Meet Ryan Bell, former pastor turned atheist, who says we
don't need a divinity to find meaning and that the absence of God has made him appreciate life and its potential even more.
Ryan Bell is a writer and speaker on the topic of religion and irreligion in America. In January 2014, Ryan began a yearlong journey to
explore the limits of theism and the atheist landscape in the United States.
He says it was January 2014 and I was sitting on the beach in Malibu looking
out at the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean, ebbing and flowing. I had just begun
a personal project of challenging my lifelong assumption that God exists.
You see, I had been a Seventh-day Adventist pastor for 19 years. I resigned
from my pastoral position the year before , but now I stepped away from my
faith altogether. It was a gut-wrenching decision but I couldn't see any other
way to find peace and clarity. I encountered major theological differences with
my denomination and evangelical Christianity in general, including the way it
marginalizes women and LGBT people.
I questioned the problem of evils and God's general silence and inactivity. I sought out more liberal theologies and found them to be the slow death of God.
Now I had to face the very real possibility that God does not exist.
Would I discover that God was present and involved, or would I discover that the whole web of theological claims I had embraced and helped develop were false?
I was feeling small against the beautiful and terrifyingly indifferent sea before
me. Then I started to feel grateful. "What are the chances that I would be
sitting on this beach right now, looking at this remarkable scene of beauty?" I
thought. I was struck again by how unlikely my existence is.
One question I've been repeatedly asked is how my life has any meaning
without God. While I had heard dozens of Christian apologists claim that
meaning cannot be found without God, I had a curious experience. My
appreciation for life and its potential increased when I stepped away from my
faith.
Atheists are often accused of being nihilists or absurdists. Absurdism is a
school of thought arguing that humanity's effort to find inherent meaning in life
is futile. Nihilism goes further and in doing so becomes a mood or a disposition
as well as a philosophical frame of mind. Nihilism says that nothing matters at
all.
"If there is no God, then man and the universe are doomed. Like prisoners
condemned to death, we await our unavoidable execution. There is no God, and
there is no immortality. And what is the consequence of this? It means that life
itself is absurd. It means that the life we have is without ultimate significance,
value, or purpose," writes William Lane Craig, a Christian apologist.
But my experience is that acknowledging the absence of God has helped me
refocus on the wonderful and unlikely life I do have. This realization has
increased my appreciation for beauty and given me a sense of immediacy about
my life. As I come to terms with the fact that this life is the only one I get, I am
more motivated than ever to make it count.
I want to experience as much happiness and pleasure as I can while helping
others to attain their happiness. I construct meaning in my life from many
sources, including love, family, friendships, service, learning and so on.
Popular Christian theology, on the other hand, renders this life less meaningful
by anchoring all notions of value and purpose to a paradise somewhere in the
future, in a place other than where we are right now. Ironically, my Christian
upbringing taught me that ultimately this life doesn't matter, which tends to
make believers apathetic about suffering and think that things will only get
worse before God suddenly solves everything on the last day.
Behold, atheists' new Ten Commandments
It struck me this year that nihilism is a disease born of theism. Some people
have been taught to expect meaning outside of this world beyond our earthly
experiences. When they come upon the many absurdities of life and see that it's
"not as advertised," an existential despair can take hold.
The problem is not solved by inventing a God in which to place all our hopes,
but rather, to face life honestly and create beauty from the absurd.
Without dependency on a cosmic savior who is coming to rescue us, we are
free to recognize that we are the ones we're waiting for. If we don't make the
world a fair and habitable place, no one else is going to do it for us. Our lives
matter because our choices affect others and our children's future.
Life does not need a divine source in order to be meaningful. Anyone who has
seen a breathtaking sunset or fallen in love with another human being knows
that we make meaning from the experiences of our lives; we construct it the
way we construct any social narrative.
Free from false expectations we are free to create purpose, share love, and
enjoy the endless beauty of our world. We are the fortunate ones. There is no
need for fear to have the last word.
Those are his words, not mind, for everyone is entitled to his/her opinions.
He has said his, and let listen to yours if you have any.
Source: Cnn news
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