A Faith Built on Awe: Reframing Atheism

摘要

Reframing atheism as a set of positive beliefs, I describe a way of living in the world in which atheism requires faith, defined as a commitment to beliefs that are both logically and empirically not subject to proof. Faithful atheists have faith in and take spiritual nourishment from being in the presence of a world which is awesome and wonderful both in that it is immediately available and that it is and will always remain at least partly opaque to understanding. They do so without positing a God or inflating the reach of reason. Their way of living is characterized by “sensational presence” (full attention to and staying with a present moment) and the courage to accept that their access and understanding whether in relation to other people, other animals, and nature more generally, is always limited. This inherent residual opacity grounds their respect and sense of mystery in each of these realms.