For years, I existed at the borderlands of the Christian faith. My faith in the core creeds of Christianity was dying, but I continued to love the many streams of tradition, symbolism, story, and community. Most of all, I loved the person of Christ, even as he became more myth than man.
Continue reading “War At the Christian Borderlands”
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This is the finale of my Why I Am Not a Christian series.
In part one, I explored why I came to doubt claims of the miraculous, thereby undermining my core Christian convictions. In part two, I explain why I came to doubt the veracity of inner experiences of God. In part three, I describe how my fear of a godless universe kept me from accepting nontheism, and how I came to understand that my fear of such a universe was no argument against it.
I could cover quite a bit more: why I came to doubt the historical claims of Christianity, for example, or why I no longer believe the Christ story is unique. I could also tell of how my near conversion to Roman Catholicism permanently hobbled my faith. Perhaps I will, at some point, tell those stories.
But, for now, I will bring this series to a close. I want to circle back to where I started, and the podcast conversation that launched this series.
Continue reading “Why I Am Not a Christian: The Gift of Unbelief”
Note: I have moved to Substack! Please subscribe to my work there.
This is the third installment in my Why I am Not a Christian series. I invite you to read the other articles, but they are not necessary to follow what I will argue in this post.
One of the things that kept me from accepting my disbelief for so long was a fear of what the universe would be like without God. As Soren Kierkegaard wrote in Fear and Trembling:
“If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?”
Continue reading “Why I am Not a Christian: The Problem with Fearing Godlessness”
Several weeks ago, a dear friend of mine told me, “I thought I could handle being an atheist. But I just can’t. The world is too terrifying without a religious structure. So I’ve chosen to go back to church, and go back to believing.” He said it with a downcast look of shame as if he was confessing something terrible. I didn’t think he was. I appreciated his honesty.
Continue reading “The Ravenous Need For Religious Order”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by author, theologian, and musician Jack Holloway to discuss his new book Hands of Doom: The Apocalyptic Imagination of Black Sabbath. We discuss what theology means for the nontheist, how to relate to people with radically different spiritual beliefs, the significance of Biblical stories, and much more.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Theology for Nontheists | Jack Holloway”
Last week’s article The Nontheistic Experience of God provoked some good discussion within my community about meditation, spiritual experiences, and the use of the word “god”.
Continue reading “Religious Language For Nonbelievers”
For as long as I’ve been a nontheist and someone who does not believe in the supernatural, I’ve been hesitant to retire the word “God” from my vocabulary.
Continue reading “The Nontheistic Experience of God”
I remain connected to the Christian world, even though I’m not a Christian. This is because I value friendship, and I don’t want to cut ties with people who are very dear to me. While having conversations about faith with Christians, though, I’ve noticed a trend that annoys me.
Christians will often make strong, extraordinary, and hard-to-defend claims about the world. But when pressed on these claims, they often retreat to more philosophical, vague, and easier-to-defend claims. This tactic is called the Motte and Bailey. When the Bailey is under attack, they retreat to the Motte.
Continue reading “The Motte and Bailey of Christian Belief”
Theists often struggle to understand how I can maintain a deep sense of sacred awe without believing in the supernatural. They seem to assume that a life without God is a dry, artless, wonderless existence. As I discussed with Matt Langston in a recent episode of Sacred Tension, my personal experience is much the opposite. I feel like nontheism has ripped away the veil between me and the fundamental mysteries of reality. The utter inexplicability of being, without a God to rely on as an answer, is the most sacred and mysterious thing I have ever experienced.
Continue reading “Sacredness in a Godless World”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined by Carrie Poppy.
Carrie Poppy is a journalist, host, podcaster, and speaker who examines everything at the corner of belief and behavior.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Carrie Poppy on Pseudoscience, Conspiracy Theories, and Claims of the Paranormal”
Stephen Bradford Long 