Category Archives: Atheist

Mythmaking Scholar Suggests the Story of Priam in the Iliad as the Model for a Fictional Joseph of Arimathea

Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog,A Tippling Philosopher.HisAbout pagestates: Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turnhis hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality. His words will be inblue.

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Presently, I am responding to his article, Mimesis, the Gospels, and Their Greek Sources (10-14-21).

Iforgot literally forgot to put in my Joseph of Arimathea section in myResurrection bookthe very robust theory that Joseph of Arimathea was modelled mimetically on Priam from HomersIliad.

I really do need to release a second edition already because there issoso much about the Gospels is a case are emulating openly and intentionally these Greek sources. . . .

I have been privy to [Dennis R.] MacDonalds Magnum Opus on this, hopefully forthcoming from someone, somewhere. Its masterful and leaves you with no doubt. After all, when every Greek writer would have learned Greek through reading and writing the Greek epics and classics, such as Homers works, then there is no surprise that such works end up being used and reformulated into the Gospels.

Lex Lata in the combox:

My inexpert sense is that some of MacDonalds connections might be on the unduly tenuous and speculative side, but his overall argument is pretty solid. Theres no question the NT authors were, if not actually themselves, Hellenized Jews and Christians who were literate in Koine Greek. And, as noted in this video, becoming literate in Greek in antiquity routinely involved memorizing, reciting, transcribing, and translating elements of particularly renowned works, such as the Iliad and other literary and philosophical classics. So, unsurprisingly, there is not only a substantial likelihood of direct or indirect narrative mimesis in certain NT passages, but also a number of known borrowings from pagan writers like Menander and Epimenides.

Early Christianity wasnt merely Judaism 2.0it was a fusion of Hebrew and Greco-Roman traditions, cultures, rhetoric, and metaphysics.

St. Paul mentioned Menander and Epimenides in the course of his evangelism, in order to connect with his particular audience of Greek intellectuals (in his interaction with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens: Acts 17). But this is worlds away from supposedly grabbing elements in Greek literature as a basis of fabricated stories within an overall alleged fictional Gospel.

The scholar that Pearce is appealing to in this post is Dennis R MacDonald (born 1946). According to his Wikipedia page, he is the John Wesley Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Claremont School of Theology inCalifornia. MacDonald proposes a theory wherein the earliest books of theNew Testamentwere responses to the Homeric Epics, including theGospel of Markand theActs of the Apostles. The methodology he pioneered is calledMimesis Criticism.

The article describes his central thesis:

InChristianizing Homer, MacDonald lays down his principles of literarymimesis, his methodology for comparing ancient texts. There are six aspects he examines 1) accessibility, 2) analogy, 3) density, 4) order, 5) distinctive traits, and 6) interpretability.[1]According to his hypothesis, not only was Homer readily available to the authors of the New Testament, but the Homeric epics would have been the basic texts upon which the New Testament authors learned to write Greek. MacDonald also argues that the number of common traits, the order in which they occur, and the distinctiveness thereof between the Homeric Texts and early Christian documents help to show that the New Testament writers were using Homeric models when writing various books.

In his earliest reviews, MacDonald only applied his hypothesis to works such asTobitand theActs of Peter. In later works, he posits the Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel of Mark, and Gospel of Luke merged two cultural classics of his time period in order to depict Jesus as more compassionate, powerful, noble, and inured to suffering than Odysseus.

MacDonalds most famous work, however, isThe Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark. According to MacDonald, the Gospel of Mark is a deliberate and conscious anti-epic, an inversion of the Greek Bible of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, which in a sense updates and Judaizes the outdated heroic values presented by Homer, in the figure of a new hero.[4]

The book begins by examining the role that the Homeric Epics played in antiquitynamely that anybody who was considered educated at the time learned to read and write, and they did so by studying the Odyssey and Iliad. Students were expected, not only to understand the epics, but be able to rewrite the stories in their own words. Rewriting the Homeric Epics was commonplace and accepted in Biblical times.[4]

. . . Marks purpose, he argues, in creating so many stories about Jesus was to demonstrate how superior [Jesus] was to Greek heroes. Few readers of Mark fail to see how he portrays Jesus as superior to Jewish worthies He does the same for Greek heroes.[1]

The same article presents withering criticism of MacDonalds work from other scholars:

MacDonalds thesis has not found acceptance and has received strong criticism by other scholars.[5][6][7][8][9]Karl Olav Sandnes notes the vague nature of alleged parallels as the Achilles heel of the slippery project. He has also questioned the nature of the alleged paralleled motifs, seeing MacDonalds interpretations of common motives. He states, His [MacDonalds] reading is fascinating and contributes to a reader-orientated exegesis. But he fails to demonstrate authorial intention while he, in fact, neglects the OT intertextuality that is broadcast in this literature.

Daniel Gullotta from Stanford similarly writes MacDonalds list of unconvincing comparisons goes on and has been noted by numerous critics. Despite MacDonalds worthy call for scholars to reexamine the educational practices of the ancient world, all of the evidence renders his position of Homeric influential dominance untenable.[10]

Adam Winn, though adopting MacDonalds methods of mimetic criticism, concluded after a detailed analysis of MacDonalds theses and comparisons between Homer and Mark that MacDonald is unable to provide a single example of clear and obvious Markan interpretation of Homer because MacDonalds evidence is at best suggestive, it will ultimately convince few.[11]

David Litwa argues that problematic parts of MacDonalds thesis include that he construes both large ranges of similarity in addition to large range of difference as evidence for parallel, that he alters his parallels in order to make them more convincing like suggesting that Jesus walking on water is comparable to Athena and Hermes flying above water, that he has an inconsistent application of his own six criteria (where he often uses only one or two to establish parallel and thus relies largely on loose structural standards of similarity), and that he often has completely unconvincing parallels such as his comparison of Odysseus on a floating island to Jesus sitting in a boat that floats on water.[12]

What has Pearce so excited that he can hardly contain himself, is MacDonalds comparison of Joseph of Arimathea with the character Priam, in Homers Iliad. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Priam) describes the material that is the basis for such a comparison:

In the final year of the conflict, Priam saw 13 sons die: the Greek warriorAchilleskilled Polydorus,Lycaon, and Hector within one day. The death of Hector, which signified the end of Troys hopes, also broke the spirit of the king. Priams paternal love impelled him to brave the savage anger of Achilles and to ransom the corpse of Hector; Achilles, respecting the old mans feelings and foreseeing his own fathers sorrows, returned the corpse.

This is compared to the Gospel accounts:

Matthew 27:57-58 (RSV) When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. [58] He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. (cf. Mk 15:43-45; Lk 23:50-52; Jn 19:38)

Now note how MacDonald accuses the Gospel writers of pure fabrication:

Although it is possible that a woman of this name [Mary Magdalene] once existed, it is more likely that Mark created her to populate his narrative.

