More on Atheism

A rabbinic friend of mine and liberal Protestant minister in my neighborhood have been discussing the issue atheism on another blog I regularly read. The discussion is being fueled by a couple of books in the current intellectual literature. Since I normally don’t like to comment on books I haven’t read, I won’t name the books or authors. Suffice it to say that the books, at least by report, seem to feature a style of bright-lights atheism that practically exalts non-belief to a religion of its own, not a very appealing theology as far as I’m concerned. To me, the more interesting question, then, is where to fit the atheist who isn’t doing it for the power or the glory or some other base motive, but simply hasn’t been convinced by the God argument. As indicated in a previous post ("Tsimtsum Atheism), God isn’t a concept that I entertain in my life, certainly no God north of Spinoza’s or Kaplan’s, which is to say no kind of God worth his or her salt. Presumably, this means that I’m not currently receiving any of God’s mercy, and if I am I probably should be feeling sheepish about it. And, yet, I believe with all my heart that the Torah belongs to me as much as it does to you believers. I study it, I cherish it and I think good things come from it. But it hasn’t brought me faith, the sustaining quality of being a believer in God. Instead, the Torah has reaffirmed doubt for me as a guiding principle, faith’s polar opposite. After all, the Hebrew Bible is all about moral quandaries, and what is a quandary if not an expression of doubt? The principle of doubt tells me not to accept anything on faith, but to require proof and justification. So far, no book, no argument, no natural phenomenon and, certainly, very little in the history of humanity has provided me with proof that God exists – quite the opposite. So, I’d like you to know from my friends in the clergy where that leaves me, because my non-belief seems to be a bigger issue for them than it is for me. Can you believers accept a non-believer as a fellow-traveler of sorts, or are we atheists doomed to eternal traifness in your theology? And if we are, my next question is whose Torah is it anyway, because I really feel that I have as much invested in it as you do.