Recent events have resulted in my defending the purpose of religion in the modern world to my very Catholic girlfriend.
This has been both surreal and difficult, given I'm a newfound athiest who is as yet, unable to "come out" to the people around him.
As this is my first post, I'll start by trying to outline my intentions for the blog, and some of my own personal philosophical or moral foundations.
Actually, forget that.
I'm tired and I'm angry. We've reached the point in society where we're educated enough to question the existence of a creator; some people find themselves reassured after some pondering, others find themselves doubting.
It's the doubting that gives me cause for complaint - when someone who had no faith becomes (say) Christian, they are said to have "found God" or "found faith". This is a beautiful thing in whichever church is applicable - there are celebrations, there is joy felt by all around.
Often there are ceremonies and rituals to cement this person's conversion and show their commitment to their faith.
When someone who has been a part - particularly an active part - of a faith questions their beliefs, or the denomination and organisation to which they belong, there is no celebration.
Perhaps, if one is Catholic, there is a furtive confession, or for other Christians, a chat with the pastor or another mentor. In many cases, one does not admit to these doubts and questions.
This can be (depending on the severity) a "crisis of faith".
Although to some extent, modern faiths encourage members to question and test their beliefs, there is an understanding that this is done within a controlled environment - a kind of passive question/answer session in which one is reassured of one's position and can happily carry on with their lives.
There is no celebration when a member chooses to leave their faith behind and view the world purely in their own terms - religion could not exist along such lines.
The leap from faith to a view of the world without a god or an afterlife is (to many people) terrifying and filled with despair; yet there is no real structure, ceremony or ritual to allow people to pass from faith to atheism.
I don't have any answers.
I don't particularly want any answers. But I do want to untangle my own faith - there are no rituals when one "finds atheism" - but there can always be the therapy of writing.
I think part of the beauty of atheism is that it is ritual-less (though, if my memory serves me correctly, the Church of Satan is really an atheist group dedicated, among other things, to pissing Christians off by calling themselves 'Satanists.' They likely have an acceptance ritual, though I think most people would find their "eye for an eye" idea of morality a little bit questionable). The problem with a lot of atheism today is that it seems to be trying to establish itself as a religion, which, by definition, it is not. And really, that's a good thing. The closer atheism comes to becoming an actual religion, the more it falls into the major flaws of most religions, such as evangelism (which we see now) and violence (which I fear we may see in the future).
ReplyDeleteThat said, as someone who extends the definition of "free-thinker" to anyone who questions their faith and comes to a personal answer (or lack thereof) based on personal logic, I would like to welcome you to free-thinkerdom.
Also, your comments on my blog have been really great. Thanks a lot, good luck, and I hope to hear more from you.
LaVeyan Satanists do have rituals - in fact, LaVey dedicates about a third of his book to them. They're actually weirder than Catholic rituals (which are frankly pretty strange from the outsider's point of view), and, as far as I'm concerned, both morally and logically questionable.
ReplyDeleteBut yeh, I'm concerned with the "dogmatisation" (if you will) of atheism - the Dawkins fan boys, the aggressive stance that religion itself is somehow wrong. As far as I'm concerned, that's just as bad as the aggressive evangelistic Christians (both somehow feel threatened by the other)
I'm a big fan of your blog, btw, thanks for the comments :-)