New HFT Blog Post - A Christian Atheist: Why we need Atheist

[Whitney]

Monday, June 8, 2009
A Christian Atheist: Why we need Atheist Church

As I was browsing news articles on the Internet I came across the following headline Finding a community as an atheist in church.  This, of course, grabbed my attention.  I wondered what type of church and maybe if more people were trying to start churches like the North Texas Church of Freethought.  Needless to say, I was surprised to read that an atheist UT professor had decided to start attending a Christian church.

While I understand the need for community, I wonder why Jensen, that's his name, didn't look into the many atheist/free-thought groups that are operating quite strongly in many parts of Texas; including Austin where UT is located.  The article does not touch on if he tried atheist or free-thought communities prior to joining the Christian church; but does offer the following quote from Jensen:

I joined a Christian church to be part of that hope for the future, to struggle to make religion a force that can help usher into existence a world in which we can imagine living in peace with each other and in sustainable relation to the non-human world. Such a task requires a fearlessness and intelligence beyond what we have mustered to date, but it also requires a faith in our ability to achieve it.

    That's why I am a Christian.

An atheist-Christian?  I can't help but find this odd at best and foolish at worst.  References to "deeper meaning" in the reference article lead me to think that Jensen was searching for a sort of atheist spirituality that simply doesn't exist and found that personal need filled by liberal Christianity.  But I don't want to discuss what it means to be a Christian here or if Jensen made a good decision.

What I do want to comment on is that this demonstrates a need to form stronger communities as free-thinkers so that we do not miss out on the social network and support provided by a religious church.  However, at the same time, when discussing attending free-thought groups with fellow non-believers many of them seem unsure about attending.  Many of these people are the same people who complain about not having anyone to talk to that isn't religious.  So, I'll end this blog by asking a few questions of my fellow non-believers.

What do you think about Jensen's calling himself a Christian while he is an atheist?  Is there something about spirituality that fills a need secular communities cannot fill?  Do you personally feel the need for community?  If so, how do you fill that need?

digg it:  http://digg.com/d1tIBD
Reddit:  http://www.reddit.com/tb/8quxr
You can also thumb it up on Stumble.

[Will]

I'd rather be a part of a community for what I am than for what I'm not. I also think that this guy has stretched the definition of "Christian" until it's snapped.

If you seek community, seek like-minded people. Atheists seeking community in church are like Jews seeking community in a Mosque. It doesn't work that way. If you're interested in politics, there are groups for that. If you're interested in volunteering, there are groups for that. If you need friends, you may want to examine why you don't have any.

[karadan]

He sounds confused. Community is what you make of it. If he wants to sit with mournful church-goers then that's his prerogative I guess. Me, if I felt alienated where I lived, I'd move to somewhere a lot less inhospitable to my way of life. Two months of upheval for a lifetime of happiness is a nice trade off in my opinion.

[Whitney]

Me, if I felt alienated where I lived, I'd move to somewhere a lot less inhospitable to my way of life.

That's what I don't get about this atheist claiming that he had no "liberal" community to be around.  From my understanding, Austin is THE liberal hot spot of Texas (and probably most of the South).  I figure if Austin is more liberal/atheist-friendly than Dallas and I can find free-thought communities in Dallas that he had to have more options than settling for a Christian Church.  Honestly, I think he wanted to go back to being at a Christian Church because that made him feel comfortable (I assume he must have been raised Christian)...otherwise he would have gone to a Unitarian Universalist Church where it wouldn't be hypocritical to be an atheist.

Basically, he is a good example of an atheist who simply is not applying thought to all aspects of their life...just like religious people.