As with some of the other panelists, I'm not convinced atheism is enjoying a "new vogue." That may be because in the various places I've lived--New England, California, Great Britain and, certainly, the Bible Belt--I've never had much trouble encountering people who not only didn't believe in a religious system but were not shy in voicing their unbelief.
Indeed, one of my favorite experiences involved an encounter with a minister whom I recall describing himself as an atheist. He handed me a small booklet. It was about the same size as one of those little tracts that itinerant evangelists like to pass out. The difference was, this particular one contained an essay by the existentialist Albert Camus, a piece he wrote right after World War II, as he surveyed the devastation that fascism had wrought upon Europe.
It was an extended meditation on the need for human solidarity against the inevitability of state-sponsored violence and terror--a call, as Camus said, to stand together against "fear and silence." Then and now, I found it profoundly moving.
I think of that encounter as elegantly symbolic of an oft-repeated experience I had when I worked as a newspaper reporter covering religion in the U.S., in all its myriad forms. Many times, in the various newsrooms in which I worked, individual colleagues would feel impelled to approach and tell me that they weren't "religious" (their word). I hadn't asked--I really wasn't curious and, besides, I regarded that information as their business. But given my work, some people seemed to want to tell me.
This hardly put an end to our conversations: Often, I've found that the people who most fervently declared themselves non-religious were also wrestling with questions of deep human meaning. Those non-religious folks and I spent many lunches talking about children and parents and our responsibilities to both, sickness and joy in our families, the fate of planet and more--as well, of course, as a very great many mundane subjects (sports, restaurants, bosses, etc.).
Which leads me to say, yes, believers and atheists have plenty to talk about--the experience of living, for one; the limitless value of humanity itself, for another. You could, I suppose, choose to call these subjects "religious."
But they are not likely to be much illuminated if the speakers are simply trying to score points off each other regarding the existence or non-existence of a deity.
Please e-mail On Faith if you'd like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
Email Me | Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
