The voice of an atheist

I recently got back in touch with a good friend from University who is now living in the states. We have had a few exchanges on facebook, and I found some of the things e had to say about his atheist faith quite interesting. Ultimately I think that there is a God- he is evident in everything all around me, and it takes a great deal of faith to say that there isn't one. I have added my own comments to his text in orange;

"Well Adam, I have to say I'm more of an atheist than anything these days. I was a strong Catholic, but I struggled with many theological issues that sent me into very deep meditations about life & the nature of the universe, etc. I guess you could say that I came to the conclusion that everything in this universe is accidental, which is by no means to suggest that it is thereby any less remarkable. (in my opinion it is much more remarkable to think that in a relatively short time frame all life 'happened' than to believe in the guiding influence of a deity) I guess I feel that as a mortal, it is and will always be beyond my ability to understand God, and for that reason, any perception I have in God either is, or might as well be, my own creation. (my attitude towards this statement is that it is illogical. If a tadpole cannot understand a human, does that make humans imaginary? I agree that we can have no fixed impression about the exact nature of God, but the fact that we use our imaginations to try to understand something of what he/she/it might be like does not mean that a deity is "imagined") And if I cannot know the intentions or desires of God, then it's just as well for me not to think in those terms. If there is a God, I just hope he believes in my existence more than I believe in his. Or hers. Or its. Or theirs. I mean, what do I know really? (it is not what we know that is important. Faith is not a matter of knowledge, but a matter of belief) I got to the point that I had to just throw away everything I'd accepted and trust my gut for better or worse, and if there is a God, I don't feel it or see it, to be honest. But of course, atheism is a faith too. I can no more prove the non-existence of a deity than I could prove his existence. Maybe I just want my life to make more sense to me, for practical reasons.But being an atheist does not make me anti-Christian. Well, not in theory anyway. There is a lot about American Christians that I see as hypocritical and it does anger me when I know that's not what Christianity is about. It isn't something that should be used as a validation for hate and prejudice, yet I see that a lot over here. Some people give Christianity a bad name, and I think if Jesus were here now, he'd treat them much the same way as he treated the Pharisees. ( I can sympathise with this argument. The Church often appears critical and judgemental, but this was not God's plan for his Church. God told us to love our neighbour. He told us not to judge lest we ourselves be judged. He demonstrated practically how to reach out with love to the marginalised of society, and in almost all of his recorded dealings he did so. The reason the Church is not always effective at doing this is not because of God, but because of man, and the Church should not be condemned because of man's failings) Anyway, I might struggle with the idea of a god, and I have to say that I don't really believe that Jesus is god or was the son of God. In fact, I have to say that I don't even know what that means—when I really think about it, the term "son of God" doesn't make any sense to me. (the concept of the trinity - God three in one, Father son and holy spirit, is very difficult to comprehend. It is hard to imagine how God could become man. I personally think that the Father son relationship between God the father and Jesus is actually far more complex than that, and perhaps the reality is that Jesus had a man's body, but his spirit was all God. I cannot believe that his physical form as a man was in any way part of his godliness. It says in the bible that "God is spirit" My own simplistic way of looking at the trinity is to say that they are all one. The father in heaven is a spiritual being. Jesus spirit was God's spirit in some way budded or "cloned" to use very un-politically correct terminology. I believe that this portion of God's spirit is referred to as his "son", and was separate and distinct to the father's spirit. Jesus on the cross talks about his father leaving him. The two could be separated. My view then of our own make-up as human beings is that we also have mortal physical bodies, but also a separate spirit, that is unique to each individual. I believe that as we come to know Jesus, part of God's spirit comes to live in us, and helps to guide and mould our own lives and direction. This is the holy spirit. I believe that after Jesus died he returned to be with the father, but that he has retained some form of personal identity, and a spiritual form. I believe that after we die we will not have physical bodies in heaven, but will also become spiritual beings. But I still hold Jesus high as a brilliant man who remains one of my personal heroes. And I still respect the Bible. And I realized today that I still live by the Ten Commandments as best I can, but I don't think about them as much. Still, they are a very good set of rules to live by, no matter who you are. If I live by a golden rule, it would be the second form of Kant's Categorical Imperative—"Always treat others as an end, and never merely as a means". I guess you could say that's the same as "Treat others as you would have them treat you". I have to say that my change in beliefs has not changed my behaviour toward others. There are some things that are right and some that are wrong, purely as a matter of common sense, and everybody deserves to be treated with the dignity that their status as a moral animal bestows on them.

