Just Which God are You Talking About?

Posted on September 4, 2007 in Myths & Mysticism

Reverend Jim Burklo is a friend who came to our wedding nineteen and a half years ago. His recollections on encounters with atheists is worth the read:

I’ve had plenty of encounters with people who are adamant that there is no God. I often ask them which God they don’t believe in. Invariably, it’s a God I don’t believe in, either. So they don’t find me to be a worthy partner for an argument. Proving or disproving the existence of God misses the heart of my faith. God is what happens when I am overcome with wonder and gratitude before the transcendent mystery of existence. Some atheists say they have this experience, too, but just don’t call it God. Other atheists get peeved at me, saying that I’m not really religious at all. Since I don’t believe in a supreme being in the the way they assume religious people are required to do, what I have to say doesn’t count!

Jim is right. Too many atheists tend to argue as if there is only one way to be a Christian, one way to be religious, one way to be a believer. Back in my still-Christian-but-not-a-Fundamentalist days, I ran into an atheist who told me that Fundamentalism made more sense to him than what I believed. In the case of this one individual, I posited an extreme case of simple-mindedness and single-mindedness when it came to spirituality (and atheists can be spiritual, by the way). When I see an atheist who must condense religion into the straw man presented by Fundamentalists, I see someone who does not live by the logical principle of understanding where your opponent is coming from before entering into debate with him.

The challenge that few atheists take on is to argue with Jim where Jim stands without trying to cram him into the God Machine Box that they think is the end of all religion.

I am agnostic because after thinking on these things and considering all sides, I cannot arrive at an answer. The faith of some Christians, such as Jim, is not repugnant to me because they, too, embrace uncertainty. It is in uncertainty — religious or philosophical — that matters and disputes about the nature of the universe had best rest, I believe, for the peace and stimulation of all minds.

For the record, as an agnostic, I am lucky to count all varieties of believers and nonbelievers as friends. All that I quote is grist for the great mill of thinking.

For an account of how encounters with the Divine might occur and how difficult or impossible they can be to express to those who have not had the experience, read Flatland. I don’t declare this to be a final answer, but the reasoning is compelling.