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”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined once again by the incredible Shiva Honey to talk ritual, nontheistic mysticism, and Satanic Tarot. Find Shiva Honey at https://www.serpentinae.com/
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Satanic Tarot with Shiva Honey”
As I’ve developed my personal Satanic Philosophy over the past few years, I’ve received a number of questions from the non-infernal. Questions like: how can you be religious if you don’t believe in God? How do you reconcile Satanic individualism with our human need for community? What’s the point of ritual if you don’t believe in the supernatural? I’ve used these perceived contradictions and questions as a way of establishing a sort of meta-structure for my Satanic practice.
Continue reading “Seven Satanic Dichotomies”
I live in a strange, interstitial space between atheism and theism. While I no longer consider myself a Christian, I refuse to cut ties with the Christian world and my progressive Christian community. At the same time, I feel a great deal of kinship with the pagan and witchcraft communities, as well as the atheist and skeptical communities. My own religious home is The Satanic Temple, and I consider myself a practicing Satanist. I call myself a nontheist and reject unverified claims of the supernatural.
To many people, the question of God’s existence is simple: either there is a magical sky daddy or there isn’t. For me, however, this question is getting increasingly complicated. God is about more than just existence or nonexistence: it is also about definitions, worldview, and culture.
Continue reading “Breaking Down God”
Stephen Bradford Long 