Beyond Atheism ep 0 Background
A bit of information about a new project
If you follow the Beyond Atheism podcast here or wherever you listen to podcasts (and you should check it out) this will be an interesting follow up. I plan to use this Medium page to flesh out the topics and give a little background or insight into what was being discussed. The podcast is an ongoing project of discovery and self-clarification; we don’t really know what comes “Beyond Atheism,” but Nathan and I are trying to have dialogues that can expand on what we know about it.
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In the not too distant past, anytime atheists got together everyone knew what to expect — an epic complaint session about religion. But that no longer fits since atheism has advanced and become more popular, venting about religion isn’t the defining feature anymore. Atheism, probably thanks to the New Atheists, other outspoken secularists and the massive loss of religion in America, has gained greater confidence and a focus on what it is rather than what it isn’t. What it means to be an atheist — or agnostic, or none, or irreligious or anything outside of a religious identity really — isn’t clear yet. The values, priorities, beliefs and norms of people without religion hasn’t been defined or widely understood yet. The podcast is an effort to both find these as they already exist and to shape them where they don’t.
The first thing I need to address here is that I am just going to keep using “atheist” to speak pretty generally about people who don’t have a religion. This is, on the one hand, very sloppy, but on the other hand really useful. The sloppiness comes from deviating from the specific meaning of atheist (which I think I will represent as Atheist from now on at least in writing leaving it confusing only at the start of sentences and as part of a title) which can itself be broken down into two pieces. Atheists reject all belief in God and gods as well as the divine. The subcategories are strong Atheists who claim to know with certainty that gods do not exist and weak Atheists who claim only that there is a lack of evidence. The strong camp is convinced; the weaks can be convinced with sufficient evidence. Similar specifics can be made for agnostics, with the strong camp claiming that the supernatural and divine are unknowable, and the weak claiming that it is possible to know but that we do not (yet) know the truth. Personally, I most often find myself in the strong Atheist camp, but my mind shifts around quite a bit. After all, unseen forces can become knowable, like gravity and radiation, both of which can be measured and quantified in ways that were impossible to even imagine centuries ago. Conceptual shifting and lateral thinking can complicate pretty straightforward notions as well. Consider what it would mean for the sun to be a literal god; I can’t deny the existence of the sun or its immense power. Of course, the sun isn’t a god.
The important thing for all of these positions is that they reject the legitimacy of religion. Whichever of these anyone is on any particular day the result is the same — church leaders are incorrect and do not deserve to have power over the individual. So when I think about atheism (with the small “a”) I am considering all lives lived in the absences of this religious authority. This definition can also extend to most “nones” or “nothing in particular” (both of which profess no religion or defined faith but may claim to be spiritual or have a belief in a higher power) because the effect is that they all live a life without religious authority dictating aspects of life. How these lives are best lived is a choice and it is also the topic of Beyond Atheism. I think it is going to be a fruitful journey.
