking about just that. So that’s how I became a UU even though I didn’t know anything about UU. I started out because I wanted to do community service, but I’ve been really surprised to find out that I have gotten out so much more than I contributed. I probably was longing for community as well as community service. And now I realize it is the Beloved Community that was my gift.

After I joined James Reeb, I decided I should probably learn something about the UU “doctrine” if there is one and make sure I agree with it, so I read a couple of books about it both of which were great. One was this little book of essays on the 7 principles and purposes of UU that are printed on the back of your order of service. I recommend it if you are looking for insights for your spiritual journey. I realized after reading this that the principles fit in perfectly with my world view—the focus on the here and now rather than an afterlife—to “create a Heaven on earth” as Eugene Pickett said, which also connotes action, such as promoting peace and justice.

So what is my spiritual path? Community service is a central component. Right now, that mostly occurs within our church, but I can already see ways to move beyond that. I also want to make personal choices that minimize the exploitation of resources, people, and animals. What I’ve done so far in this area has been very rewarding spiritually, but I have much more I can do.  In addition to giving, my spiritual path also includes receiving: in the form of the Beloved Community, spiritual growth, and nurturing. I get this from our thought provoking church services, my chalic circle and my yoga practice, to name a few things.

I’m curious to know how my current spiritual goals differ from a Christian, jew, muslim, or buddists or hindus or pagans? I realize there is a spectrum of spiritual goals in all of these religions. I’d be interested to find out from several of you with different beliefs how our spiritual journeys differ. And since you probably didn’t ignore yours for 25 years, I bet you have some useful advice to offer me, which I welcome.