Finding Meaning in Disbelief By Rev. Dr. Todd F. Eklof November 2, 2014 You may have missed it, but there s a new godless church movement that s spreading like wildfire around the world. It began in the United Kingdom just two years ago and is quickly spreading to towns and cities across the globe. As recently as September 28 th, just one month ago, it doubled in size in one day, going from 28 to 63 godless churches, including 7 more in the UK, 1 in Belgium, 1 in New Zealand, 1 in Hungary, 2 in Germany, 4 in the Netherlands, and 16 here in the U.S. Sunday Assembly calls itself a global movement for wonder and good. Its mission is to help everyone find their full potential; Its vision is to have a godless congregation in every town, city and village that wants one; and its motto is live better, help often, and wonder more. As much as I agree with all of this, and would eagerly give it a try if I weren t already a Unitarian Universalist, I must admit I m a little irked by Sunday Assembly. I m irked because it is so similar to Unitarian Universalism that it s hard for me to tell the difference. According to its charter it has no doctrine, explaining that, We have no set texts so we can make use of wisdom from all sources; has no deity, saying, We don t do supernatural but we also won t tell you you re wrong if you do; and it s radically inclusive, stating, Everyone is welcome, regardless of their beliefs. And, according to an NPR report, the newly formed chapter in New York has already split over how much to emphasize atheism. 1 See, it s just like Unitarian Universalism, except it s growing! So, yes, admittedly I m a little green with envy, and aggravated that a new movement, that isn t really new at all, has figured out how to capture the interests of a growing demographic of nonbelievers that should be coming to our churches. What irks me most, however, is not that a religion so similar to our own is setting itself up as something new and unique, but that the notion of a godless religion itself is being heralded as something brand new when it s really quite ancient. Those of us, like myself, who claim to be religious nonbelievers, are often accused of trying to spin the traditional meaning of words like religion, church, faith, and even God, to fit our more modern mindset. We re accused, that is, of engaging in clever apologetics and performing mental gymnastics. Quite to the contrary, however, I would argue it is the theocentric notion of religion that is the new kid on the block. It s the idea that one s religion is defined by one s belief in a god that is the anomaly. 1 http://www.npr.org/2014/01/07/260184473/sunday-assembly-a-church-for-the-godless-picksup-steam
Although this has largely been the notion of religion in Western society for hundreds of years, it has not been the case throughout most of human history, nor does it reflect what religion is in many parts of the world to this day. True, almost every religion has it s own god or pantheon of gods, but they are rarely theocentric, meaning the devotees of a respective faith are not defined as such just because they worship or revere a certain deity or group of deities. Religion, rather, has historically been more about how people behave, especially toward others. Religion, you might say, emerged not so much to explain who made the world, but to promote social behavior and civil society. This is not to say early religions were without gods. On the contrary, they had many gods. Unlike the monotheistic religions of the west, however, ancient religions weren t about revering one god, or even obeying many. This is why ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Greek, and other myths, portray pantheons of gods that are as flawed as people are, often succumbing to jealousy, animosity, deceit, anger, violence, war, murder, and so on. Originally the gods were nothing more than human projections. In order to maintain social order, these mythologies eventually gravitated toward one dominant god who tried to keep the rest in line, often without much success, just as the mind is often unsuccessful in controlling one s emotions and appetites. Likewise, if individuals don t fall in line with the status quo, society, as a whole, can fall apart, just as the fictional Tower of Babel falls, leaving society in a state of chaos and confusion. So religion emerged as a behavioral control over individuals by giving them a collective morality common laws and rituals. Later still, in an attempt to completely repress individual interests and desires for the good of society, religions became entirely monotheistic, not necessarily believing in only one god at first, but in one supreme god whose power could then be transferred to an earthly representative like a king of high priest responsible for maintaining order. As psychologist Erich Fromm explains, I believe that the concept God was conditioned by the presence of a socio-political structure in which tribal chiefs or kings have supreme power. 2 Although this supreme power itself has too often become oppressive in the selfish and petty interests of rulers and the ruling elite, the point here is that religion evolved from being a projection of individual emotions and desires into something meant to keep them in check for the good of society. So the gods of jealousy, animosity, deceit, anger, violence, war, and murder could succumb to the gods of order, reason, law, truth, peace, compassion, and so on. Eventually monotheistic religion evolved further still from the belief in a dominant deity to just one deity. Today different religious factions still argue over what principle that one true god represents be it order, obedience, chastity, justice, compassion, love, truth, or something else but, in every age, at every stage, God remains a projection of 2 Fromm, Erich, You Shall Be as Gods, Fawcett Premier, New York, NY, 1966, p. 18. 2
