“You don’t have to believe in God to pray.” [View all]

[Jim__]

An excerpt from a short article, Religion, Theism, and Atheism:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that we learn more from persons we disagree with than those we agree with. That sentiment was confirmed for me while reading three recent intelligent books by the “New, New Atheists.” Tough-minded critics of religion, they “take pleasure in laying bare the idiocy of believers in remorseless detail.”

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Young people regarding themselves as “spiritual,” rather than “religious,” is the most obvious indication of organized religion’s failure to meet the needs of thoughtful seekers of all ages. They may regard religion’s definition of itself as inadequate or nonsensical, and find it difficult not only to comprehend, but also to apprehend “the other.”

Or, disillusioned with God’s indifference to holocausts, world wars, and nuclear armaments, they toss out the whole construct or embrace atheism.

A positive alternative, according to several theologians, is to dispense with traditional attributes of God as person, and to attend to attributes — love, creativity, justice — that we regard as essential to Being.

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