. . . It will not be Joseph of Nazareth who buries him but Joseph of Arimathea. Marks penchant for creating characters to contrast with Jesus family and closest disciples applies also to the names of the women at the tomb. (The Gospels and Homer, 2014, p. 95)

Id like to know how one proves that a named person didnt exist, but was merely made up? On what basis is that done? How does MacDonald know that it is more likely that Mark made up or created Mary Magdalene? The Christian would say that if the Gospel writers historical accuracy has been established times without number from archaeology and historical verification (as they assuredly have been), then they can be trusted in cases where they mention a person or event for the first time. MacDonalds skepticism is arbitrary and unfounded.

He asserts this numerous times in this book:

Mark . . . adds fifteen other place names, five of which are not independently attested: Dalmanoutha, Bethphage, Arimathea, Gethsemane, and Golgotha. As we shall see, he likely created them. (Ibid., p. 2)

In fact, Bethphage occurs in several Talmudic passages where it may be inferred that it was near but outside Jerusalem; it was at the Sabbatical distance limit East of Jerusalem, and was surrounded by some kind of wall. (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Bethphage). The Talmud was based on Jewish religious teachings and commentary that was transmitted orally for centuries (Encyclopaedia Britannica: Jerusalem Talmud), Thus. MacDonald is wrong about its non-biblical attestation.

[T]he Markan Evangelist apparently did not inherit most of his characters and episodes from antecedent traditions and texts; he created them by imitating classical Greek poetry, especially the Homeric epics, the Odyssey above all. (Ibid., p. 2)

She assumes that Mark inherited this tale from oral tradition, but more than likely he created it in imitation of Il. [Iliad] 24. (p. 101)

Virtually all solutions have presumed that the anointing story [Mt 26:6-13] was pre-Markan, but it is more likely that Mark himself created it with an eye to Eurycleias anointing of Odysseus . . . (p. 156)

If Mark created Jesus prayer from antecedents in Od. [Odyssey] 10.496-501 . . . (p. 223)

Luke . . . apparently created a story . . . (p. 239)

Mark . . . more than likely created his account from literary models. (p. 241)

If Mark created the choice between Jesus and Barabbas by imitating the suitors choice between Odysseus and the violent beggar Irus . . . (p. 297)

If Mark were responsible for creating the episode of Judass betrayal after the treachery of Homers Melanthius . . . (p. 318)

Protestant theologian Ronald V. Huggins offers an exhaustive critique of MacDonalds questioning of the existence of Judas Iscariot and the stories about him: Did Judas Exist? A Friendly Critique of Dennis R. MacDonalds Easter Time Blog (4-22-16). Other critical pieces:

Homer in the New Testament? (Margaret M. Mitchell, The Journal of Religion,Volume 83, Number 2 Apr., 2003).

Imitatio Homeri? An Appraisal of Dennis R. MacDonalds Mimesis Criticism (Karl Sandnes, December 2005, Journal of Biblical Literature 124(4):715).

Arbitrary claims that the Gospel writers simply made up fictional elements in real-life persons, based on characters in Homer or other Greek writers cant be proven. Its subjective mush: like much of atheist exegesis of the Bible and delusional, fictional, self-serving theories of Bible-writing.

The ridiculous notion that any conceivable similarity with pagan Greek literature in the Bible must be because of deliberate causation (and furthermore, in the service of supposed invention of mythical persons and events),is the fallacy (among others, no doubt) ofpost hoc ergo propter hoc(Latin: after this, therefore because of this).

Atheists (in this case and others, drawing from skeptical, anti-traditional, heterodox Christian scholars) have all these theories about how the biblical stories came to be, without any hard evidence that it is so. They dont, of course, believe in revelation as we do. We think the Bible is historically reliable (for various reasons: independent confirmation from history, archaeology, etc.), and believe in faith that it is inspired, in part based on this reliability, and so we accept its report on miracles.

With the atheist, on the other hand, with no God and no miracles or supernatural phenomena, the burden is to prove things strictly based on the hard evidence of historiography, texts, etc.What evidence would there be for this theory? None that I can see . . . So there was a similarity between Joseph asking for the body of Jesus and a character in The Iliad.Sowhat? One could findhundredsof similarities, and they all would prove exactlynothing.

To some extent its true that the gospels were influenced by Greco-Roman literary culture. Influence is always a factor: just by the nature of ideas and thinking persons. What orthodox Christians oppose is the notion of deliberate mythmaking.

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Photo credit: Marble terminal bust of Homer. Roman copy of a lost Hellenistic original of the 2nd c. BC. From Baiae, Italy. In the British Museum [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

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Summary: Atheist Jonathan MS Pearce enlists NT scholar Dennis R. MacDonald, who writes on Homer & the Gospels & posits widespread mythical creation in the Gospels.

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Pearce's Potshots #49: Homer & the Gospels | Dave Armstrong - Patheos

THE Dean of Toledo Cathedral, Fr Juan Miguel Ferrer, has been forced to resign by his archbishop, after he allowed a national rap music star to film a dance video in his cathedral.

A press release from the archdiocese of Toledo wrote on Tuesday said: He requests institutional forgiveness, in his own name and in that of the cathedral chapter, for errors and faults committed over recent days by word, deed and omission.

We also consider it appropriate to reaffirm that, under internal chapter regulations, all money obtained from extraordinary activities in the cathedral is used for social purposes.

The archdiocese was confirming the immediate departure of Fr Juan Miguel Ferrer. Fr Ferrer had permitted the recording of the video Ateo (Atheist) by Antn lvarez Alfaro, better known as C. Tangana, for a reported fee of 15,000, in the Gothic cathedral, built between 1226 and 1493. The ten-minute film, watched by more than 3.5 million viewers in its first three days of release, showed the rapper in a sensual dance with an Argentine actor-singer, Nathy Peluso, overlooked by leering figures in clerical dress.

In a weekend statement, Fr Ferrer said that he believed that the video portrayed a conversion through human love for containing the lines I was an atheist but now I believe, since a miracle like you had to come from heaven.

The 60-year-old Dean, a former under-secretary of the Vaticans Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that its provocative visual language should be accepted by the Church as the language of contemporary culture, which can produce good in those far away.

The Dean was overruled by the Archbishop of Toledo, Mgr Francisco Cerro Chaves, who said that he had been completely unaware of plans to make the video in the cathedral.

I deeply regret these events, and disapprove of the images recorded in our archdioceses primary place of worship, the Archbishop told Spanish media.

I humbly and sincerely ask forgiveness from all lay faithful, consecrated persons, and priests, who feel justly wounded by this misuse of a sacred space.

The video, said to have been inspired by Judgement Day, a painting in Toledo cathedral by the Renaissance artist Juan de Borgoa (1470-1536), includes a naked (but pixelated) Ms Peloso holding C. Tanganas severed head although this part of the video was not shot in the cathedral.

Speaking on Tuesday, Fr Ferrer said that he stood by his earlier explanation for allowing the video, but accepted that there had been communication failures caused by the absence of cathedral supervisors during the filming, and that future out-of-the-ordinary types of act should require the archdioceses approval.

The Archbishop said that penitential masses would be held in Toledo as an invitation to conversion, reparation for sins, and purification after the incident, which was the subject of a protest at an open-air recitation of the rosary on Sunday.