something human. Again, as Erich Fromm puts it, God is one of many different poetic expressions of the highest value in humanism, not a reality in itself. 3 Thus God, even within the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, the source of all three of today s monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, remains a metaphor of something deeply human. In the tradition of the Bible Fromm says, knowing God and being like God means to imitate God s actions and not to know or speculate about God s essence to know the ways of God means to know and follow in practice [God s] dealings with [people], [God s] all-embracing principles of justice, unlimited love, loving-kindness and forgiveness. 4 So, even in monotheism, God is a symbol of human behavior. God is something we do. It s for this reason Fromm makes a distinction between what he calls theistic and nontheistic religions. Theistic religions, obviously, are those that center on a belief in God, or a particular belief about God. They are religions devoted almost exclusively to an idea a concept and their devotees are, therefore, defined as believers. I prefer to call these theocentric religions precisely because they are centered round an idea of God. Nontheistic religions, on the other hand, may also have gods, or a God, but defining God or gravitating around an idea of God is not their main emphasis. In fact, these religions often go out of their way to avoid ever talking about God. I often cite verses and sayings from a variety of traditions that make this point. Taoism says God cannot be grasped and that Mystery within Mystery is the gateway to all understanding. 5 Hinduism tells us, one can only say, not not [neti neti]. [It] is ungraspable, for [it] cannot be grasped. 6 And Buddhism, according to Fritjaf Capra, has no doctrine or philosophy, no formal creeds or dogmas, and it asserts that this freedom from all fixed beliefs makes it truly spiritual. 7 But deemphasizing God also exists within our monotheistic tradition. One of Judaism s Ten Commandments forbids even uttering the word God, and its mystical Kabbalah says, Every definition of God leads to heresy. 8 Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart called God Absolute Nothing, and St. John of the Cross said, The soul travels to God not knowing, rather than knowing 9 I could keep going with numerous other examples from a variety of religions that deemphasize God. Erich Fromm calls them nontheistic, though I prefer to say they are not theocentric, meaning they may or may not have stories of gods or hold beliefs about gods, but these aren t the core of what they are about. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid., p. 55. 5 Tao te Ching #1 6 Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.15. 7 Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics, (Shambhala, Boston, MA, 2000) p. 122. 8 Matt, Daniel C., The Essential Kabbalah, Quality Paper Back Book Club, New York, NY, 1995, p. 32. 9 denicolas, Antonio T., St. John of the Cross: Alchemist of the Soul, Paragon House, New York, NY, 1989 p. 232. 3
But if religion as a whole isn t about believing in God, what is it about? What then is the distinction between theistic and nontheistic religion? Fromm deals with only one distinction that he considered the most important, which, he says, cuts across nontheistic and theistic religions: that between authoritarian and humanistic religions. 10 For Fromm, theistic religions, which I call theocentric, those that emphasize belief in God, or the God concept, are authoritarian. The essential element in the authoritarian religion and in the authoritarian religious experience, he says, is the surrender to a power transcending [humanity]. The main virtue of this type of religion is obedience, its cardinal sin is disobedience. Just as the deity is conceived of as omnipotent and omniscient, [humanity] is conceived as being powerless and insignificant. 11 In our culture this tends to be our understanding of what religion is about, which is why Sunday Assembly s godless churches seem novel even though they aren t. Humanistic religion, on the other hand, is centered on human potential and strength. It emphasizes, not God, but humanity s own need to, as Fromm says, develop [its] own powers of love for others as well as for [oneself] and experience the solidarity of all living beings Religious experience in this kind of religion is the experience of oneness with the All, based on one s relatedness to the world as it is grasped with thought and with love. [Humanity s] aim in humanistic religion is to achieve the greatest strength, not the greatest powerlessness; virtue is selfrealization, not obedience The prevailing mood is that of joy, while the prevailing mood in authoritarian religion is that of sorrow and of guilt. 12 But, again, a religion doesn t have to call itself godless to be nontheistic. This type of experience, Fromm goes on to say, is most clearly expressed in Christian, Moslem, and Jewish Mysticism, as well as in Zen Buddhism. 