Giving Thanks for Atheists and Conservatives

[The excerpt following comes from my input in an e-mail exchange among friends at Unity Village.]

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Atheism is a challenge that comes from a direction in which many Unity people are not facing. We tend to stare down Christian conservatism, but to be attacked from the left is a shocker.

Most atheists I've known are anti-YHWH, the god of the Hebrew Bible, and have never given serious consideration to rejecting Thor, Siva, or Allah. Ironically, even in their rejection of the primitive doctrine of God found in some parts of the biblical canon, atheists (and to some extent agnostics) pay indirect homage to the anthropomorphic model by setting it up as the norm. This is like saying, "I want to deny the existence of God--lead me to the Bible, and I'll take Him on!"

Nor have most atheists rejected the concept of value. There are ideas, practices, and relationships to which humans--even atheistic ones--assign value. If there is no divine thread weaving everything together at some supersensible level, what gives anything intrinsic value? Are not the drunk in the gutter and Mother Theresa equally pointless? In what case is love better than apathy, if there is no connectedness above my narrow needs? The fact is, some principles seem to be universals--love, order, imagination, faith, etc....One could mention all the 12 powers, plus a few unmentioned by Mr. Fillmore, like peace and steadfastness. (Aside: Ned Kelly tells me the power of Strength has this quality. He may be right, but I read Strength more as having the resources to do something, whereas Steadfastness speaks of tenacity.)

In any event, the fact that universal values seem to be discernible has sometimes been called the moral argument for the existence of God. Immanuel Kant took this position, among others.
According to Dostoyevsky, "If there is no God, then everything is permissible." The fact that humans instinctively know that NOT everything is permissible, suggests that some transcendent Source of value exists. [1]

One might further argue, as a metaphysical aside, that the above is also a decent argument to see that transcendent Source as the true God. Isn't it possible to see God as the ongoing Process by which the Cosmos outpictures and from (and in) which we continue to emerge? Substance is God energy, said Mr. Fillmore. God energy arises from Principle, which outpictures as the creative force at work in and as the Cosmos. That is not far from a full-blown process theology.

Anyway, I think the real issue about atheism goes to the frustration that thinking/feeling people have experienced when confronted by conservative Christianity. Most atheists I have know are simply fed up with delusional theologies that try to make people think like we did before the scientific age. The Young Earth Theory; refusal of scientific evidence on everything from nuclear wastes to despoiling the environment to climate change; insistence that homosexuality is a choice rather than a biologically determined orientation; rejection of women's full equality; intellectual incompetence by refuting historical-critical studies of the Bible....the list goes on. No wonder, if the conservatives have defined their form of Christianity as THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, that thinking men and women are saying, "Forget it. I'm spiritual, not religious."

There have been days when I have heard radio preachers hammering away about what Jesus wants and how you can get saved by following Jesus (actually, their narrowly defined version of Jesus)--well, sometimes I have fantasized about chucking the Bible out the window and joining the Hindus. (After all, I like Vishnu and Ganesh and love curry with rice.)

But then, graciously, the historian arises within me, and I remember... Jesus had the same problems with the conservatives of his time. And Mohammed fled Mecca to Medina to save his neck from the conservatives (albeit pagans) in his day. And Baha'i prophet Baha'u'llah was imprisoned 40 years by Islamic leaders.

The man of Nazareth himself lamented that a prophet is never honored close to home. Jay Wells more recently has summarized the unavoidable problem for all of us who venture into the center of the discussion about Ultimate Concerns:

“Jesus faced opposition. In every crowd, someone questioned his motives and sought to discredit him. If it happened to him, it will happen to you.” [2]

So, I take a deep breath and, from deep within my Pennsylvania Dutch/ German Reformed/ Unitarian-Universalist/ Eternally Unity soul, say to my conservative Christian brothers and sisters: "You do not have the authority to speak for Jesus Christ, and you certainly don't speak for me."

And to atheists and agnostics, "Keep stirring the kettle. It makes a better soup."

The atheists keep me honest; the fundamentalists keep me sharp. So, this holiday season, I give thanks to the Irreligious Left and Hyper-Religious Right. They seem to be part of that pesky thing called Divine Order in my life...