The past few weeks, we have discussed elements from the various religious beliefs in America. However, there is another aspect of American religion that we have not talked about. Though it is not affiliated with a particular church, it is a powerful collected group of people.
Their beliefs: they don’t believe.
Who I am referring to are the people regarded as the “skeptics.” There are millions of them out there in America and their numbers grow every year. According to a Gallup poll in 2008, about 20 million people claimed that they did not believe in a “higher power” or the supernatural.
Out of all fifty states, Wyoming ranks third highest in percentage of non-believers behind Vermont and New-Hampshire.
So who are the skeptics and what is their goal? That may be hard to say for sure.
The important aspect is that there are many types of skepticism. Much like it is unfair to claim that all Christians are alike, it is equally unjust to claim that all religious skeptics are the same. For the most part, there are three main types of religious skepticism: Atheism, Agnosticism, and Deism.
Atheism is the belief that there is no god. On the American atheist website atheists.org, it claims “An atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An atheist accepts that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth – for all men together to enjoy… An atheist accepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help lead to a life of fulfillment.” With this being said, they are absolutely sure that religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all other religions are not real and none of their beliefs are valid.
The atheist view significantly differs from other views of skepticisms such as agnosticism, which would claim that there is no proof that there is a god, but there also is no proof that there is not a god. Essentially, they do not know and they will not make a judgment until they do know. This was the basic mode of thinking for famous scholars such as Voltaire, Bertrand Russell, and Thomas Henry Huxley.
Finally, there is the belief in Deism. This belief differs from Atheism and agnosticism in that they do believe, through philosophy or theology, that there is a god or an endowed creator for earth. However, they do not believe that God has any role within the life that we as people live in. Despite what many “Tea Party” members in the political world would claim, most of our founding fathers were deist and did not found this country on “Christian Values.”
I personally love to think about and study these philosophies. Atheism, agnosticism, and deism all have some extremely interesting points, so their beliefs should be considered as valid as any other belief.
However, if they are to be treated as any other religion, they should be vulnerable for the same criticism as other religions are. Atheists should be questioned on how they absolutely know that other people’s beliefs are wrong and theirs are right.
That being said, so long as they are willing to take critique on their beliefs, I would have no problem regarding these beliefs as some of the many that make up the American religious landscape.
