The term “atheism” is a charged one, defined in a variety of ways and used loosely in ordinary conversation. By this term, a person can mean:
- belief that there are no divine beings, including the Creator;
- belief that there is no anthropomorphic deity, but that some divine essence exists;
- belief that there are (currently) no reasonable grounds for believing the existence of God; and
- belief that God exists accompanied by a refusal to worship and/or publicly acknowledge Him.
In classical Athens, atheism appears to have meant simply a refusal to worship the gods recognised by the state, rather than a belief that there are no divine beings. Indeed, it is conceivable that in Roman times, the Greek-speaking parts of the Empire might have referred to Christians as atheists over their refusal to worship the emperors.
The terms “divine” and “god” are themselves confusingly used in English, which has led to many English speakers misinterpreting the terms “el”, “eloah”, and “elohim” in Hebrew, and their cognates in Aramaic. These terms indicate the world in which the beings they refer to live, and not the contingency or necessity of those beings’ existence.
“Belief” is also a confusing term. Epistemologists have debated whether belief is a component of knowledge. One can use the term belief to mean assent to the proposition that X exists. In addition, it is often used to refer to trust in X, which of necessity presupposes that X exists.
Consider the following example. A Catholic once asked me, “Do you believe in our Lady?” How was I to respond to this? Did he mean that I prayed to her in a manner that presupposed she could hear me and that she was in a position to do something about my requests? Did he mean that I believed she was a virgin when she gave birth to Christ? Did he mean that I believed she remained a virgin perpetually thereafter? All of the above (and more)? I gave a qualified answer: “I believe that she was a virgin when she gave birth to our Lord.”
Belief is a funny thing. Sometimes we just “know” things without being able to consciously give good reasons for that knowledge. Not only do we hold such-and-such a proposition to be true, but often we rely on it; we let it influence our thinking. How many readers of this post “know” that something in the world changed recently, something shifted, and yet are unable to adequately explain it?
All Along the Watchtower 
Everyone has belief in something; as even in our being we either believe that there is an “I” and a “Thou” or that there is only an “I” who invents our reality or a “Thou” that has dreamed or thought me into existence . . . a mere phantasm which I have no control over. And since most people accept the notion or an I and a Thou we base our ‘belief’ on what we call rational thought; that others cry, laugh, suffer, etc. as do I and thereby I can assume that we are separate entities but very much alike in image and likeness. This being made in an image and likeness to some Thing which is the perfection of that ideal to which we resemble is therefore logically that Who made us; and if He made us, it brings to mind the question of why He made us and to what logical end. For everything we make is made for a purpose and it is judged by us to be a good creation or a bad one depending upon its ability to fulfill that purpose; such as a clock that keeps time and a clock that does not keep time.
Therefore there are rational and logical reasons to hold to certain principles of that which we call “Truth” and yet cannot see and did not witness; but it is duty of each of us to make sense of our lives by setting an a priori Truth upon which all the rest of our knowledge and belief follows. Otherwise life is simply meaningless and our existence random and chaotic. And to this fact, one might perhaps infer that we are losing our ‘belief’ in as much as society is a reflection of what we hold to be true. And that is a sad testimony to the fall of man.
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Society, it seems to me, is thrashing about like some dying animal, wounded by hunters – cf. the Devil’s wrath after being cast down by Michael because he knows his time is short.
Society will believe the lie, the strong delusion, because it has rejected the Truth. They have had the testimony of God’s people and of the Son of God Himself, and they will continue to do so as God performs wonders and exposes the lies.
Evangelists have hard work ahead in this age – both inside and outside the institutional Church. “Smoke of Satan”? Absolutely.
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Well it is certainly true that we seem to have fallen back to the 6th day (when God created the beasts); and just like we say bad, worse and worst the Hebrews recognized the same when they heard of the Mark of the Beast as 666. And beasts we are, sexually, ethically, morally, legally and in our lust for blood, revenge and death. Our hearts are full of blood lust, hatred and fear.
