The Nonpracticing Atheist

Tensions exist between science and religion. Philosophers have made the situation more or less tense since the beginning of recorded philosophy. Is there anyway to lessen the anxieties brought about by religious belief?

Some people think about the issues even if they are not scientists, theologians, or philosophers. Let's consider one of these people, and for ease of exposition call him Lynn. Lynn has changed his opinions about religion over the years through his reading, study, and meditation on religion.

Lynn builds a 2 X 2 matrix for his beliefs about god and evolution. He assigns a weight to the strength of his belief for each entry in the matrix. The total of the weights must sum to 10, ten being strong and zero being weak. The matrix entries are as follows:

atheism/evolution 9
atheism/intelligent design 0
theism/evolution 1
theism/intelligent design 0.

Something about the finished matrix makes him feel uncomfortable when he reflects on the results.

First, he does not like the word atheist. Part of his discomfort is that it makes a mess of his social life. It is not the way to win friends and influence people. Lynn knows that he should not mention it in polite society. There aren't many sympathetic atheist ears around. And Lynn often holds different opinions about religion than a lot of atheists.

Second, Lynn wonders if the signifier atheist does not mask his beliefs. Lynn is skeptical about many of the claims religion makes for the physical, moral, and social agency of supernatural beings. However, he does not have a ready made answer to why there is a very rich something rather than nothing.

Lynn decides not to worry about it. The far more interesting question to Lynn is why people hold the religious beliefs they do. Thinking about that is how he arrived at his current beliefs in the first place.

Lynn likes his projects of inquiry. He wishes he was better at them. They are worth the anxiety.