Christian churches have been used previously, often without permission, as video settings. In February 2012, members of the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot were given prison sentences for staging a performance inside the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, in Moscow (News, 27 April).

In January 2017, St Jozefs, in the Dutch city of Tilburg, was closed and re-sanctified after its confessional corner was used for a hardcore porn film.

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Dean of Toledo resigns after dance-video 'error' in cathedral - Church Times

At the end of August 2021, Harvard Universitys organization of chaplains unanimously elected Greg Epstein as president. Epstein the atheist, humanist author of Good Without God will be responsible for coordinating the schools more than 40 chaplains, who represent a broad range of religious backgrounds.

His election captured media attention, prompting articles in several outlets such as NPR, The New Yorker, the Daily Mail and the Jewish Exponent . Some portrayed the idea of an atheist chaplain as one more battle in the culture wars.

But the trends that Epsteins position reflects are not new. Non-religious Americans, sometimes referred to as nones, have grown from 7% of the population in 1970 to more than 25% today. Fully 35% of millennials say they are not affiliated with any particular religion.

They are part of a diverse group thats changing ideas about what it means to be nonreligious.

As sociologists of religion, we have studied these transitions and their implications. A recent study with colleagues at the University of Minnesota shows that, while Americans are becoming more comfortable with alternative forms of spirituality, they are less comfortable with those they see as entirely secular.

We argue that Epsteins election represents a shift that shows the increasing visibility and acceptance of nonreligious Americans. At the same time, the commotion around his position shows many Americans lingering moral unease about atheism.

Epstein seems to understand this cultural dilemma and emphasizes his commitments to social justice and humanism, a philosophy that rejects supernatural beliefs and seeks to promote the greater good. In doing so, he is becoming a spokesman for something new in the American context: an atheism that explicitly emphasizes its morality.

Atheism has long generated contention in the United States, going back to colonial times. But the late 19th centurys Golden Age of freethought brought the first widespread public expressions of skepticism toward religion. Lawyer and public orator Robert Ingersoll drew religious leaders ire as he lectured on agnosticism in sold-out halls across the country.

In the 1920s, the Scopes Monkey Trial over the teaching of Darwins theory of evolution in public schools highlighted struggles over religious authority in Americas laws and institutions. Meanwhile, Black skeptics of religion, often overlooked by scholars, influenced artists like Zora Neal Hurston and, later, James Baldwin. Many Americans know of Madalyn Murray OHair, who successfully challenged mandated Christian prayer and Bible readings in public schools in the 1960s and founded the organization that became American Atheists.

More recently, a growing number of atheist and humanist organizations have promoted the separation of church and state, fought discrimination, supported pro-science policies and encouraged public figures to come out as atheist.

Black atheists, not always feeling welcome in white-led organizations, have formed their own, often centered on social justice.

Despite this increasing organization and visibility, a large percentage of Americans do not trust atheists to be good neighbors and citizens. A national survey in 2014 found that 42% of Americans said atheists did not share their vision of American society, and 44% would not want their child marrying an atheist. Those percentages were virtually unchanged in a 2019 follow-up.

These attitudes affect young people like those to whom Epstein ministers. A third of atheists under age 25 report experiencing discrimination at school, and over 40% say they sometimes hide their nonreligious identity for fear of stigma.

As a chaplain, Epsteins job is to provide spiritual guidance and moral council to students, with a special focus on those who do not identify with a religious tradition. He himself identifies as an atheist, but also as a humanist.

In U.S. society, humanism is increasingly accepted as a positive, and moral, belief system, which some react to more favorably than to atheism, which is perceived as a rejection of religion. And a handful of Americas college campuses now have humanist chaplains.

But atheism remains more controversial in the United States, and an atheist chaplain is a harder sell. Efforts to include atheist chaplains in the military, for example, have not succeeded.

Epstein, a vocal advocate for humanism, appears to be pushing back against Americans persistent moral concerns about atheism identified in the research from the University of Minnesota.

His book openly challenges those views by arguing that atheism is a morally anchoring identity for people around the world. He talks at length about how humanism can motivate concern for racial justice and has called for political leaders on the left to embrace the nonreligious as an important, values-motivated constituency.

This marks a different approach from more militant high-profile atheists, particularly the Brights movement and the so-called New Atheist intellectuals like Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens. Epstein does not position himself against religion but seeks to cooperate with religious leaders on matters of common moral concern.

Its too soon to say whether Epsteins strategy of linking atheism to humanism, justice and morality will be successful in changing attitudes toward atheists. It is, however, likely to keep him in the public eye, a symbol of the transition in how Americans relate to organized religion.

[3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter. Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.]

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What Harvards humanist chaplain shows about atheism in America - The Conversation US

Coping with a global pandemic has laid bare the need for public trust in science. And there is good news and bad news when it comes to how likely the public is to trust science. Our work over the past ten years reveals that thepublic trusts science and that religious people seem to trust science as much as non-religious people. Yet, public trust inscientistsas a people group is eroding in dangerous ways. And for certain groups who are particularly unlikely to trust scientists, the belief that all scientists are loud, anti-religious atheists is a part of their distrust. Our research with atheist scientists in the US and UK shows that atheist scientists are radically different than the loudest voices would lead us to believe.

A small but vocal subset of atheist scientists (think Richard Dawkins, author ofThe God Delusion) speak derisively about religion and give the false impression that most scientists are anti-religious. It is thus no surprise that many religious individuals believe scientists are anti-religion. (Furthermore, given that women and communities of color are more likely to be religious than white menwho predominate in scienceit is unsurprising that the scientific community struggles to recruit and retain individuals from such backgrounds). Our data, however, turn the notion of hostile atheists on its head. After surveying 1,293 atheist scientists at universities and research institutes in the US and the UK, and conducting 81 in-depth interviews with survey participants, we identified three groups of atheist scientists. To be sure, we did encounter some anti-religion sentiment among one group we refer to asmodernist atheists. These are scientists who are not part of religious institutions and believe there is no way of knowing outside of science. A subset of modernist atheists are concerned about religions potential impact on the promotion of cognitive rationality in society. And more than two-thirds do view the relationship between science and religion as one of conflict. But conflict does not necessarily entail personal hostility. Indeed, many modernist scientists espoused positive views of religions role in society and rejected the discourse of vocal anti-religious atheists as hyperbolic and damaging to science.

Another group of atheist scientists we identify asculturally religious, (less than 40% of whom embrace the conflict perspective), who value including elements of religion in their day-to-day lives through social ties such as marriage to religious individuals, the religious schooling of their children, or formal religious affiliationdespite these culturally religious atheists own irreligion. Many of these atheists see value in being a part of a religious community. The lack of anti-religious sentiment among other culturally religious atheists is observed in their commitments and ties to religious individuals and organizations.

A third group,spiritual atheists, we label as such because they construct alternative value systemsoriented around the transcendentbut without belief in God or religious affiliation. For these scientists (again, less than 40% of whom embrace the conflict perspective), spirituality often imbues wonder and motivates their work. Spiritual atheist scientists rarely espouse negative views of religion, perhaps in part because they see limits to what science can explain and appreciate that both religious and non-religious forms of understanding can inform ethics, morals, and other non-material dimensions of the world.

