Atheism and Agnosticism

Reason To Believe

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:00:14 -0400

Cohen: Do you think part of that evil spirit is found in every human?

Sullivan: I don’t think we’re born with it, but we have receptors that can connect to it, and we decide how much attention we give it, how much we turn toward its allure.

Sunbeams

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500

True prophets sometimes, false prophets always, have fanatical adherents.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Selected Poems

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500

— from “To My Husband At The Beginning Of The Holy Month Of Ramadan” | Even though you no longer believe, you wake with me / before dawn. You prepare my breakfast: porridge, sliced banana, / a cup of tea, a glass of water.

Leaving The Faith

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500

“You can’t have freedom of religion without free speech. You have to protect all of it: the Bible and the Quran and my right to say, ‘These books are full of fairy tales.’ ”

Death Of A Fisherman

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0500

We lived in a place between mountains in the trout lands. The fish dwelt in the chill of eternal movement, slick and lithe and beautiful, in the curve of sapphire rivers twinkling with western sun. This was why we’d moved to Montana when I was a boy — to chase fish, in the church of my father’s religion.

Embracing Ignorance

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 15:54:00 -0500

We’re all stuck with ignorance as we move from quandary to quandary. What I want to do is make a case for religion as one of the means to cope with this irremediable human condition.

Beyond Belief

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400

The first instruction was “Find a quiet place.” I went to Inwood Park and seated myself on a large rock, legs crossed, eyes closed. Immediately an airplane flew overhead. I stood up, walked a hundred yards deeper into the park, sat beside a tree, and again closed my eyes. This time I heard traffic from the Henry Hudson Parkway. Over and over I sat down, each time encountering a new distraction. Defeated, I walked home.

Beyond Belief

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

But if you really give your full attention to nature, it does speak to you. If you’ve ever been out in the woods and suddenly experienced a shock of grief or awe or a sense of belonging to something greater, that’s because nature has spoken to you. That’s why there’s a timeless, universal tradition of experiencing God in nature. It’s one way of recognizing that we’re part of something greater than ourselves.

Go Fly A Kite

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

I was on a trip back home to northern California — part work, part vacation — and I had a terrible head cold. My research for a magazine article on the wine country north of San Francisco had brought me to a chilly town on the edge of the San Andreas Fault, a place populated by a combination of wealthy tourists, ranch hands, and hippie holdouts.

The Closest I’ve Come To God

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400

I wake up at 8:50 A.M. and whip around the house frantically, not wanting to be late for my women’s Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: feed the cat, grab my knitting, splash water on my face, pour some half-perked coffee, and speed into town.

Faith

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

A kidney donor, Las Vegas, a ballet dancer

Moral Combat

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

You can spend your whole life struggling against war and end up with a world that’s more violent than when you began, but resistance is what gives you spiritual strength. You trust that the work is worth doing and that it’s helping somewhere, though perhaps evidence of that won’t be apparent in your lifetime. You find self-worth in the ability to stand up and fight back without worrying too much about what you can accomplish. That is part of being human. We’re not God. We have a limited capacity to fight evil. We use the gifts and tools we’ve been given and trust that life is meaningful, even if everything we try to do seems to fail.

My God Journal

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:03:00 -0400

Tonight was my third Christmas Eve service. My friend Diana was playing the organ and invited me into the choir loft with her. I sat looking down at the pews, which were two-thirds full. These people had braved the midnight cold of the Catskills to praise the birth of a king in a barn.

Sunbeams

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you will always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

H.L. Mencken

The Temple Of Reason

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion. I think more people are dying as a result of our religious myths than as a result of any other ideology. I would not say that all human conflict is born of religion or religious differences, but for the human community to be fractured on the basis of religious doctrines that are fundamentally incompatible, in an age when nuclear weapons are proliferating, is a terrifying scenario. I think we do the world a disservice when we suggest that religions are generally benign and not fundamentally divisive.

Ending My Religion

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 01:00:00 -0500

I grew up in the hyper-Christian culture of Charlotte, North Carolina, within spitting distance of Jim and Tammy Bakker’s ill-fated Praise the Lord Ministry and other evangelical fiefdoms too numerous to count. But because my mother believed in Faulkner and Steinbeck above all other gods, my upbringing was more literary than religious; for that, my gratitude to her knows no bounds.

Sunbeams

Thu, 01 Mar 2001 16:48:00 -0500

Man is the only animal who has to be encouraged to live.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Some Keep The Sabbath

Thu, 01 Jan 1998 00:05:00 -0500

I stopped going to church the night Diane Pearson announced God filled her cavities. That same night, in the spring of 1973, the police arrested my sister, Sheila.

The Vulgar Soul

Mon, 01 Sep 1997 00:05:00 -0400

As his sessions with the psychiatrist progressed, the stigmata bled less frequently. Hogue was getting more sleep, and though he continued to lose weight, he managed to eat something every day. He felt cautiously hopeful.

Uncommon Prayer

Mon, 01 Jun 1992 00:10:00 -0400

There is something that loves you in the world. The voice that speaks to you within, in the worst despair, is not different from the voice that called the world into being.

Atheist Conches

Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 -0500

Confessions Of A Catholic Girl

Mon, 01 Jul 1991 00:00:00 -0400

We were seven years old. The Church believed we had reached the age of reason. I believed that when the priest placed the first holy wafer on my tongue, if I didn’t swallow it, if I could keep it from melting in my mouth, then when I stepped outside the church I would rise into the sky.

How I See God

Sun, 01 Feb 1981 00:05:00 -0500

As a combination of an elderly Abraham Lincoln and Uncle Sam; through the hole in my throat; through an innocent, crucified victim hanging on a tree

The Only Source You Need

Mon, 01 Jan 1979 00:05:00 -0500

Enlightenment is less like a quiet, deep breath of serenity than a dynamic, on-going process of growth, joy, increased self-awareness and “cosmic” awareness. It is important to see yourself as a flowing process.

On Not Believing

Mon, 01 Apr 1974 00:07:00 -0400

If you look hard enough for a reason to support something you want to believe in, you’ll find it. We select a belief as we do a mate, seeking for that which best reflects ourselves and our needs. Both are fragile and tenuous affairs, but how much more fervently one will hold onto some beliefs, after many loves have come and gone.