 Recently, I was reading Andrew Klavan’s book The Truth and Beauty when I ran across a passage in which Klavan criticized people who consider themselves to be “Christian atheists”:
There are those today who call themselves Christian atheists, who want the values of Christianity but can’t believe in the religion itself. They say, “Perform faith,” or, “Live as if God exists,” or, “Let us call ourselves Christians.” But they are buying into the premise of uncertainty and deconstructing the very absolute on which they want to depend. Klavan’s book is interesting and often insightful, but this criticism struck me as a bit harsh. “Christian” atheism is, of course, an oxymoron, but it is still vastly preferable to alternative forms of atheism, such as a militantly dogmatic atheism rooted in a materialist worldview that categorically denies the existence of objective good and evil. Indeed, numerous thinkers have argued in favor of the idea of living “as if” certain things were true (including the existence of God and of an absolute moral order), even if a person is not able to see or believe in those truths at the present moment. In a series of speeches Joseph Ratzinger gave prior to being elected pope in 2005 (speeches subsequently published as Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures), Ratzinger pointed to the effort by some Enlightenment thinkers to delineate the moral norms that would still be valid etsi Deus non daretur--even if God did not exist. Ratzinger noted that this project was driven in part by the fracturing of Christendom that had occurred during the Reformation and the resulting felt need to articulate a moral code upon which believers of various stripes and nonbelievers could all agree. At the time of the Enlightenment, people thought it possible to establish such a code because the broader culture was still pervaded by the morals that had been instilled in it by the Christian faith. But as Ratzinger correctly observed, such is not the case today. As the “Sea of Faith” has withdrawn farther and farther from the shores of Dover Beach, the possibility of a purely “secular” moral code has simultaneously receded, which is why Ratzinger contended that in contemporary society, we must reverse the axiom of the Enlightenment and say: Even one who does not succeed in finding the way of accepting God, should, nevertheless, seek to live and to direct his life “veluti si Deus daretur,” as if God existed. . . . In this way, no one is limited in his freedom, but all our affairs find the support and criterion of which they are in urgent need. Roger Scruton essentially agreed with Ratzinger. There has been some debate as to the nature of Scruton’s personal religious beliefs; Carl Trueman has commented that he is unsure “whether Scruton believed in God or whether he simply believed that God was a good idea.” But at a minimum, Scruton did, indeed, believe that God was a “good idea,” at least for the sake of providing a transcendent foundation for a moral code built around self-sacrifice and love. For those who find it difficult to act “as if” God existed, Scruton recommended an alternative: the path of high culture, which Scruton believed could teach us “to live as if our lives mattered eternally.” Hans Vaihinger constructed an entire philosophy around the idea of living “as if” certain beliefs were true, even if they are, in fact, not true (The Philosophy of “As If,” 1911). Vaihinger believed that life was irrational and that human beings therefore have to live by some “fictions” that make life livable. He viewed these “fictions” as nonrational solutions to problems he thought had no rational answers. But perhaps one of the earliest advocates of the idea of living “as if” was Blaise Pascal, with his famous wager. So why is it a good idea to live “as if” God existed, even if one currently finds it difficult to believe that God actually exists? For one thing, life tends to be chaotic, both for individual persons and for society as a whole, without a solid moral code to guide one’s actions. And it is, in fact, impossible to construct a code of moral absolutes without positing (at least hypothetically) the existence of a God who grounds the nature of objective goodness. This seems to be the major reason why some people are choosing to call themselves Christian atheists; they find it difficult to accept the supernatural claims of the Christian faith, but they see the personal and societal benefits of the Christian moral code. But beyond such pragmatic reasons, living “as if” God existed and “as if” the Christian faith were true can eventually lead one to see the actual truth of God’s existence and of the Christian faith. Hans Urs von Balthasar, among others, emphasized this experiential side of Christianity. One of the core claims of the Christian faith is, of course, that the essence of God, and therefore the essence of being itself, consists in self-giving, self-surrendering love. While acknowledging this truth can sometimes first be perceived as truth via an act of faith, Balthasar also noted that for some people, this truth can only be perceived “from the inside”—i.e., by first striving to live a life of self-giving love. Here’s a representative statement: Absolute fullness . . . does not consist of “having,” but of “being=giving.” It is in giving that one is and has. This cannot be explained in words—“I have yet many things to say to you, but you could not bear it now”—it can only be done, and be understood in the course of doing it. Some people find their way to God and to Christian faith via the beautiful or the true, but some find their way there via the good, which is one of the main reasons why “Christian atheism” is better than nothing(ness). This article was originally published at Word on Fire.  In Liquid Modernity and several subsequent books and articles, Zygmunt Bauman wrote extensively about the widespread changes taking place in contemporary society and the accelerating rate at which some of those changes are occurring. Numerous aspects of society seem to be in a state of continuous flux. This decline in societal stability is troubling in many ways, but perhaps one of its most concerning consequences is its detrimental effect on the ability of many adolescents and young adults to form a solid and stable sense of personal identity.
You can read this article at my Substack newsletter, "Beauty-Goodness-Truth", or at Word on Fire. |
Rick Clements, Ph.D.
Rick writes and speaks about topics related to the Catholic faith, with a particular focus on the ways in which a rediscovery of beauty, goodness, and truth can help to revitalize our lives and our culture. 
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