These patterns, coupled with our previous work that demonstrates thatmore scientists are religious than most people think, indicate that most scientistseven atheist scientistsarenothostile to religion. They also suggest that science may have a marketing problem. By one logic, the public sphere entails a marketplace of ideas where multiple views of an issue can be presented for debate. At present, a small but vocal group of anti-religion atheist scientists maintains a monopoly over discourse related to science and religion. Unless a broader variety of both atheist and religious scientists begin to contribute to such conversations, the erosion of trust in scientists is unlikely to change.

Feature image byThisisEngineering RAEng from Unsplash

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Stereotypes of atheist scientists need to be dispelled before trust in science erodes | OUPblog - OUPblog

Youve gotta go to hell for something!

So quipped a friend of mine after telling a story about some adolescent mischief performed during his college years.

Another friend replied, That is, of course, if were not already there, referencing a common thought among many, that there is no heaven or hell, per se, but that both can be experienced in the here and now.

Life itself can be a heaven or a hell, some espouse.

This retort between friends quickly devolved into a sad series of exchanges where one discovered that another doesnt share the same beliefs, and both became defensive.

In short, Friend A was horrified, shocked, and a bit contemptuous that Friend B doesnt share a common faith read: isnt Christian and he didnt hide his feelings about that.

I understand the role of evangelism in religion. And I know that often, the invitation to accept Jesus into your heart is one that comes from a place of love.

I also understand that not everyone believes this way. Not only do Christians themselves disagree on these matters, but non-Christians, practitioners of another faith tradition, and those who espouse no beliefs at all eschew the notion that if a loving God exists, that God would never condemn to complete annihilation Gods creation.

So, no surprise, we disagree on the histories and mysteries, and that is OK.

Not only it is OK, but I believe that it is exactly how it is supposed to be.

And Im not sure how anyone could disagree with that.

If you believe in God, then you also believe it is God who created diversity, who welcomes it, loves it, requires it, even, and is certainly neither threatened nor intimidated by it.

If you do not believe in God, then you accept diversity as the necessary byproduct of the processes that are taking place that create and sustain life on our planet.

Both theists and atheists alike have studied snowflakes and fingerprints and faces, with their enormously recognizable similarities, and their distinct and distinguishing differences.

A theist is someone who believes in the existence of God, a god, or gods.

An atheist is someone who doesnt.

An agnostic is someone who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.

This means, of course, that technically we are all agnostic, because we do not and cannot know anything about God.

Religious observants and practitioners of any faith believe in God, a god, or gods, but they do not know.

And there is a difference. Belief is not knowledge. Faith and facts are not the same.

Of course, this does not mean that they have to disagree. Neither does it suggest that they dont.

True agnostics, however, claim neither faith nor disbelief in God.

They profess simply that such things are unknowable, and they often just stick to the things that can be known.

Theists are often more comfortable with agnostics than with atheists, I think, in part because saying I dont know is somehow a less offensive and a more open posture than saying, I dont believe.

But, friends, atheists exist.

If that makes you uncomfortable, consider two things:

First, imagine that all of the Bibles and all other sacred texts from the worlds religions were somehow destroyed all at the same time.

Now imagine that simultaneously all of the science textbooks throughout the world were also destroyed.

In a thousand years, new religious texts would appear, and they would all be very, very different both from the religious texts of history and from one another.

Similarly, in time, new science books would appear, and they would all be exactly the same, because all of the same tests would yield the same results.

Meaning, of course, that the scientific method of experimentation and verification, would not have changed, but religious experience would have changed very much.

This is a fact that leads many to focus on the facts of science rather than the mystery of religion.

Secondly, atheists ask if people of faith can prove the existence of God, which of course no one can, which leads the atheist to non-belief.

In truth, lets say that throughout history there have been roughly 3,000 gods available to worship. Christians believe in one, but reject 2,999 others.

Atheists simply believe in one less God than Christians.

While there are some theists and atheists who seem militant in their belief or non-belief respectively, and who are combative toward and shaming of those who disagree, I believe that many-if-not-most religious people and non-believers are good, kind, caring, and compassionate human beings whose worldview simply differs from that of others.

For religious people, God, a god, or the gods across the spectrum of sacred texts and traditions encourage human beings to love others, not only if they believe like you do, but even and especially if they do not. Welcoming the stranger is a key concept, for instance, in Christianity, yet so many Christians reject non-believers.

For atheists, morality is equally important, and, while atheists and theists share moral values related to protecting vulnerable individuals, atheists are more inclined to judge the morality of actions based on their consequences.

Focusing on the facts rather than confiding in faith is key, but many atheists talk down to people of faith for what they believe rather than the character of their lives as demonstrated by their actions.

Both theists and atheists have their work cut out for them.

And, to get started, both need to learn how to talk to one another.

By treating each other as if they are a human being who is loved and is capable of doing great things and leading a life of virtue.

Because, theist and atheist alike, that is precisely who they are.

Dr. Jonathan Eric Carroll, KLPC, NCPC, NCCE, is a state-licensed mental health professional, is an ACPE psychotherapist, and is the Founder of The Clinic @ The Montgomery, a center for therapy, parenting coordination, custody evaluation, and business consulting in downtown Owensboro. Dr. Carroll serves also as the Grief Therapist for 10 funeral homes in the region. Visit http://www.themontgomeryclinic.com.

Dr. Jonathan Eric Carroll, KLPC, NCPC, NCCE, is a state-licensed mental health professional, is an ACPE psychotherapist, and is the Founder of The Clinic @ The Montgomery, a center for therapy, parenting coordination, custody evaluation, and business consulting in downtown Owensboro. Dr. Carroll serves also as the Grief Therapist for 10 funeral homes in the region. Visit http://www.themontgomeryclinic.com.

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How to talk to an atheist | Features | messenger-inquirer.com - messenger-inquirer

Rev Steve Stockman has friends in high places. Theres rocker Gary Lightbody, world-famous Catholic priest Fr Martin Magill... and, of course, The Man Above.

ut it wasnt always like that, and youd probably never guess that this highly respected man of the cloth was once an atheist.

Then again, the Co Antrim native has never been one for fitting societal stereotypes.

Going back a few years, I was even scruffier than I am now, and I had an earring; no one believed what I did for a living, he told the Belfast Telegraph.

One customs officer just wouldnt accept that I was a minister. He was about to ask me what the four Gospels were

After yet another disbelieving customs officer handed back the long-haired clerics passport, he said to her: You dont think Jesus had short back and sides, do you?

Such unshakeable faith wasnt a staple of the younger Stockmans psyche.

When I was in lower sixth and looking at jobs, I wanted to be a sports or music journalist, he said.

I wanted to be the one asking the questions. I remember making up radio shows for English class and writing a youth club magazine.

Believe it or not, he also went through a decade of atheism from age seven to 17 starting the year he crossed another divide by switching from supporting Manchester United to Manchester City.

I was waiting for the football to start one Sunday afternoon when I was seven and during the programme before it, an interviewer asked his guest if they believed in God, he recalled.

