A poetic atheism
Jennifer Michael Hecht at the Best American Poetry talks ”poetic atheism”, a different kind of faith, and the meaning of life.
There are two main models for thinking about the meaning of life: The first is that it has no meaning, the second is that there is a hidden world that provides the meaning. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I think of as “poetic atheism,” as I’ve often bled about to you bleaders in the past, and by which I mean a third way, where we believe there is no hidden world that provides the meaning, but there is meaning anyway. My thesis is that the feelings we have that suggest meaning are sufficient to the definition of meaning. It is a romantic ?claim, by which I mean it is a very active rhetorical device, but it seems to me that what we think of as the real situation (atomized meaningless animals on a dirt ball) is also a very active rhetorical device, and one that is neither normal nor encouraging. Normally (in most cultures through history, everywhere) human beings notice interdependence a lot more than we do and the feeling of living in a web of meaning is so intense that even the most sober descriptions of reality show human company as the asset that is our excellent true answer to cosmic meaninglessness. Think of how safe the child feels with parent sitting on the bed as compared to all alone in the darkness. If we invent a third-party invisible friend, we have to work to believe, and then commune. If we notice that we are all right here in front of one another, actual visible friends, then we can commune. You still need faith to believe that we can help each other and are willing to do so, you still need faith to believe life is worth the trouble and humanity is basically good, a lot of faith. But at least the people you are talking about actually exist, right?
There is a movement (I can’t say if it’s growing or not, but I hope it is) of non-theistic spirituality, and poetic atheism certainly qualifies. It’s hard to say what name to give the movement as a whole, but it can be said to include Religious Naturalism, Pantheism, Religious Humanism, Non-theistic Quakerism, and probably others I don’t know about. There are people, like myself, who wish to integrate certain traditionally religious things into their non-theism, such as meaning, awe, reverence, celebration, ritual, and so on. Plus religion offers a kind of social community that has no real alternative, at least in America.
Personally, I think it’s a shame that so many atheists have such a strong negative reaction to this general perspective. Greta Christina has talked about making “safe landings” available for theists who are doubting their faith but aren’t willing to give up the emotionally satisfying elements along with the supernatural beliefs. The Unitarians are one obvious choice, but many of their services continue to integrate explicitly Christian tropes that might turn off people wanting to get away from it. Having a robust Religious Naturalism would fit the bill for a lot of people who can recognize the majesty of Nature but aren’t interested in the Abrahamic faiths or New Age mumbo jumbo.