The Root of the Dispute between Atheists and Believers
The annual Christmas dispute between atheists and believers
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), according to the Friendly Atheist, installed a billboard celebrating the Winter Solstice instead of Christmas. Meanwhile, the Catholic League installed a counter billboard celebrating Christmas. Believers can learn a lot from these fighting advertisements.
I must add here that nothing in this column should be construed as an attack on the Freedom from Religion Foundation or any other non-believing organization. It is actually to demonstrate an important scientific point. Everyone has the right to celebrate whatever season they do during this time.
The message the Freedom from Religion Foundation states is that there are no gods, no angels, no devils, no heaven or hell. I agree with only one word in this statement and that is there are no gods, I believe in only one god, the deity who calls himself “I Am”.
However, let us look at this message and the opposite one that we do believe in God, angels, devils, Heaven and Hell because this is an important study for our time.
Positions versus Issues
Any time you have an argument, you can divide it into two parts—positions and issues. I learned this many years ago in the book Getting to Yes by Bruce Patton, Roger Fisher, William Ury (2011; Penguin Books) If you argue positions, you will get nowhere. The Catholic League counters the FFRF in an opposing billboard stating “We say Merry Christmas.” The Freedom from Religion Foundation announces we celebrate, not Christmas, but the winter solstice. You will fight those two positions ad infinitum.
We need to look at the issue which is at the base of the argument: Is there a spiritual world. The FFRF teaches that there is not, there is only the natural world and the Catholic League says there is. This is the crux of the argument between the FFRF and the believing world, is there a spiritual component in nature?
What can we truly perceive?
So the issue is not what holiday we celebrate at this time, but rather is there more to the universe than what we can perceive? I would say, yes.
This is something I explain all the time. The whole crux of atheism is seeing is believing and if we cannot see it or perceive it in some way, then it does not exist.
The religious argument is that there is a spiritual world indeed and the Christian argument is that Jesus revealed it. So, all of faith has the foundation in believing that which is unseen. (cf Hebrew 11)
Neither side above proves their points, they only take sides in the dispute. The question of whether the spiritual world exists moves from a religious question to a scientific question. There is a problem: a spiritual world, by definition, does not consist of atoms and molecules whereas the material world does. So the question is are there realities that exist that do not consist of atoms and molecules? Science only investigates material realities of matter and energy. We can only perceive matter. If the spiritual world exists, then we cannot perceive it.
Studying further we can read the history of the Jews in light of the Christians and see there is an evolution of spirituality in the entire Bible.
Moving from the physical to the spiritual
The Hebrews, freed from Egypt, await Moses below Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. Those two tablets become the physical evidence of the law. Moses builds an Ark of the Covenant and stores the tablets there following God’s instruction. The Hebrews then have tangible evidence of this God they believe in and the spiritual world in which he exists. So the spiritual gives evidence in the physical of the presence of God in the community.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is a stronger focus on the spiritual over the physical. We can see a kind of evolution from focusing on the physical to focusing on the spiritual. Both worlds exist but there is an expanded focus on the embracing the spiritual more than the physical presence. The Jews to this day are not universal believers in eternal life and were not in the time of Jesus (cf Acts 23:9). Eternal life is the point of Christianity. (John 6:68)
So, if we were to take a look at the Judeo-Christian reality, we would see that there is an evolution from the focus on the physical and the spiritual to focusing onthe spiritual and then the physical. It is an evolution of understanding that there is also a spiritual world. Suprisingly, evolution is a key aspect of our spiritual understanding. Darwin promoted biological evolution which many Catholics accept but there is a whole plethera of forms of evolution, biological is just one. What we see through the history of Judeo-Christianity is evolution on various planes.
This becomes the crux of understanding what we believe as Christians. Belief is key because belief is about comprehending that which is beyond our ability to perceive as human beings. It is believing in what we do not have the physical capability to perceive. This is the point of faith and religion.
What is the truth?
The FFRF foundation is a materialistic doctrine that teaches if we cannot perceive it, then it does not exist. This becomes the true crux of the argument over religion. Is there a spiritual world that is beyond the natural world? Some people say yes, and others do not.
The real fight between FFRF and other organizations such as the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is really between understanding the nature of all reality and our ability to perceive it.
The dispute between believers and atheists will continue ad infinitum until there is solid evidence that either confirms or denies the existence of reality beyond our ability to perceive it. Until that time, we only have faith—both kinds—one believes in the spiritual world and the other does not. In either case, both positions have their foundation in believing that which cannot be fully confirmed, scientifically.
Until we can formally settle the dispute, we have to look at each other not as enemies of faith on one side and reason on the other, especially since Catholics believe in both faith and reason but as adherents to two different scientific theories willing to submit to the truth once we can fully comprehend it.
Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA
The parish podcast is at CatholicAudioMedia.com
The newest edition of Fr Robert J Carr's latest book is now available. Christ in Our Humanity. You can find it here.