Atheism/Theism

In common parlance, an atheist is someone who does not believe that god exists.  This raises two questions:

·       What is a god?

·       Precisely, what does it mean to say that one doesn’t believe in some god or other?

 

A . What’s a god?

This is very difficult to answer.  However, a reasonable account is that to be a god one must satisfy the following:

·       Have significant supernatural powers

·       Not be classifiable as merely human, vegetable or mineral

·       Have some kind of mental life

When it comes to some of the great religions like Christianity or Islam, God is a person.

B.  Theism vs. Atheism

Theism is the view that at least one god exists.  Hence, polytheism is a form of theism.  There are many types of theists because there are many types of religions.  In fact, even when two theists believe in the same god (two Christians, for example) they may still have serious theological and moral disagreements.  In fact, traditionally Christians have been a violently (literally) divided lot. 

For example, theologically/religiously, they have disagreed on

·       The nature of their god: some accepted Trinitarianism, some rejected it.  In particular, they have disagreed on whether Jesus is a divine creature (Arianism) or not.  The most widely held view after the council of Nicea is that Jesus has been generated, not created by God the Father and of the same substance as the God the Father (genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri).

·       The nature of Incarnation: when God becomes man, what’s the relationship between divine and human nature?  For some, divine nature completely obfuscated human nature, so that Christ had no real body and that therefore the passion was an illusion (Docetism).  For most, miraculously Jesus had both a full divine and a full human nature.

·       The requirements for salvation: some (Pelagians) argued that there’s no original sin and that we can gain heavens simply by our good works; others argued that both undeserved divine grace and good works are necessary (traditional Catholics); others that works count for nothing and only undeserved grace can save us (Luther); others that we get grace simply by choosing to believe in Christ as the Savior.  Moreover, for some Jesus is the only way to salvation; for others he is not; for some (Catholics), one doesn’t even need to be a Christian to go to heaven.  Also, for some divine grace is irresistible and for others it is not.

·       What constitutes scripture and how one ought to read it: the size of the Canon increases as we move along these churches: mainstream Protestant, Anglican (Episcopalian), Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Ethiopian.

·       Whether women can be ministers, and what priests are.

·       What counts as a sacrament and how many there are (2, 3, or 7)

Christians also disagree on moral issues:

·       For some homosexuality is a terrible sin; for others it isn’t a sin at all (American Episcopalians have a gay bishop!)

·       For some, abortion is murder; for others it is permissible

·       For some, the death penalty is an abomination; others are in favor of it

Christians also disagree politically: some are rightists, some are conservatives, some are liberals, and some leftists; some are republicans and other democrats; some are environmentalists and some are not, for example.

In short, saying that one is a Christian is saying much less than most Christians believe.  Presumably, the mistake arises from the narrow-minded belief that one’s own brand of Christianity is the only one.

 

However, leaving aside Trinitarian and Christological issues, it is possible to provide a run of the mill philosophical view of god that most Christians have traditionally agreed upon:

 

 

Some misconceptions about theism (Christianity)

·       Theists are deluded fools who believe in the equivalent of fairy tales.

However, theism has a long history with arguments for the existence of God and arguments to answer arguments by atheists.  Theist arguments may be good or bad, but they are certainly not foolish.  Some present arguments concluding that only theism can provide meaning to human life.  Moreover, for some theism answers a deep need that should not be trivialized.

·       Theists believe without any evidence

However, there are arguments for God’s existence --whether good or bad is another matter.  Moreover, some claim to have a sensus divinitatis, a capacity to feel God’s presence.  Of course, such a capacity may be delusional, like the capacity to feel the presence of ghosts in haunted houses, but that’s a point of discussion.

·       Theists (Christians) are bigots

Many certainly are, but many are not.  In fact, many theists are committed to freedom of thought and expression for everybody, atheists included, because these freedoms are a consequence of the fact that we are made in God’s image.  It is certainly true that historically many theists, and certainly most Christians, have not been a tolerant lot even with respect to other religions still it is certainly possible to be a tolerant theist on theist grounds. 

 

Atheism is the rejection of theism; hence, an atheist is one without a belief in any god.

There are three possible types of atheists:

1.     No-concept atheist: one who does not have the notion of god or has never thought about god’s existence.

2.     Agnostic: one who neither believes nor disbelieves the existence of any god because one thinks that we don’t know whether there is at least one god or not

Note: one might be an agnostic on various grounds.  For example, one might believe that there are no good reason to believe in any god, or that there are equally strong reasons for the existence and the non-existence of a god.

