Tag: Theism

Sibling Rivalry: Are We Free? | Elizabeth Schultz

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 1 Comment

In this episode of Sacred Tension, my sister Elizabeth Schultz returns for a spirited debate about free will, the existence of God, and the foundations of morality. I am skeptical of the concept of free will, miracles, and God, while my sister defends them.

Note: I have moved to Substack. Please subscribe to my work there.

I love hearing back from my audience. Did you agree with us in this conversation? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below. If your comment is excellent, I might feature it in an upcoming post.

Why I Am Not a Christian: The Gift of Unbelief

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ Leave a comment

Note: I have moved to Substack! Please subscribe to my work there.

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” →

God, Ineffability, and Satanic Ritual: Best Comments of July 2020

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 3 Comments

This was an active month on the podcast and blog, and I got some extremely thoughtful responses. The following are just a fraction of the comments and emails I received. Even if I’m not able to feature every single excellent comment I receive I so appreciate them, and please keep them coming.

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Breaking Down God

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 15 Comments

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.

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On Satanism and Atheism

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 2 Comments

I recently wrote an article titled On Forfeiting the Word Atheist in which I explored how using the word “atheist” predisposes people to having the least charitable view of me. I’ve gotten so exasperated explaining again and again what the word “atheist” means that I’ve opted for the word “nontheist,” just because it has a different connotation and isn’t as poisoned by anti-atheist propaganda.

To be clear, I like the word atheist, and I see it as identical to the word nontheist. I don’t care if other people use the word atheist, I just find the word a stumbling block when I try to have productive conversations with theists. I have limited patience, and I personally find it more expedient to not use the word.

Along these lines, a reader sent me this question:

“Why then would you self-identify as a satanist when it seems (from your writings at least) that THAT label is also widely misunderstood?”

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David Bentley Hart and Theological Gaslighting

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ Leave a comment

I hoped that I was done commenting on David Bentley Hart’s tiresome book The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, but as I’m nearing the end of the book I think I have one more complaint that I need to put to writing. It’s a complaint that I’m starting to have with a great number of more “progressive” or “sophisticated” theologians. While I do generally think that their vision of God, humanity, and the cosmos is better than most of what’s out there, I find this particular trend aggravating.

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On Reading David Bentley Hart: What Even Is God, Anyway?

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 9 Comments

David Bentley Hart’s ponderous tome The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss has been regularly touted to me as the book every nontheist must read. I’m happy to oblige, and I’m about 30% of the way through (including footnotes.) While I find Hart pompous, bloviating, and even an occasional bully, I’m also enjoying his erudition and mastery of the English language. As he makes clear again and again, he is not so much trying to defend God, but rather to describe the classical view of God, which he feels modern atheists have sorely missed. 

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