13 So it is possible to be part of a theistic religion yet have a nontheistic orientation and experience. In fact, many of our most prominent modern theologians thought along these same lines. Dietrich Bonheoffer, for example, the German theologian who famously opposed Hitler, believed, in light of the holocaust, the age of religion was coming to an end; that, in the wake of such horror, people could no longer believe. So, toward the end of his life, he began developing what he called, non-religious or religionless Christianity. He felt that Christianity, as whole, had blown it by emphasizing God as dues ex machina, a God of the gaps used to answer all our questions in a way that ultimately leaves us unsatisfied. So he proposed a kind of secular Christianity that emphasized practicing Jesus humanitarian teachings in a way that was real and relevant, without needing to be religious. So, again, as difficult as it might be for some of us to imagine, as novel an idea as it might seem, godless religion isn t new. It is, rather, part of a continuing and ancient 10 Fromm, Psychoanalysis & Religion, ibid., p. 34 11 Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods, ibid., p. 35. 12 Ibid., p. 37. 13 Ibid., p. 47. 4
way of being religious. This is no truer of any religion than of our own. Today Unitarian Universalism may be home to more atheists and agnostics than when it began 2000 years ago among the first Christians, but it has always been nontheistic inasmuch as it has always emphasized the humanity of Jesus and following his humanitarian teachings. The first Christians were Unitarians because they believed Jesus was but a man whose teachings should be put into practice. They were imitators of Jesus, not worshippers of him. It would be nearly 300 years after his death before Trinitarians would come along and turn Christianity into a theistic religion that put heretics to death for not believing this doctrine. Christianity began as a humanistic religion, and has remained as such among Unitarians ever since. Today we have no need to discuss the concept of God at all and hardly any need to ever mention Jesus. Yet we continue to strongly emphasize the humanitarian teachings he once emphasized, as have many other great religious figures and teachers throughout human history. Ours truly is a humanistic religion. This doesn t mean we re all humanists, though many of us lean that way, but it does mean we emphasize human agency and human goodness, and that if the world is going to be a better place it is up to us to make it so. Nor do we view others as weak, insignificant, and sinful, but as beings of worth and dignity who deserve to be supported and celebrated. For we understand, as Fromm puts it, If religious teachings contribute to the growth, strength, freedom, and happiness of their believers, we see the fruits of love. If they contribute to the constriction of human potentialities, to unhappiness and lack of productivity, they cannot be born of love, regardless of what the dogma intends to convey. 14 So why is all of this important to us today? Why does it matter? At the turn of the 20 th century, as religious historian Karen Armstrong explains, It was assumed that as human beings became more rational they would have no further need for religion or would be content to confine it to the immediately personal and private areas of their lives. 15 But it didn t happen. Then, in light of the Holocaust, even despondent Theologians, like Bonheoffer, began preparing for the secular age. But it didn t happen. And after the successes of Civil Rights and the peace and love youth movement, people dared to imagine a world, as John Lennon sang, with no religion. But it didn t happen then either. Today, however, it is happening. According to the most recent religious identity surveys, The Number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace In the last five years alone the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. 16 According to this research, completed just two years ago, there are now 13 million people in the U.S. who describe themselves as agnostic or atheist. The percentages are even higher among those under age 30. 14 Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion, ibid., p. 64. 15 Armstrong, Karen, The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, Random House, New York, NY, 2000, 2001, p. vii. 16 Nones on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation, Pew Research Center, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Released October 9, 2012. 5
Today lots of groups, Unitarian Universalism, in particular, are scrambling to figure out how to attract this fast growing demographic. Unfortunately, a lot of the chatter seems to be about changing who we are to do so. But I would argue we don t need to change who we are. We just need to better recall who we are, and better promote who we are and who we have been for centuries. Sunday Assembly has succeeded in capturing the attention of a new generation of people who share our values and need our support but, for the most part, probably don t even know we exist. We have to do better, not just so our small denomination, representing far less than even 1 percent of the population, can grow, but also because the entire world needs our life-affirming message of hope, unity, equality, compassion, and love. I joke that Sunday Assembly irks me, but, in truth, I m happy to see its success, knowing that it is another indicator that our time has finally come. In the wake of all the injustice, and all the violence around the globe committed in the name of God, people are waking up and asking for something new that, it turns out, has been here all along. They re looking for us. How will we respond? 6