I thought that was an interesting question and decided quickly that I didnt.

I dont know what my reasons were for not believing but they were very strong. I wasnt a passive atheist; I used to argue with Christians that there was no God.

But Steve, who has been based at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church for the last 12 years, now believes that might have been the moment that God started nudging me to the question.

Ultimately, it was the rock music fans friends who helped change his mind about Gods existence when he was 17.

I was hanging around with Christians and asking the question, If God doesnt exist, then why are these guys so committed and so at peace with their world? he said.

So I started to pray and study the Bible... and then I sensed that God was very much in my life.

There were signs too.

I was sitting in front of my album collection and the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were at the front of it, he revealed.

One of their albums Street Survivors has them standing in flames and I remember saying, Well, if youre so great and almighty, you can take the flames off that album cover.

Nothing happened. But three months later and Id come to faith at this stage I was in a record shop in Canada looking through albums and I found the Lynyrd Skynyrd one this time with a cover minus the flames.

That was the only album in my 100-strong collection where the cover was different in Canada than it was here... things like that were adding up at the time.

Steve, who was chaplain at Queens University, Belfast for 15 years, doesnt believe happiness is a deal that God gives us.

Happiness is a kind of Hollywood 20th century idea that Im not sure many people who follow Jesus down through centuries experienced in the way we describe it, he said.

The happiness we seek is almost an entitlement of having things the right address, the right car etc.

I dont think thats what God was about. The God of the manger, the donkey and the cross is a humble God, out to make other peoples lives not necessarily happy but better.

Steve is probably best known for the 4 Corners Festival and for his peace process collaboration with Clonard Monastery.

Theres also his friendship with Falls Road priest Fr Magill, who made global headlines two years ago for his angry homily towards Northern Irelands politicians at the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee.

Both men turn 60 this year and both asked for charitable donations in lieu of presents. Their modest target 1,000 for Embrace NI, an interdenominational organisation that helps refugees, was reached within a couple of days and quickly readjusted.

Although Steve lives in Belfast, its a house he has owned in Ballycastle for 24 years that he calls home.

Despite growing up in a deeply divided Ballymena, the Gracehill Primary School past pupil wasnt affected by sectarianism.

I was aware of its existence but never involved in it nor did it touch me in my own psyche, he said.

I became what I would call a member of the Venn diagram where I think theres a part of me thats British and a part thats Irish. Im still very comfortable being both.

Although famed for peace process collaboration, he admits that growing up in Presbyterianism, ecumenism was almost a bad word.

You might have talked to Catholics but you certainly didnt worship with them or think about doing things with the Catholic Church, he said.

My drive, which includes a bit of ecumenism, is peace making... Fr Martin and I can be who we are in our own identities but we can come together for the common good. We can be good friends without agreeing on every theological issue.

He added: I came to faith because I thought Jesus was really cool and wise and sensible and you should love your enemies.

So, were Catholics the enemy?

I wouldnt call it enemy, I would call it the other... where theyre different, you have to reach beyond, you have to cross the boundary to be friends. I think thats what Jesus was about.

But Steve, who will be 60 on October 10, then added that he stayed away from it on a practical level for 30 years until I met Martin. Prior to that, I was still talking about it but not really doing it.

That defining friendship came about in 2011 a year before they founded the festival.

Martin wanted to do Irish lessons and had a zany idea of doing it with Catholics and Protestants, he said.

He knew that Protestants werent likely to go to Lenadoon, where he was at the time, but Fitzroy had an Irish service once a month. He rang me and asked if he could borrow Fitzroy.

I told him he could and offered to lend him my wifes cousin, an Irish teacher.

We met for a coffee and I went away thinking that it wasnt the end of the friendship, just the beginning.

The 4 Corners Festival has hit the headlines more than once.

There was Steves interview with Snow Patrols Gary Lightbody; before that, an event featuring Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and Jo Berry (whose father, Sir Anthony Berry,was killed in the atrocity) caused a riot outside the Skainos Centre in east Belfast in 2014.

Some people didnt like a Brighton bomber on the Newtownards Road... that got us front page news... so that was bigger than Gary Lightbody, he said.

Wed already done Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue, Ian Archer (who wrote Hold Back the River for James Bay and Lightning Bolt for Jake Bugg) but Gary was the best known.

He was amazing. He had my back. Hes a wonderful human being. That was great fun.

So where did the idea for his blog Soul Surmise (initially Rhythms of Redemption because Ihad a BBC radio show from 1996 to 2006) come from?

Radiohead played a gig in the Mandela Hall at Queens in 1998; it was low key at the time, he said.

When the BBC did a 20th anniversary special on that gig, the only review they could find in the world was on my website.

I was one of the first to have a web page because a friend had shown me how to do it. When we got 100 hits after three months we thought we were the biggest thing in the world!

He advised me to change that to a blog in 2009, which is what we have now.

Steve has written two books including one on U2 which got to number 99 on the Amazon chart and helped a charity founder write his memoir.

Hes also written poetry compilationsfor different charities, as well as songs.

But since he moved from QUB to Fitzroy, he doesnt have as much time as he used to.

He cites his wife Janice (54) as the biggest influence on his life.

The pair have been married for 25 years and have two daughters Caitlin (23), a recent graduate from Stranmillis, and Jasmine (20), a student at the University of Reading.

We met in her church when I was doing a mission in 1984 but we didnt start going out until 1989 and then we were married in 1996, he said.

Janice has been there in every turn, she encouraged me to be me and thats all I ever wanted.

She allowed me to be myself and even likes my long hair...

That may have something to do with the outer-worldly nature of their first encounter.

Were convinced that the first time we spoke, she was standing on the spot where her father asked her mother to marry him a kitchen in a church hall at Old Park Presbyterian.

Given the importance of his relationship with Janice, I asked him how he feels about clerics from the Catholic faith not being able to marry.

Janice is trying to get that sorted shes going to write to the Pope, he replied.

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Steve Stockman on crossing divides, friends in high places, United to City and that decade of atheism - Belfast Telegraph

Why does Midnight Mass exist? was a question I repeatedly asked myself through all seven episodes of this miniseries. That may sound mean or overly critical, but I found myself asking it because this limited series doesnt know what it wants to be. Religious horror? Monster horror? Family drama? Religious drama? A kitchen-sink drama, with every possible social issue thrown in for good measure? Midnight Mass doesnt know what wants to be, and even when it gets a hint of what it could be, it yanks it away.

The reason I asked to review this show, despite my lukewarm feelings on both The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, was 1) because I had hoped that Mike Flanagan, free of any trimmings of adaptation, would spread his wings and really fly and 2) because Rahul Kohli is a good actor, and I wanted to see if he got something substantial to do here. Rahul Kohli does get some great things to do here, and he does them admirably; if Flanagan gets another series order from Netflix, and I suspect he will, hopefully, Kohli gets to actually play the main character. Unfortunately, all of Flanagans worst instincts come into play here, along with some very muddled thoughts on religion.

