Nonbelievers - The Six Atheists?

One in five Americans claim no religious affiliation, at all.  Some periodicals are labeling all of these people, "unbelievers."  Are they?  These articles are either mistakenly including spiritual folks with those of religious affiliation, or defining spiritualism as a religion.

As I understand it, you can be religious and spiritual, religious but not spiritual, or spiritual but not religious. 

 

Spiritualism aside, isn't it possible that some of these "unbelievers," if not a great portion of them, are simply spiritual?  This is a question that has concerned me from time to time since my stint in the military when I listed myself as agnostic for a short period.  It wasn't that I was an atheist, I simply didn't know what I was.  I didn't know whether I believed or not.  I certainly didn't know what to believe.  What I did know, however, was that I wanted to know.  To me, unbelievers are like undecided.  They are the group in politics that can swing to either side depending on the better argument.  An "unbeliever" may become a believer at the drop of an epiphany.

 

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, as part of a new project, has categorized "nonbelievers" into six categories.  I think these categories will help some of us determine where we are in our beliefs, and those that want to label atheists may have to rethink their definition.

 

1. The Intellectual Atheist/Agnostic: Sees his/herself as intellectually too advanced for religion and seeks to engage with other like minded individuals through writings, YouTube videos and talks.

 

2. The Activist: Proactively works for issues connected to naturalist or humanist causes.

 

3. The Seeker-Agnostic: Considers the metaphysical a possibility but is comfortable with uncertainty as it concerns the interaction of science and the metaphysical.

 

4. The Anti-Theist: Believes religion to be evil, thus actively works against religion and religious influences.

 

5. The Non-Theist: Does not have much interest in religious concepts.

 

6. The Ritual Atheist/Agnostic: Does not have otherworldly beliefs but regularly attends a religious ceremony, finding that this meets some social or psychological need.

 

For me, I consider the first category of Intellectual Atheist/Agnostic to be where I have classified most Atheist's beliefs.  Categories 2, 3, and 6 can swing either way given appropriate information that might open their eyes to another belief system.  A person in any of these four categories could consider themselves "spiritual," or not.

 

Then, there is number 4.  I consider the Anti-Theist category, potentially, to be the most dangerous of all belief systems.  It ranks up there with the heretics of Islam which do their faith no favors in their interpretation of scripture.  Anti-theism, by the definition above, would seem to be another system of belief that, if not monitored, has the ability to bring the world into another holocaust.  If you believe in the anti-Christ, this may very well be the category from which it blossoms.

 

The anti-theist belief that all religion is evil would seem to make it difficult to tolerate.  Any definition of their belief system would negate categorizing them as a religion.  This would make it very easy for a person of religious tolerance to not tolerate them, yes?  Remember that a vital aspect of tolerance is practicing your belief in peace.  With this in mind, I have no problem tolerating the anti-theist as long as they are peaceful in their belief.  My issue with this group is, once you decide an entire culture is evil (in this case, those of religious conviction), how soon will it be before the peace is shattered?

 

I sincerely believe those of religious and spiritual conviction shore up our sense of morality and define our values as those for the greater good.  What would happen if there was nothing to keep our sense of morality, of right and wrong, in check?  It might survive, for a while.  But, would it not soon succumb to the dark side?  Consider the debauchery at the close of the Roman empire, Caligula, et alii.

It was found that education had "a significant correlation with non-belief."  This is not surprising when you take into account that most colleges in the U.S. are liberal in their political slant to the point of being very far left.  If one accepts that the far left, by definition of belief, are socialist/communist, then doesn't this seem to explain their difficulty with a "God" concept?  What I find interesting is it seems the farther from the Constitution we drift, the farther from God our citizenry seems to wander.  This conversation then digresses away from God and into discussions of the collapse of the American family, drop-out rates in our schools, gang violence, etc., etc..

All things taken into account, I feel the study does change the stereotypical view of atheists as godless hate mongers, Category 4 being the exception.  Atheist, nonbelievers, are as diversified as believers and, generally, no different in societal concerns or their love of mankind.  They are us and we are them.

Remember, this is just my opinion on the study.  We all have one, and are interested in hearing yours.

 

I will continue to abide and tolerate, to agree to disagree.  It is what we have to do to keep a sense of moral right, acceptance, and diversity in our world.  We are all children of the same universe.

 

I will sleep with one eye open, though, watching Category 4.