On Atheism

In my experiences meeting people all over the Midwest, I sometimes have people timidly ask me what I think of atheists. Since my work is very spiritual and is fundamentally based on a belief in God, saints, angels, and the whole lot, people often wonder what I think of nonbelievers.

Well, my first response is that I don't feel threatened by it at all. I think people are afraid to ask me about it as if it challenges me or what I do. I certainly don't feel that way, and I always welcome atheists and non believers to ask any questions they like. My faith is not dependent on everyone else feeling the same way I do, so it's really not a concern. In fact, I truly love talking about spiritual concepts with people no matter what they believe. I like sharing ideas and I always learn something from the process.

My only observation so far is that most atheists I meet are not actually in opposition to God, although they may see it that way; my experience has been that they reject a concept of God that has been preached or taught to them by parents, school, culture, or a religion.

For example, someone might say, "I don't believe in God because it just sounds ridiculous to me that a some big man in the sky with a long white beard is controlling everything." So, somewhere along the line, this idea was taught to them, and since they didn't agree and also had no other references or ways of getting to know God, it stopped right there. In fact, many people don't think of God this way! But if God as a concept is presented to you in a fixed way, then your only option is to accept what is given or reject it completely.

Or someone else might say, "There's no way there's a God because evolution has been scientifically proven." Unfortunately, God and science have been put in a boxing ring together. What is that all about?! But since this person's only concept of God is the 7 days creation guy, they're given the option to believe either in God or science and never the two shall meet. It's sad, actually.

Another common misconception that I run into is that some have been taught that God holds our fate and everything is pre-written, and so they must either accept the idea of a destiny, or uphold the idea that they are atheist instead.

It's natural as humans to want to categorize everything. God is this, God is that, Got is not this, God is not that. It would be comforting if we could wrap our heads around something so powerful and literally larger than life. But unfortunately some of our ideas have tried to squashed others, leaving little room for dialogue.