First and foremost, the monologues, oh god, the monologues in Midnight Mass; theres so many per episode on this show that it makes the head spin. Theyre not fun monologues or monologues that have any drop of the individual characters traits in them, except maybe for Father Pauls (Hamish Linklater), but his are bombastic, over the top, and completely clueless on what his brand of theology would probably be. Father Pauls messages are more evangelical territory as opposed to Catholic territory, I say that as someone who was raised evangelical, and whos been an atheist now for some time. Maybe if you were raised in any denomination of Christian and eventually turned atheist itll be a universal experience, but somehow, I dont think so.

Everyone on the show is trapped on this little island, except theyre not really trapped because they could leave at any time on one of the two ferries. I suppose the idea is that you always get called home sooner or later, but at the same timepeople could just leave this depressing little fishing village and go to the vague mainland. I have so many questions about this little island: is there no library, does no one read anything other than the Bible? Why would Kohlis character come here, even in the face of the racism of the big city? Wouldnt the racism of a small, ultra-Catholic island town be worse for a Muslim father and son? Why does a woman like Bev Keene (Samantha Sloyan) have such power if the whole island hates her deplorable guts? Sloyan does a good job with an unredeemable character, but some of the things Bev says are so nasty, so beyond the pale, that rooting for her death really isnt an unacceptable thing to do. Shes this islands version of Kai Winn or Dolores Umbridge, for a more mainstream example of a lunatic fanatic.

At a certain point in Midnight Mass, everyone seems really, incredibly stupid. I wont go into it, but theres a point where being irrational just becomes being stupid as all get out, and this show crosses that line with most of its characters extremely quickly once the time for the real horror to begin. The first few episodes of the show are slow, methodical, and all about building character. The last episodes are a bad roller coaster ride, from start to finish, each one more ludicrous than the last. Maybe my dislike of this whole miniseries is because horror has to have some grounding in reality for me to really like it.

Midnight Mass might have been doomed from the start; any series that tries to do so much when it could just be a fun horror romp usually is. That Flanagan has aspirations beyond being fun isnt necessarily a bad thing; it comes bad when the writing around topics like religion and race gets muddled beyond anything recognizable as something from our world.

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REVIEW: Dont attend this MIDNIGHT MASS - Comics Beat

I still practice Christianity, but I was looking for a community that was a bit more open.

The community of Jedis is chiefly online, although Johnson meets up with fellow California Jedi. Johnson interacts with members of the temple daily via an online chat forum. Each week theres a service on Discord.

Like other religions, the Jedi Temple ushers members through important life rituals. Their ministers can perform weddings and funerals and give blessings. Jedi doctrine, Johnson said, can help members find meaning.

A lot of people have a lot of questions the big questions, like: Why am I here? Whats going on when I die? We can help people explore the answers, Johnson said.

So, what is a Jedi service? Basically a sermon, Johnson says. In the most recent service she led, she preached on corruptibility and integrity. About 15 people tune in to the live service, but many more watch the recorded sermons.

Many members are drawn to the temple seeking a religion thats more accepting and more welcoming. The Jedi community is syncretic, blending together spiritual and philosophical practices that inspire them.

In some Christian churches, its difficult to be your authentic self, said Johnson. Here, you dont have to fit a mold.

Johnson attributes her parallel Jedi religion with helping her seek a job that is others-centered, not self-centered: She currently works with people with disabilities, helping them find employment.

To address the Ewok in the room: Have most of the members been evangelized by Star Wars?

Johnson contends the temples adherents are fans of the Jedi philosophy rather than the Star Wars movies and are searching for real wisdom popularized by a fictional universe. While some are very into Star Wars, more are seeking a community studying and practicing the philosophy that George Lucas attributed to the Jedi knights.

Johnson has a set of Jedi robes she will wear for ceremonies. But she doesnt wear them often. I dont think society is ready for me to walk around in my Jedi robes.

The Rev. Karla Kamstra was born in Kentucky, which she calls, Gods country. Farming and pastoring are in her heritage.

I come from a long line of Southern Baptist preachers, she said.

She credits her fascination with religion to her Southern Baptist grandmother.

If my grandmothers car was heading for the church, I was with her. I was there Sunday morning, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, she said.

Those early experiences left her captivated by the Bible and its teachings and in awe of preachers.

But she also remembers some of the harsh rhetoric and vengeful depictions of God with anger she heard in childhood sermons.

I think that even at that age, I said, thats not a God that I want to worship.

Today, Kamstra tends a digital flock onTikTok, where she distributes videos that address religious trauma, LGBTQ affirmation and help the spiritual but not religious find their path to God.

She is currently closing in on 500,000 followers on TikTok. Her videos feature messages of affirmation, short sermons about religious trauma, ministering as a woman and takedowns of misogyny, racism and homophobia.

Her TikTok ministry came about after a long journey of spiritual seeking.

Kamstra and her husband searched in Baptist, Presbyterian and nondenominational churches for a spiritual home. After searching for years, Kamstra began going through a process of combing through her previous beliefs to find a spirituality that felt authentically hers. It was a process she describes as untangling rather than deconstruction.

I kept putting God in too small of a box, she said.

Her search for God sent Kamstra to Christian college and then to an online degree in world religions at Arizona State University. A year into that online program, she felt the call to seminary. She began attending One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City and was ordained in 2017. She found the experience deeply healing:

Its like, I came full circle and fell back in love with Jesus again. With a healed heart.

Kamstra felt that her journey has been a process of claiming space for herself and freeing herself from the expectations of former faith leaders. She has found on TikTok a community of people who have left religion but are still seeking spirituality. She wants to walk alongside people and give them the freedom she found by going on a very individual journey.

She believes Christ has room for her, even if Christian churches dont.

You cant kick me out of the Jesus club because my experience doesnt look like yours.

Roger Grace is an ordained Methodist minister, who, since the 1980s, has been part of the Rural Chaplains Association.

A rural chaplain is anyone who feels a call to minister to people living in rural areas. The chaplains can be a layperson or someone ordained, like Grace.

Many times people will come see the pastor or talk to a trusted lay person before they will go see a psychiatrist or psychologist, he said.

The Rural Chaplains Association was organized in response to the farm crisis of the 1980s. Family farms were going under, and farms were being sold.

The suicide rates were very high, said Grace. When a farmer loses his or her farm, not only do they lose their source of income, they lose their home, their heritage, their identity.

The association was founded to create supportive community ties and to advocate for supportive policies. We try to provide hope and healing for those who are experiencing pain and having difficulties in their lives, said Grace.

The association also helps train and educate clergy and lay people in the issues of rural life, which Grace says has supplemented his work as a minister and helped him understand the crises and struggles of his community better.

The Rural Chaplains Association iscelebrating 30 years of active service this year. The first cohortof which Grace was a memberwas certified as rural chaplains in 1991.

Grace grew up in rural Ohio and worked on family farms during the summers his uncles farm in central Ohio went out of business in the 80s. After seminary, Grace began serving in rural churches, about two dozen in all.

During the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, smaller rural churches were the last to shut down and the first to reopen. But some of Graces colleagues used creative means to reach parishioners who couldnt come to church and didnt have internet access.

One of his fellow pastors typed and printed out his sermons and mailed them out to families.