So, I finally got around to checking out your blog and lost a couple of hours yesterday as I got drawn deeper and deeper into it. I like what you have to say about what you believe about Heaven, by the way. I remember when I read Dante's Inferno, and was a bit taken aback that Plato, Aristotle, etc were stuck in limbo (even if there is a 'limbo' or 'purgatory' which is not clear from scripture, it is perfectly possible that it is like falling asleep, and the person affected would have no concept of the passage of time until his judgement. This would mean that as far as the individual was concerned he died and went straight to heaven.) because, being pre-Christian, they could not get into Heaven as they had not been baptised. The absurdity of making such a sticking point over what seemed to be a technicality was like a slap across the face to me. (my opinion is that it is nice to be baptised as a public testimony and a reminder to you when your faith wavers that you have made a commitment to follow Jesus. However I do not believe that water has any special significance in physical terms, but is only symbolic of the washing away of your sins. In scripture water baptism was not actually a baptism of forgiveness, but was called a baptism of repentance (or being sorry for having sinned or having done wrong). Jesus is said to have come to bring a greater baptism, which is the baptism of the spirit of God, which is a baptism of forgiveness of sins. It should be noted that Jesus did command us to go and baptise. It is traditionally believed that this refers to water baptism, but it could equally be thought to refer to baptism with the spirit.) Did it not matter at all the manner in which a man lived? If he had let himself be dunked in water and said he believed, even if he wasn't all that sure, would that make all the difference? (I do not agree with Dante- if he believed that those who have not had water baptism will not be able to enter heaven.) Oh yeah, and Mohammed was stuck deep in Hell. That's especially ironic when you consider how Dante borrowed heavily from Muslim writers to create his own vision of Hell. (You have to appreciate surely that Dante's inferno is a work of fiction, and so not too much weight should be placed on his writings)That whole episode sparked a lot of deep "what do we know anyway?" (which is why any faith is based on 'FAITH' not knowledge. This is the way God intended it. When a child is in it's mother's womb, it has no concept of what awaits it in the wider world. I view our spirits being encased in our bodies as being a bit like a child in the womb, and death a little like being born into an entirely new existence. Then we will be able to understand more, as we are able to view God and humanity from outwith the space time continuum. Our bodies tie our spirits to the physical universe a bit like an umbilical chord ties a baby to the womb. Jesus uses this analogy. He talks about being dead to self, and being born again when we become Christians. It is a phrase that is used glibly "born again Christians", but I found in my life that the day I became a Christian was like being born again, and I suddenly understood about a God who loved me, and who forgave me, no matter what I had done. It was like a fresh understanding of my own worth in god's eyes, and gave me hope and joy). type questioning for me. And as far as the ethic of Christianity goes, it would make much more sense to me that a person's moral behaviour, the content of their heart and their conscience, and the peace they feel toward their maker, should be the only matters that would determine whether or not a person would get into Heaven, so I totally agree with your outlook there, or I would agree entirely if I believed in Heaven and an afterlife. ( I think an afterlife is the wrong way of looking at it. I think it is the same life, and we will still have the same identities. God existed before matter was created. therefore he exists in a form that cannot be quantified in physical language. Time does not exist without matter. What is time but a human construct we have arbitrarily coined to describe the movement of the planets, particularly the rotation of the earth, and how it causes a shadow to be cast by the sun every 24 hours? Time is something we are bound to from the moment we are born on one particular rotation of the earth we call our birthdays until the day that we find our poor physical bodies have too quickly grown decrepit and died. What is time to a God who exists outside the physical realm, and for whom there was no birthday, no decay, no death? He is the same then, now, and forever. When we die, we will be of similar make-up. I believe this is what it means when we are created in God's image. Not that we have our 'father's eyes' or our 'mothers nose'. In this way, Eternity is not a very long time, but it is an existence outwith time and space. It is only in the absence of time that eternity is possible to conceive.)