3.     Positive atheist: one who believes that no god exists

 

Note that these types of atheism are incompatible; for example, one may not be both an agnostic and a positive atheist

Broadly, sometimes an atheist is taken to be someone who denies the existence of some god.  In this sense, one might be a positive atheist with respect to some god, e.g., Christ, and an agnostic with respect to another, e.g., Zeus.   So, Roman polytheists considered Christians atheists because Christians denied the existence of all gods but theirs.  In fact, since human beings have fervently believed in many gods a theist is likely to be an atheist, in this sense, with respect to most of them.  (The link is to a witty essay by Menken).

 

C.  Here are a few misconceptions often religious students have about atheism:

·       One becomes an atheist in order to be able to behave immorally; so, atheists cannot be trusted

However, there is no satisfactory evidence for this as there is no decent evidence that atheists are immoral, or even less moral than theists.  It’s on a par with the view that one adopts certain kinds of theism because one is not strong enough to deal with life’s difficulties (the religion-is-for-weaklings story).  And yet it really sticks: imagine a prominent US politician claiming to be an atheist instead of invoking God every 5 minutes when giving a political speech.  Some atheists point out that in the US the percentage of atheists in prison is lower than that of atheists in society as a whole; however, that may be due to the fact that the level of formal education among atheists is larger than in society as a whole and the higher one’s formal education the less likely that one will end up in jail.

·       Atheists hate God

However, atheists do not hate god because they don’t believe any god exists.  Of course, even a positive atheist could “hate” the god of some religion on moral grounds, but that would be on a par with “hating”, say, Lord Voldemort.  Still, an atheist may consider the god of Joshua 10:40 or 1 Samuel 15:3  genocidal and therefore think that a world without such god, or a god who demands human sacrifice, or a god that gives sexist or racist commands, is better than a world with such god in it.  (The link to Samuel is through a site that is critical of scripture and religion.  If you’re religious, take a look and see what some on the other side think).  An atheist may also conclude that a world without god-based religion would be better than the present one because men tend to put in their imaginary gods’ mouths horrible commands, thus giving divine sanctions to their wickedness and prejudice.   Alternatively, some atheist may believe that it would be better if some benevolent god existed, and bemoan the fact that no such being exists.

·       Atheism is a philosophical system and all atheists believe in the same things.

However, atheism is not a philosophical system any more than theism is; like theism, atheism is very old, and two atheists may have very different philosophical views, moral views, lifestyles, political affiliations, much in the same way in which two theists or even two Christians might.  Of course, they agree on rejecting theism and there is empirical evidence that they tend to share some attitudes, but that’s about all.  Atheism may be the consequence of a certain philosophical view, Marxism or certain types of naturalism, let’s say, but the former does not imply the latter: if you are Marxist, you are an atheist bit if you are an atheist you need not be a Marxist. 

·       Atheism leads to unhealthy societies; living in a society with a lot of atheists is terrible.

This is a charge that can be answered empirically.  Of the 25 top ranking societies according to the 2004 Human Development Report from the UN all but one are the nations with the highest levels of atheism.  Conversely, of the 50 bottom ranked, all have high percentages of theism.  Other studies show high positive correlation between low infant mortality, literacy, low poverty rates, low homicide rates, high gender equality and high percentages of atheism.  Of course, these are just statistical correlations, but are enough to show that the charge is unjustified. 

·       Atheists want forcefully to eliminate religion (Christianity)

However, there is no atheist philosophy and therefore there is no atheist position about religion, Christianity, homosexuality, or whatever.  What is certainly true is that Communist societies declared themselves officially atheist and engaged in policies that were (and are) inimical to religion.  However, the problem here has been the totalitarian nature of Communism, not atheism, as one can see by noting that Communists shut up anybody who disagreed with them, atheist or not, and that atheism in democratic countries has never persecuted religion.  If anything, historically atheists, apostates, and members of other religions have very often suffered persecutions from Christians; just think about pogroms against the Jews, forced conversions, or legal or social discrimination.

Of course, an atheist might consider religion a harmful error, and therefore might want to convince people to give it up.  However, atheism does not have the missionary nature of some religions like Christianity or Islam: there are Christian missionaries but no atheist missionaries.  For example, periodically Christians who want to convert me knock at my door but I have never had an atheist knocking at my door to make me give up my religion.

·       Atheists are full of themselves; they are prideful because they want to do without God

The issue here is not what one wants but what one thinks is available.  An atheist does not believe in any god, and therefore has to do without.  Some bemoan this, some do not. Hence, in spite of its popularity this charge probably amounts to little more than a put-down.  To an atheist, Christians seem hypocritical or confused when the make this charge.  Who is more boastful, one who believes to be the result of undirected evolution, a clever animal, or one who believes to be made in the image of the master of the universe? (Note that the belief that we are made in God’s image is of the essence of mainstream Judaism Christianity, and Islam).