That was quite a compromise, even in his case, because he always just wrote an outline and gave his sermon from the outline, he said with a chuckle.

The primary requirement is that a chaplain has a heart for rural life, Grace said, and the ability to draw isolated and spread-out communities together.

Lending a listening ear canif not make things betterat least let people know theyre not alone, he said.

For Lance JiGan Kaplan, one of the biggest challenges in becoming a Zen hospice chaplain was overcoming his imposter syndrome. Although he was raised, as he describes, a secular Jew, he identified as an atheist since he was a teenager. Who am I to be offering this spiritual support? he wondered.

His journey from atheism to Zen began about four years ago, when his father died at 91.

Kaplan took care of his father in his final days and stayed with him immediately before and after his death.

I didnt realize how transformational those moments would be, Kaplan said.

Around this time, Kaplan was beginning to practice meditation and study Buddhism. Kaplan was put in touch with the Village Zendo in New York City and began serving with some of the Zendos prison ministries.

When his father was dying, Kaplan witnessed the dedication and care of his fathers hospice caretakers. At first, he thought: how could I do what they do?

I was really inspired by the hospice workers who had taken care of my father at home, Kaplan said. But I thought I could never do what they did. It just seemed way beyond me.

Kaplan has been a cinematographer for 20 years, and he still freelances part time. But after volunteering at the Village Zendo, he decided to enroll in the Zen Center for Contemplative Cares foundations in contemplative care course and completed their clinical pastoral education. In the fall of 2020, he did clinical hours at the palliative care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he has been volunteering this past summer.

Opening himself up to Zen as an atheist, Kaplan said, was an exercise in not knowing. After he encountered Zen, the certainty of atheism seemed less interesting, he said.

Although he slowly began to open himself up to getting sucked into suffering, Kaplan said he had to overcome fear in his clinical pastoral education.

Death is this terrifying thing that comes up in movies. So it just seemed, like, ominous, he said.

Kaplan said that the essential Buddhist practice that has helped him accept death was the Dyad an exercise that trains the practitioner not to shy away from whats happening.

The exercise is designed to tune you into your own discomfort, and then not run away from it, but to actually explore it instead of asking, How do I reflect whats really happening? Kaplan found that encountering death has helped him accept discomfort. And accepting that discomfort has helped him accept being in the presence of death.

One day during his training, his supervisor at Brooklyn Hospital asked him to attend a palliative extubation a family was removing a family members breathing tube in order to let the family member pass away.

A hospital chaplain is required to offer every family the opportunity for prayer. Kaplan said he was nervous about leading prayer, but his supervisor offered a simple framework of concrete communication.

Dear Lord, Im here with X and Y at Brooklyn Hospital. This is what Ive heard is important to them.So were praying to you for this.

Kaplan was struck by how grateful families were for this simple act of prayer and the power of that communication to create openness. Not just to me, but openness to themselves, and to the moment.

by Rene Roden, Religion News Service

Religion News Service

"It would be a bad generalization to place the whole clergy and Catholic Church under suspicion," the Roman Catholic priest was quoted as saying in a recent interview with The European, a Berlin-based online news service.Kng also said he still agrees with Pope Benedict XVI on some key issues.The 83-year-old

The Episcopal Church still officially considers marriage to be between a man and a woman, reflected in the marriage rite of its Book of Common Prayer. Many dioceses, however, unofficially allow priests to bless same-sex relationships and even marriages. Because the church puts a high value on scripted liturgies, many

Tatiana Kotova, of the ACT Central Asia Forum, speaking from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, told the ACT Alliance in Geneva that fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks could easily escalate in the central Asia region that is often described as a forgotten corner of the world. "It is

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Five clergy speak about their unexpected callings - The Presbyterian Outlook

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Spirit

We are no more than biological robots in a meaningless universe. An expression uttered by many an atheist.

It does not explain how a human body can be conscious and aware one minute, and asleep or knocked unconscious the next. What went missing?

Here we have a human body complete in every way as before but apart from the heart continuing to beat and the continuation of breathing, is functionless. Something more is necessary to complete the person. To give it character. To get it mobile and active.

Although many of us prefer to believe there is no God and we have no spirit which such being may have endowed us with; yet other explanations fail us. From this we may conclude also that the return of our spirit into our body is the domain also of that greater being.

After all it is his to begin with. He might decide to keep it. Our body will then be left for our family to bury.

Speaking of bringing a human life to an end, let no man presume he inconsequentially has such right. This also is the domain of and at the sole discretion of the great spirit.

Even such mortal men as who have chosen to partner with the evil one and are not above murder have souls, which will eventually become subject to God.

Garry Kingma

Tyotown

Ashamed

I was deeply concerned about reports Canada has left behind Afghan nationals and their families that supported our embassy and military forces during the past 20 years.

It is very disappointing that in the six years since we withdrew our troops on the ground, Canada could not identify, document, and extract those individuals to safety.

Shame on Justin Trudeau and each member of his caucus for this failure to act.

J.N. Cox

Cornwall

Help, not harm

Vaccination is that which people take to protect themselves from diseases.

Currently, every country is trying to get its people vaccinated to protect them from the COVID-19 pandemic. We know vaccination is beneficial for everyone. It saves people from the pandemic.

It does not affect anyones health and does not damage the shoulder through which the vaccine is taken. Some people think it is harmful to health, and it damages the hand in which the vaccination is carried. Moreover, they believe whoever is vaccinated can die but its not the truth.

The fact is that it is helpful, not harmful, so it had better be taken.

Mohammad Naeem Talat

Cornwall

Raise the flags

Almost two million Canadians have served overseas in various wars and peacekeeping efforts during the past hundred years.

Over 110,000 of these valiant Canadians paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, and hundreds of thousands were mentally and physically wounded. We will never forget the sacrifices made by those who served and by those they left behind.

Each Nov. 11, we join together as a nation. We lower our flags to half-staff. We gather at cenotaphs and we bow our heads in two minutes of silence.

On Nov. 12, we proudly raise our flags once again to demonstrate our hard-won freedoms.

I believe it is time to raise our flags once again to honour all of those who have served, such as my late father Lt.-Col. A Marshall Irvine, and to demonstrate we are a free country.

John M. Irvine

Cornwall

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Cornwall letters to the editor, Sept. 28, 2021 - The Kingston Whig-Standard

Tom Van Denburgh's transformation from believer to skeptic didn't come in a sudden, "a-ha!" moment.

It was more like a slow, steady trek toward a new truth.

Growing up in the northern New Jersey suburbs, Van Denburgh attended a private Christian academy with "an overemphasis on hell and brimstone" and an unhealthy preoccupationwith Satan, he recalls.

Every Easter weekend, his family would attend the church's outdoor Stations of the Cross display where "a live Jesus, covered in fake blood, pretended to agonize on a full-sized cross." Tom and hisolderbrother would weep in horror.

He stopped going to church in seventh grade, but throughout adolescence, he struggledto explain the discomfort gnawing at him when people spoke about religion.

Only in college did he find the words: He was an atheist, a "None."

