Once, while I was an undergraduate (Spring 2002?), I made the three hour trek to Austin from the very tiny town of Waxahachie (in Texas). I went with a group of fellow students and a professor down to an Anglican seminary to hear a talk by Stanley Hauerwas on euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. During his talk, he said something that struck me to my core, and it has been with me ever since. He said something like, “We’re all practical atheists anyway.” Of course, what made the comment so striking was that he is a Christian and was speaking to a large group of Christians.
So what’s a practical atheist? Well, let’s define “theism” first. “Theism” is a philosophical or theological belief that some kind of divine being exists. Christians are theists, but not all theists are Christians (Jews can be theists, Muslims are theists, and there are certain forms of philosophical theism that wouldn’t count as any kind of formal religious belief). Now onto “atheism.” “Atheism” is a philosophical or theological position that denies the existence of any divine being. It doesn’t matter if the divine being is like God in the Christian tradition or just one of many different gods like in certain forms of Hinduism. For convenience, I will write as if the atheist position merely denied the existence of the Christian God. An atheist, then, is a person that holds this position. I think we can now make a broad distinction between the theoretical atheist and the practical atheist. The theoretical atheist is one who actually believes, or would affirm if asked, the atheist position. Let’s say that the theoretical atheist is someone who has thought through the issues and decided there’s no God. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter what the practical atheist believes. The practical atheist is one who lives as if there is no God. The practical atheist may affirm the existence of God, but that affirmation may play an insignificant role in her larger worldview. Therefore, we can assume that most theoretical atheists are probably practical atheists (thus, living out what they believe), but a practical atheist may be either a theoretical atheist or a theist (since practical atheism is merely a claim about one’s actions).
Okay, we have the definitions down. Let’s go back to Hauerwas. He was talking to Christians as a Christian and claimed we were all a bunch of practical atheists. Now, we know what he meant. He was indicting all of us, including him. He was saying that, despite our alleged belief in God as revealed in Christ through Scripture, we live as if the whole thing is just a nice bedtime story. We don’t take the crucifixion seriously. We don’t take the resurrection seriously. We don’t take the Great Commission seriously. We surely don’t take his return seriously. Instead, we strive for a life of comfort, and we reject the call to be radically dependent on God. And in so doing, we unwittingly participate in the rebellion of a sinful world doing its darndest to dethrone the One True King.
Are you a practical atheist?
If yes, then you’re either a theoretical atheist or a theist (Christian). If you’re a theoretical atheist, then we need to have a different conversation. However, if you’re a Christian, then what follows is explicitly for you. Above, when I wrote that being a practical atheist doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re also a theoretical atheist, I wasn’t being quite accurate. In fact, there good reason to think that it does entail your being a theoretical atheist. You’ve got lots of beliefs you don’t know you’ve actually got. For example, I’m sure you believe that there are more than five fish in the ocean. I’m also quite sure that you’ve never consciously held that belief before just now. You’ve got more beliefs you don’t know you’ve got than you could ever actually count. You’ve also got some false beliefs in your head too. Don’t believe me? Have you ever been wrong about something? You were wrong because you had a false belief. The tricky thing about false beliefs is that we always think they’re true, otherwise we wouldn’t believe them. Of course, once you realize that you were wrong about something, you no longer hold that false belief. So you’ve got lots of beliefs (more than you know you’ve got), and you’ve got false beliefs (but you can’t recognize them because you think they’re all true). The upshot is that it is really hard to tell what we actually believe about anything, and it’s even harder to tell if our beliefs are true (I mean really true, like “the sky is blue” is true). The best way to find out what you really believe is to look at how you behave. It’s reasonable to suppose that any action is the result of a desire and a belief. For example, if you desire some milk, and you believe that there’s milk in the refrigerator, you’ll likely act on that belief in order to fulfill your desire. In other words, you’ll get up and go the refrigerator.
So what’s all this got to do with being a practical atheist? It’s really quite simple. The practical atheist acts as if there is no God. All of those atheistic actions are the result of some desire and some belief (or combination of beliefs). It’s plausible to suppose that one of those beliefs is the belief that God doesn’t really exist (or maybe that God doesn’t care, but then the belief isn’t really about the Christian God anymore). You may respond, “But I do believe in God.” Okay, you say you do, but you’re actions indicate that you really don’t. How do you know what you believe anyway? Your atheistic belief may be one you don’t know you’ve got. But when it comes to acting, that belief sure makes its influence felt. And if you really do, somewhere deep down in your subconscious, believe that God doesn’t exist, then you’re a theoretical atheist—you’re certainly not a Christian. Practical atheism just is theoretical atheism, although the theoretical part may be unconscious.
What’s the remedy? Be practical Christians. Live like the Bible is true (which it is). Take your Christianity seriously! Learn what it teaches, why it’s true, and let it influence your actions—even if you don’t like it. There’s no guarantee you will like it. I’m sure Jesus didn’t enjoy the cross, but he did it. Why are we any better? Otherwise, quit playing games, give up your “Christianity,” and just go be a full-blown, conscious atheist. (For the record, I’d much prefer you to take your Christianity seriously than for you to become that full-blown conscious atheist.)
Jeremy Green
