Expert: Margaret Placentra Johnston - 7/8/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Margaret,

I know what atheism is but I'm not sure what atheists believe in terms of who or what created the universe. Atheists claim they don't believe in any gods. However, I can find no information about what their specific view is on what created matter. If it's nothing then what created nothing?

Thanks.

ANSWER: Hey - thanks for the interesting question!  

Since, unlike religion, atheism is not a group of people with relatively unified beliefs, there is no way to say what atheists as a group believe.  

I have a special affinity for this issue because it relates directly to my book topic.  Having studied former believers from many different religions who have moved into atheism, nearly all of them did so as a result of their own reasoning process.  At a certain point, the person would realize some discrepancy between good logic and some tenet or other of their birth religion.  Usually the person would try to fight this "realization" for a time in effort to hold on to their religion but eventually the forces of logic and reason would take over.  They would conclude, for example, there is no way Jesus could have literally been born of a virgin.  Once they accepted that one thing in their religion was not true, they could go on to address other tenets that also would not stand up to rational inspection. Eventually, they would conclude nothing about their religion was true.  

In a story I was just working on yesterday, the man began to notice great similarities between the folk superstitions his Italian grandmother believed and the religion his church was teaching him.  After many years of intense struggle with this, reason finally "won out" in his view and to his great relief, he was able to dispense with what he considered the "superstitions" of his childhood - both kinds.

What atheists of this type lack is "faith."  Faith is the ability to accept something for which there is no logical explanation, no proof and no certainty. "Faith" is different from "belief."  

If you absolutely "believe" that everything your religion tells you is literal fact, and never question any of it at all, then you are just looking for easy answers, not taking personal responsibility for your spiritual path and not leaving room for any mystery.  You may have "beliefs" but not "faith."

It is this type of "beliefs" that the kind of atheist* I described above is rejecting - the literal tenets of their religion. In this sense, many experts who have studied this feel, these atheists are more "right" (and have taken more personal responsibility for their beliefs) than those who just easily latch on to everything their religion teaches and don't question anything.  

But - there is another type of religious or spiritual person, who most likely has gone through a period of some type of questioning their religion, and may have spent some time as an atheist or agnostic.  When and if this person comes to accept religion or spirituality after the questioning stage, then what they tend to have is not so much BELIEF - but FAITH.  

"Faith," in the way I am using the word, means the person has decided that - despite the fact that a lot of what religion says cannot possibly be literally true - and almost none of it can be scientifically proven - and most of it defies reason - AND we really have no way of knowing FOR SURE who, if anyone created us or who created matter - they still choose to hold on to some type of religious or spiritual values. Rather than needing answers about "who created matter," they bask in the beauty of the mysteries of our existence.  

According to spiritual development theory***, being able to move away from the need for definitive answers about our existence is a sign of spiritual maturity.  Atheists who have moved away from the need for an answer about who created matter can be seen as being more spiritually "mature" than those who "need to know for sure" who created us.  In a sense, this type of atheist has reached a point where he can tolerate the uncertainty of having no idea "who created matter" for the sake of what he sees as truth: that there is no way a bearded guy in the sky created the world in seven twenty-four hour periods.  

Those**** who can accept that we will NEVER have any definitive  answers about such things, but has dispensed with the need for such an answer AND can still find their way clear to participate in spirituality without the answers can be considered more mature than the atheists.  

This of course is just my view but I have been studying spiritual development for many years and have given it a lot of thought.  I have read the work of many of the theorists and have interviewed lots of people about how they arrived at atheism or faith and this is what I understand about it so far.  I of course, do not have any defintive answers either!  

Please forgive me if this does not properly answer your question but it is an immensely complicated topic, and the vocabulary with which to discuss these matters is seriously missing in our society. Please feel free to discuss this further or send follow up questions if desired.  Best of luck to you in your faith journey if you are struggling with this personally at this time!  

*There is another type of atheist to be sure. Those who have never really attached themselves to any religion in the first place and never really cared about what they believe may also call themselves atheists.  (For more on this group, see http://www.exploring-spiritual-development.com/The-Lawless.html)**

**(In contrast, the first type of atheist I discussed is more fully explained here: http://www.exploring-spiritual-development.com/The-Rational.html)

***For more on this, see my site http://www.exploring-spiritual-development.com.

****http://www.exploring-spiritual-development.com/The-Mystic.html

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,

No, I think I get what you're saying and it confirms some of my assumptions on atheists. I personally hold on to a more agnostic view where we don't know for now but maybe the "who" or "what" of it all will be revealed in the distant future—if we manage to make it that far.

By the way, in support of atheism, have you read about the parallelism between the Ugarit text found in the 1920's and the Old Testament? There's good evidence that many of the Ugarit gods, especially "EL" were merely absorbed into the Israelite religion while lesser god were done away with by assimilation. I think this is one of the best pieces of evidence to support an atheist's view of how Judeo-Christian religions have no foundation.

Anyway, thanks for your help and the links. I'll go over them.  

Answer
Thanks for your comments.  Actually, your first paragraph made me think of something that never occurred to me before: if not needing certainty of belief is a sign of spiritual maturity, and agnostics can tolerate more uncertainty than most atheists, then maybe agnostics are also a step "up" - though I hate to use that judgmental terminology - from the atheists. Something to consider further at some point.

I have not read about the Ugarit text but will put it on reading my list.  Thanks for the tip.

By the way, would you mind rating my answer?  Yours was actually the first question I have received in this category (versus many dozens in my eyecare category) and I need to get a certain number of (good) ratings before they will post my answers.  

Thanks and all the best to you!