He's not alone. While still just a sliver of the overall population, the proportion of atheists in the U.S. doubled over the last decade, reaching 4% of all adults in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center. An additional 5% considered themselves agnostic, claiming nothing can be known about the existence or nonexistence of a higher power.

The share describing themselves as Christian, meanwhile, dropped to 65% in 2019, down from 77% in 2009.Protestant and Catholic identification have both ebbed.

The exodus from organized religion that is remaking America hasn't left it agodless nation. Surveys show most of those who've left religious institutions behind say they still believe in a divine power.

Understanding theflight from faith, and what's replacing it, will be critical to understanding American civic life in the future, as the religious "Nones" continue to grow into a major force.

Here's a look at the journeys three men have taken, and their sacrifices and epiphanies along the way:

Growing up in a devout Muslim family in Pakistan, Muhammad Syed never encountered religious skeptics. "There's a story about Muhammad flying to Jerusalem on a horse with wings. If you express any doubt about that, you're branded a heretic," saidSyed, who now lives in Washington, D.C.

Syed moved to the U.S. in his 20s, and attended graduate school for computer science.Like Tom Van Denburgh, he found it hard to square a skeptical, rationalist view of the world with a faith tradition that required belief in the mysterious andmiraculous. Several years after completing his master's coursework,he decided he would no longer practice Islam.

Studies show those raised in a strict religious upbringing are no more likely to become Nones, said Greg Smith, head of Pew's domestic religion polling unit.

But their paths are often more traumatic.

Muhammad Syed, founder of Ex-Muslims of North America, on why he left Islam

Jessica Koscielniak, USA TODAY

Shocked friends and family tried to convince Syed to return. When it was clear he had left for good, some refused to associate with him; others were so angry, they threatened him physically.

Overall, the Muslim community in the U.S. has been growing in recent years. But almost a quarter or those raised Muslim no longer identified with the faith in a 2017 Pew study.

Today, at age 42, Syed works in software development. He also runs Ex-Muslims of North America, a nonprofit he founded in 2013 to help others facing the same difficult transition.

A survey for the groupbyGeorge Mason University found "leavers"cited a wide range of motivations, but most expressed a discontent with Islam's doctrines and practices. Nearly all of them experiencedblowback for their apostasy, including verbal and emotional manipulationand shattered relationships, Syed said.

Like many Americanswho leaveorganized religion, he remains passionate about his spirituality.

"Spirituality is connectedness with the people around us, with our context in the universe," he said. "Being a part of the universe, seeing where we are as a species, our origins, our understanding of all of that, thats a spiritual experience.

"I personally think serving humanity is important," Syed said.

In high school, Tom Van Denburgh came out to a friend as gay. The news raced around the school. Classmates threatened and shoved him in the hallwayand "Biblical passages were hurled at me," he said.

"I was told I was going to hell."

Van Denburgh also began reading about the horrors of the Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials and other episodes of history in which religion became a "justification for bigotry."

Eventually, the Bible stories he was taught as a child felt "divorced from any sense of reality and nothing more than mythology," said Van Denburgh, 34, who now lives in Plainfield, New Jersey.

He works as communications director forAmerican Atheists, the civil rights group founded by activist Madalyn Murray OHair. "I focus on protecting other minorities like me from the negative aspects of religion," he said in an interview.

In a landmark 1963 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited mandatory prayer in public schools, O'Hair explained atheists' beliefs to the justices.

"An atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now here on Earth," she told the court. "An atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue itand enjoy it."

Van Denburgh spends his spare time on political activities and pushing for progressive legislation, including protections against LGBTQ discrimination. He finds fulfillment, he said, involunteer work, friends and family and acquiring knowledge.

Tom Van Denburgh, raised evangelical, living as atheist: 'I do not miss religion'

Michael Karas, NorthJersey.com

He doesn't believe in any higher powers but instead in "the need to protect and preserve human rights."

Atheists are among the most politically active group in the country, relative to their numbers, said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University who has studied the rise of the Nones.

For many Americans, "politics is the new religion," added Joe Chuman, a professor in Columbia University's Department of Religion. From social justice warriors on the left to MAGA believers on the right, political activists often feel they have found the truth in a way that has a religious fervor, he said.

"People today tend to be more skeptical of all types of institutions," Chuman said. "Fewer people belong to clubs and younger people tend not to join any institution or group. People are turned off by the right-wing churches and tend to look down uponchurches for not being liberalenough."

Jay Brown was born into a conservative Christian home to parents who were globe-trotting missionaries. He followed in their footsteps, traveling from his Iowa hometown to California, Brazil and China to open the eyes of the unenlightened.

His spiritual journey has taken him much further.

Today, the 42-year-old graphicdesigner and father of two lives in Somerville, New Jersey, without any religious affiliation. He feels he doesn't need to believe in divinity to be a good person and lead a meaningful life.

"Before, I had to view the bad things in the world as things that God caused" or allowed, he said. "And I had to try to make sense of that. Now, I just look at them as problems that we can try to solve without having to blame anyone or ask why it happened."

'Life after religion': Once a missionary, Jay Brown is now an atheist

Kevin R. Wexler, NorthJersey.com

Brown was raised in western Iowa, hanging on the words of preachers and Sunday school teachers. His family belonged to a small, fundamentalist evangelical denomination called the Plymouth Brethren.

As a child, he was encouraged to study Scripture daily. Like other atheists, he found somethingjust didn't click.

When he was 10, Brown was disturbedby a passage he read in the first book of Samuel in which God commanded King Saul to kill the children of the Amalekites, an ancient tribe described in the Bible as relentless enemies of Israel.

"I asked my mom about it," Brown recalled. "She gave me several explanations why this was defensiblefor Israel to do against their enemies at that time in history. The answers didn'tsatisfy me at all, but I nodded and figured I'd understand when I got older."

The family moved around the world, settling in new regions to evangelize. Brown was an active participant and along the way met his wife, who also did missionary work. The couple adopted two children while overseas.

But he was never able to dismiss the slaughter of the Amalekite childrenor settle other practical and theological questions that nagged at him:"Do we freely choose to believe in Jesus for salvation or did God alreadychoose who would and wouldn't believe? How did Jesus' body as a physical sacrificepay for aspiritual debt of sin? Andwill over 70% of people throughout history go to hell just because they never heardof Jesus?"

The dissonance finally become too much two years ago. Brown announced that he was an atheist. His wife of 12 years was distraught, his two teenagersconfused, friends in church aghast.

His identity, occupation and worldview, all centered on Christianity, had collapsed. Life suddenly looked very different.

While his marriage wasshaken, Brown said he and his wife have realized their love for one another was greater than their disagreement over religion. He's found Facebook a lifesaver, he said, allowing him to network with other atheists and humanist groups.

"I feel the beautyand joy of this world moredeeply now. I now probablyonly have this one life to experience, which makes itprecious and rare." He's good "for the sakeof being good, not because of a promised reward" or because of "gods who only seem to appear in stories," he said.

"Nothing I do will matter to the cosmos," Brown explained, "but it will matter to the ones I love."

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:yellin@northjersey.com

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They were a missionary, a Muslim and an evangelical but are now atheists. Why? - NorthJersey.com