Atheism is Wasted on the Nonbeliever

I am in love with the essay, “Atheism is Wasted on the Nonbeliever,” by Richard Rodriguez, which I read for one of my classes this term. A few theological ideas have been swimming around in my head for the past several months. One is how Christians ought to be, to some extent, atheists. “I pray God to rid me of God,” says Meister Eckhart.

The great temptation for the believers, it seems to me, is not atheism; it is the arrogance of claiming to know God’s will.  It is therefore with some measure of irony and necessary caution that I say I believe in God.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the Christ who was a loser in human history — destroyed by this world — whose life reveals in its generosity and tragedy the most complete and challenging version of theism I know.  What the New Atheists do not comprehend is that the crucifix cannot be mocked.  It is itself mockery.

As a Christian, I worship the same God as the Jew and the Muslim, a revealed God.  I share with the atheist and the agnostic a sense of God who is hidden.  (I say hidden; the atheist would say never there in the first place.)

And more: I believe the monotheistic religions would be healthier, less inclined to extremism and violence, if those of us who profess belief in God were able also to admit our disbelief.

–Richard Rodriguez, “Atheism is Wasted on the Nonbeliever” in Bearing the Mystery: 20 Years of Image, 2009