But we must also have pity that though Christ says blessed are they that have not seen and believe, we are a people that have not seen and quite obviously many cannot overcome their need for signs and miracles. Sadly, when those days come and Truth is known it is too late to get belief based on Faith and given us by Grace. For when something is plain and cannot be denied there is no faith and no use of free will to drive us to our end by Love. For then belief will be driven by fear alone and they will hate the Living God for not manifesting Himself to them in a scientific or objective manner. But had He done that they would love God only out of fear and would have obeyed His Commandments only as a slave obeys his master and would have failed to love for the sake of love and obeyed for the sorrow of disappointing a Father who loved them even through His pain, suffering and death on the Cross. So it is a sad thing but we can pray that Christ have mercy on their souls for they have become like wild beasts in the field and live only for the day.
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Man had beliefs from the beginning. The Hebrews had the god of Isaac, others had cow gods, a stone figure, the sun as the creator god, the moon, At least they knew something created all this wonderful complexity. Now, men believe in the most insulting god of all……nothing….this world and everything in it is random chance. The universe came from a nothing that exploded. At least pagans had a firm belief we were created.
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Good brother Nicholas, listen up. When a Mary says “our Lady” They mean this supposed virgin queen of heaven that hears prayer and does everything god is supposed to do. Just yesterday in youtube, I saw a vid by a guy named Servus Fidelus, and in his video he says Mary is the only one who can help us. I believe he is a catholic priest because it sounded like a church service. To the catholic, this Mary is everything. When a Mary asks you if you believe in “our Lady” they are asking you if you believe this virgin queen is the savior of mankind. When put this way some Mary worshipers will try to deny it and water it down, because they know its suspect, either that or they just tell you that to shut you up. Click on any catholic video or go to any catholic roman temple and first and foremost will be a female statue big as day, lots of times holding a baby which they tell us is the Lord. Mary big…Jesus little….its always the same.
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Hey on a side note, if I wanted to invite someone to be an author, an Orthodox potentially, would we need to get a hold of Chalcedon?
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Yes you would. Do you have his email?
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I’ve been chatting with a couple of guys and they’re pretty hardcore Orthodox, I thought it would be interesting to shake things up a bit if all were okay with it. If you can email it to me that would great, I had it on my old email address, but it’s gone.
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Can do.
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Yes, you would. And for myself, I like the idea, I miss Chalcedon’s expertise in the area.
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One issue I have with the question in the video is the framing that question in a negative when the rest are positives… “I do not believe in God” My brain had to take a split second to realize that the answer for a theist is “no.”
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Methodology is always a problem for deep, personal questions like these. I think whatever way you phrase it, there will always be people who will not say what they really think.
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While I have no doubt about the definitions of atheist you use here, none match well with what I have seen of actual (mostly English) atheists. It’s not so much they do not believe in God, although they all say they do, usually in disgusting terminology, as that they have come to believe they are themselves, god. And yes, I mean believe, although they will deny such, saying that they are simply rational. But they are not, they believe in their interpretation to the point that any minor disagreement (even from another so-called atheist) is not disagreement, it is heresy. [Burn the witch!] Fundamentalist evangelical atheists is my term for them.
They come under the old saying, they did not reason their way into believing it, and so they can not be reasoned out of it. I’ve found it to be a waste of time conversing with them on pretty much any topic. Although one subset is somewhat reasonable on some areas: The believing Objectivists, who instead of elevating themselves into the godhead have found it to be Ayn Rand. Like her, they are right on many things, but wrong on the fundamental reasons for their correctness.
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Indeed; I don’t like to debate with non-believers these days; experience has told me it is largely fruitless, at least in relation to some objectives. Of course, with God, all things are possible.
I am feeling somewhat saddened at the moment by disturbing news via Archbishop Cranmer: a Muslim imam has been asked to preach a sermon at a eucharistic service at the University Church, Oxford.
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Some day perhaps the Episcopacy will again be composed of Christians, this, however is not that day.
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Theres not a single solitary Christian in your so called episcopacy. Same goes for the catholic cult of personality. That’s why anything and everything goes.
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