Congrats to Atheists!

Congratulations to all atheists who have come out of the closet in recent times, thanks to the fruitful labors of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, et. al.  Having been an atheist for several years myself, I am sincere in this sentiment.  You have nothing to be ashamed of, non-believers, and those who would shame or stigmatize you into silence or obscurity are thankfully becoming fewer and fewer in number.  It's all good.

Now that we've got that squared away, I have a question.  What now?

An acquaintance of mine is a very outspoken atheist.  Whenever the word "God" is mentioned, sometimes even when used in an oath, she blurts out, "I don't believe in god!"  or "There is no god!"  Now, this doesn't get much of a rise out of me personally, having been where she is for awhile, and I suspect it's less and less of an issue with most people.  At one time most would have considered it ballsy, but these days it's just seen as exhibitionism or simply regarded with indifference. 

So what I want to ask this person -- but of course I don't, because I want to be polite -- is something like, "Ummm.... okay ... why are you telling me this?  Because, really, it's OKAY with me that you don't believe in god(s).  So why do you keep repeating this like it's some kind of conditioned response to the god-word?" 

One answer COULD be that whether or not she is aware of it, she's preaching the gospel of non-belief.  She wants other people not to believe in God, because -- well, because atheism is a good thing and would make the world a better place?  Mmmm... debatable.   How about because you need to have your own unbelief validated?  I think that might be a big part of it.

I never argue with atheists, just as when I was an atheist, I never argued with believers.  It's too hard to precisely define your terms when you're discussing "god", and lacking a precise definition of terms, any sort of debate or dialectic is futile.   My stock answer, as an atheist, whenever anyone asked me if I believed in God, was, "Which one?"  Invariably, no one really knew.

But now I have a pretty good idea (conceptually) of what I mean by the word "god" when I profess faith in God.  I've struggled and fought to achieve clarity about this idea of God for most of my adult life.  I think I finally succeeded, at least to my own satisfaction.  Much of the appeal of Mormonism for me is that fact that its ideas about the Godhead fall so closely in line with those I had worked out for myself prior to seriously investigating the faith.

Hey, it's not just me! 

Anyway, if you haven't already, go read The God Who Weeps by Tyrell and Fiona Givens.