Everyday Ethics

The graduate students at Colorado State University polled themselves during the 2008 Spring semester to determine how many of us qualify as atheists, theists, or agnostics. The numbers came back with an even split between atheists and theists, five each, and three agnostics. Most of the theists had some agreement on what the term “God” actually meant, while the atheists and agnostics were divided among themselves, and distinct from the theists. In addition, how someone defined this term essentially determined whether they considered themselves theists, atheists or agnostics. This led me to ask the obvious question. What, exactly, does “God” mean, and is there a right definition that we should all accept?

The theists in the group are all either Christian or Muslim, and they mostly agreed that the term “God” refers to a transcendent, omnipotent, conscious deity who has some sort of passing interest in how your life is going and what you are doing with it. The atheists universally rejected this definition, describing it as either unproveable, crazy, or lacking in evidence for its truth. This is somewhat how I feel, and I thus consider myself an atheist because I don’t believe in this type of God. But the question remains whether we might define God differently, leading to a retraction of my atheist status.

Most of the other atheists in the group were materialists. This is the view that the only things which exist are made of physical matter. Since God is not physical matter, he can’t exist on a materialist account. Important features like “spirit” and “soul” are also fictions for the materialist. Some materialists go so far as to question whether things like the mind or consciousness really exist, since they also fail to qualify as physical matter.

I thus represent something of an outlier among the CSU atheists. Although I deny the existence of an omnipotent, conscious, transcendent God, mostly because I see no reason to believe in this and lots of reasons not to, I certainly do not qualify as a materialist. I’m confident that I have a mind and a consciousness, and although I’m not sure about a soul, I’m fine with the notion of spirit. A lot of people use this term, and they seem to be referring to something. If they are not, we need an account of why so many people believe in this something if it isn’t real.

To review, although I don’t accept a traditional theistic account, I do believe in nonmaterial substances, including spirit. Does that make me an atheist or not? Further, I can actually say quite a bit about this nonmaterial substance of spirit. I do a fair amount of meditation, and I find that when I quiet my mind and look inward, there does seem to be something there, which I typically classify as a “pervasive nothingness.”

My sense is that when this happens, I am experiencing some sort of energy that flows through and lurks beneath the surface of all that exists. I can’t really prove this, other than by personal anecdote, but I feel pretty confident that it’s not simply a figment produced by the matter of my brain.

I fear that I must leave you, the reader, as puzzled as I am and still lacking an acceptable answer to what “God” means. Perhaps I am an atheist, as is anyone who denies the existence of a transcendent being that is all powerful and cares about me. However, if “God” can mean something else, perhaps I am not an atheist after all. One thing that does seem clear, namely that the theist-atheist distinction is not as clear cut as it seems, and how we define “God” will largely determine how we classify ourselves and others. So next time someone says they are an atheist, find out what they mean before you decide what you think about that.

About the Author

Elijah Weber is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. He holds a Master's degree in philosophy from Colorado State University, and Bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman Univerity. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio with his wife Laura, his newborn son Brandon, and his feline life-partner Monte.