Quite often it is speculated by some believers and non-believers alike, that atheists are missing something. Well I suppose, the veracity of this depends on the perspective of the individual atheist. This post is inspired in part by Alain de Botton’s Religion for Atheists that catalogues some of the things that de Botton thinks that atheists are missing. On the whole I found the book unsatisfying. An example there was a suggestion that atheists should have their own “Festival of Fools”, where all sorts supposedly immoral activities could take place annually. I am reminded of Robert Heinlein’s Church of All Worlds in his seminal Stranger in a Strange Land where debauchery could occur in the church on Sunday; whereas, the parishioners would lead exemplary lives during the week outside of the church.
Yes, the picture to the right is what it looks like. Yes, de Botton drove his point home pictorially.
Etymology
As I noted before the word religion, comes from the Latin, ligare as in to connect, at least according to my trusty Concise Oxford Dictionary. So, religion becomes to reconnect. And the question is to what? I would argue, if a naturalist (as in a physicalist) is inclined this way, this would have to be to reconnect to the universe. This of course would include our community and nature in general. For free will skeptics, this should be an automatic realization of the causal connection to our environment and the universe at large.
re classic perceptions of religion as in:
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
Of course not all religions believe in Gods or gods, Buddhism is an excellent example, though in some aspects its beliefs might verge on the supernatural.
For the purposes of this post I am using religion in the sense of to reconnect. Here are some aspects of life that our Abrahamic religions have:
Community
One of the strengths of theistic religion is community. Some atheists desire a sense of community; for example Julia Sweeney in 2017 at the Imagine No Religion conference (if I remember correctly) gave a presentation on how she was checking out different churches because she misses the community aspect. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion mentions a gentleman atheist who goes to an Anglican service to show “solidarity with the tribe”. The INR7 conference was the last because not enough atheists over the years could gather to make the conference series break even. I had been to the last three and I thought they were excellent. Here’s a link to the last one.
So what is made of this? If there are any community minded atheists passing by I would be interested in their perspective.
Beliefs
I think one of the major beliefs of atheism is, go where the evidence takes us. And hold our beliefs as only provisionally true and change our beliefs as new evidence comes to light. The vast majority of atheists, I suspect are, physicalists and materialists. Probably, they actively disbelieve, or at least live their lives, as there is no life after death. I certainly am not expecting anything after our sojourn in life.
Some atheists, probably a vocal minority, I have no hard data, are anti-religious, and most I suspect, go about there lives not overly fussed by religiosity or even God or gods.
Mythology
Joseph Campbell described science as our new mythology in the Power of Myth. He meant it kindly in that Campbell holds mythology in high regard. Well science is a way of describing the world we live in. Science is never true but always trying describe more accurately what we observe. Just think about the evolution of our understanding of the atom over the last two centuries. Do we think we are at our final collective understanding? Of course, there are some who argue that science tells us very little about the human condition. Balderdash! Maybe it could be argued science has done a poor job here, but simply implying it cannot do so is nonsense.
Quiet often people accuse atheists of scientism and reductionism. Is science the only way of obtaining the truth®? Is there a better way? Answers on the back of a postcard please. While trying to explain everyday phenomena in terms of say quantum phenomena is usually a wasteful exercise, ignoring that there are underlying causes makes no sense to me, whatsoever.
Worship
I am not at all familiar with atheists worshipping anything. Certainly some may revere nature and some may put certain individuals on pedestals. But that does not mean that won’t be critical of certain stances these people might take.
As a rule of thumb, I don’t see atheists needing this aspect of religion. Except of course for atheists should they be lucky enough to be in a relationship. Their partner may well be a deity.
Spirituality
Does one need an organized community to feel spiritual? Does one need to be spiritual? To the last question, some people feel they do. Say, Lesley Hazleton in her Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto advocates for some form of spirituality.
I am reminded of going to a service for a late pastor friend of mine. I remember watching a couple of congregants work themselves up in to a spiritual high, or at least into a minor altered state, during a sing along. I suspect these highs to some degree are addictive, but then I am addicted to certain aspects of life.
The closest to spirituality I get is the rare moments of the sense of awe I fall into. Seeing crystals grow rapidly, seeing gravity at work perpendicularly with a Cavendish torsion balance, looking into my son’s eyes for the first time are just some examples. These ‘spiritual’ moments can be powerful at persuading people. I suspect large crowds can be moments of awe too. Be careful of what crowds you find yourself in.
For me there is a certain spirituality in understanding that all is connected by cause and effect. I suppose we need to be careful about the flavour of spirituality we find ourselves ascribing to.
Spirituality is Joseph Campbell’s The first is the mystical function,… realizing what a wonder the universe is.
Compassion
Today’s mainstay religions are nominally rich in terms of compassion. Should we collectively have and exhibit compassion? I personally find, in a given situation either I will (or not as the case may be) feel or exhibit compassion. In certain situations I might help someone in need without feeling compassion for them.
Now feeding people in Africa may well be the thing to do. But what are the consequences of our actions? Do we destine the next generation to more famine, disease and death? I am not suggesting we don’t give, but I think we should spend our compassion wisely. Ultimately, that has to be in the form of education.
Of course there is a potential issue with the concept of ‘should’ in a deterministic world.
Understanding
Most atheists I come across seem to have a desire to have some understanding of the way the world ticks. Science or at least the scientific method, seems like a good way to go about finding understanding, at least to me. Propose a hypothesis, gather data, test the hypothesis against the data. If the data does not fit the hypothesis, then discard the hypothesis, otherwise keep gathering data and testing.
The point being whether we accept the products of science is one thing, but adopting the methods of science we get to more accurate understanding.
Ethics
I suspect most atheists are accepting that there is no objective morality. Any morality we might have comes from some defined ‘better’ for society and the world at large; and, that our actions can be evaluated against that standard. Sam Harris seems to argue for a scientific evaluation for that ‘better’ in his book The Moral Landscape. We seem to take a consequentialist approach. Most atheists seem to take a compatibilist point of view to morality and ethics in that these are compatible free will or no free will.
I have a sympathy for religionists who argue that we can’t be ‘good’ (or for that matter ‘bad’) without free will and perhaps God. In a world everything is a result of cause and effect.
Essentially ‘good’ becomes a descriptor for actions or things that lead to an agreed upon desired outcome. For example a reduction in the production of greenhouse gases might be a greater good even if it might lead to a short term decrease in prosperity and perhaps wellbeing of certain peoples.
And in the end
Do atheists, need or want religion? Depends on what we mean by religion and which aspects seem missing in our lives.
It depends.
rom's corner 