We atheists are sometimes accused of not believing in God because we don’t want to believe in God. Actually, “sometimes” may be an understatement. I see it pretty often. We take exception to that accusation because it’s not true. But if we peel back the onion on these interactions, they may reveal a fundamental difference between two ways of approaching life.
My Dad was fond of a saying that belief is whether you think the acrobat can get the wheelbarrow across the tightrope; faith is whether you’re willing to get in the wheelbarrow. I like that saying, too.
If we’re going to avoid eternal paralysis, we all have to get in some wheelbarrow eventually. So how do we choose which wheelbarrow?
Some recent interactions provide a clue. A common challenge from believers to those of us who have sought and found naught is, “Well, what were you expecting?” A fellow non-believer answered better than I could have: “I was expecting a god that is in some slight miniscule way, distinguishable from a god that doesn’t exist.” This view was met with*:
“Did you believe in God and have faith in God from your heart?”
“Either you don’t want God to be. . .or you want God to be and proceed without that direct kind of communication you are expecting”
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him”
“[F]aith is a gift and not something I have to conjure up in myself”
“[F]aith and belief are products of the heart. God is not going to hear or talk to an unbeliever.”
“He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”
*I’ve altered the order of comments here a little for the sake of narrative coherence.
These comments suggest that you have to have faith and believe in God before God will make himself known to you. For some of us that’s a Catch-22. For others, it’s no barrier at all. Here’s the difference, as I see it: Some of us jump in the wheelbarrow of what we want to be true. Some of us jump in the wheelbarrow of what we think is true.
The accusation that non-believers don’t believe because we don’t want to believe provides a clue into the mindset of believers who make that accusation. The comment above, (“Either you don’t want God to be or you want God to be”) makes it explicit. This mindset jumps in the wheelbarrow of what it wants to be true. I don’t think that’s a bad choice when it comes to religion. I would warn away from it when it comes to science, politics, relationships and investing. But the existence of God is neither provable nor disprovable and won’t affect your bank account. So why not believe what you want?
Others have made a different choice. I jumped in the wheelbarrow of what I think is true. This is a modern mindset, informed by science. The scientific method is designed to weed out biases, including but not limited to, motivated reasoning. If we adopt the goal of weeding out motivated reasoning, then we deliberately avoid jumping in the wheelbarrow of what we want to be true. We try to stick with what we think is true based on the best evidence and soundest reasoning we can manage. So when we ask for “evidence” of God, we’re applying that modern way of thinking. It’s no guarantee of being right. But it has the advantage of applying the same process to religion that we apply to other areas of our life.
So it’s little wonder that believers and non-believers often talk past each other. We’re just wheelbarrows passing in the night.
Question:
Which wheelbarrow do you jump in?