I truly wish God were real. Life would be so much easier, so much safer.
As a very small boy, my father would take me in his arms as we walked on a crowded city sidewalk. It is safest I’ve ever felt. I knew that with my father’s strong arm wrapped around me, there was nothing that could harm me.
I wish a loving God made me feel that safe now.
I live on a farm with three loyal dogs and two old lady cats. I’m not alone, just the only human.
Imagine that in the night, I’m awakened by a faint cry.
“Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? I need help! Please help me. I’m in terrible trouble! Alone. Lost. If you can hear me, please, please, help me.”
So I pull on my overalls, grab a flashlight and tell the dogs to lead me to the voice...
They know what to do.
In the darkest days of my life, in the worst trouble I’ve ever been, I’ve cried out to God for help. He’s never answered.
Place your faith in the kindness and generosity of others. Place your faith in your own strength and common sense. This life is good. We are safe. Rely for help on worldly things.
The belief in magical allies is not the answer.
46
I too wanted to walk a pilgrimage, the western, less popular portion of the Camino.
I thought I would find wisdom and awareness through the quiet, the time, the companionship, the blisters, the suffering.
I thought I would experience God, walking and talking with him, in the transcendence of presence and focus.
Then, I realized that pilgrimages, like all forms of escape, are a selfish way to walk away from responsibilities, commitments, demands, from the boredom and grind of everyday life, the people who depend on you, the requirement to be present, attentive and reliable, all with a totally charming allure of being holy, spiritual, and admirable.
Indeed, a pilgrimage might be the ultimate fantasy escape, the ultimate dereliction of duty - to escape your responsibilities and be admired for it!
When a pilgrimage most appealed to me, I was wrung up in a soul-sucking difficult job, teenage kids, failing elderly parents, a rough patch in marriage, menopause.
Of course I wanted to escape - but hey, much better to escape for acceptable, holy, admirable reasons!
If serving God means serving other people unselfishly, especially those who most depend on us and those in need, then to escape from responsibilities is not holy.
Instead, it is a solo athletic vacation in Europe, inexpensive, with beautiful scenery, good food, companionship with other escapees, lovely justified self-absorption, and the freedom to be someone else, free of responsibilities and commitments.
18
Mr. Egan, I feel a spiritual revolution is needed in this materialistic world, the humanity long for Spirituality and piece of mind " La Sécurité Intérieure ", it is just right the corner, awaiting to be revealed.
You may be willing to help trigger it's revelation to the mankind.
12
I guess it's how one defines "spiritual." I've hiked the Via Francigena, the Camino Frances, and the Camino Portuguese all in their entirety. I was overwhelmed with the history, the spectacular scenery, the architecture and grandeur of the many churches, the food, the vineyards and wines of Tuscany and the kindness of the people. When you walk these trails you are often walking across people's farms and opening/closing the gates that hold their sheep, goats and cattle. Can you imagine Americans allowing you to do this? To me, this is spiritual!
19
My dear uncle is a priest for 60 years. He has lived a humble life of service to poor migrants in the States, and poor children in Juarez.
He asked me once what brought me back to God.
My answer, that I did not have time to explain, was.... LSD
The mystery of God is also the mystery of us.
There is an old story of God wondering where he could hide to give mankind a puzzle to work out, about his presence. He wondered about the highest mountain, but his angels said "No, man will eventually get there". How about the deepest sea? Same answer.
Finally he said "I know. I will hide inside of man. He will never look for me there."
What if those who perform miracles (in India miracle performers are not though of as odd) are really just people who understand deeply the mysteries of Quantum Physics?
The world that God, or Brahma, or Allah has blessed us with is filled with mystery and wonder. And the greatest of these is our own soul.
17
Atheism is not a synonym for Science. Egan recognizes this; many commenters seem not to.
13
I'm not catholic or very religious, but I dream of walking the Camino de Santiago one day. I doubt I'll get there, so I content myself with the Appalachian trail and Vermont's Long Trail - America's secular pilgrim ways.
8
Usual good Egan writing overall. Two things hit me: 'Atheists have no story to tell.' They do. It's rooted in humanism, science and the search for certainties, not in mythology, sin, sexual abuse, misogyny, guilt, tithes and punishment.
I also question the implication that Christianity (as is often preached) is the one and true religion and the sole religious answer. This thinking implies that other religions are not competitively worthy. William Barr's recent rant on the sins of the public is symptomatic of this prejudiced and dangerous way of thinking.
16
Sunday Morning
Mohave Vatican! Gothic high!
In down, so warmed by a hot pink sunrise.
A Gregorian owl stops at matin's tide,
His chant swallowed whole by a blushing sky.
Sandstone cathedrals tower overhead.
Downed boulders crowd these weeping walls
Bishop, I heard, has trembled with quakes.
With gravity, Your faithful rise and fall.
Rainbow pebbles in memoriam spread
earth's old stained-glass soliloquy
for redeemers of clues and mysteries.
Kneeling,
I gather a share of these
stone gospels of desert geology
retrieving my estimable proof.
A basilica needs no roof.
9
It may be one cure but a better cure is giving of yourself to help others who are suffering.
15
Atheism has trouble telling a story?
The story is evolution.
16
Mr. Egan's kicker speaks of mysteries solved. On that point, I submit a bit of wisdom from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran martyr to Hitler. One big task of Christian spirituality and theology, he said, is not so much to solve as to preserve the Christian mystery. For the duration of human history, Christ's reality is and will always have the character of a mystery and just exactly because it is the one thing that science can't solve by its techniques nor philosophical inquiry by its passion to know everything. Maybe Christ is breaking out once again among Christian pilgrims in western nations. Maybe they go on pilgrimages because they aren't finding Christ where they are in the comfort zones of modern consumerism and technology--or in Churches where such things have their own idols. Maybe. But many thanks to Mr. Egan--and to several beautiful Catholic Christians I (a Protestant) have known.
8
Go in the opposite direction, to alien cultures that have been largely extinguished by European violence...
4
His book is not "forthcoming"- I got it in the mail this week. Yay!
2
Why doesn't he take a stroll through the rubble, the terrified women and children, the smell of death in Syria? Nourishment for the soul. Even better than putting on a monk's habit and going barefoot. He might learn something.
12
Nice story, but not for me.
3
.
Uh, Timothy, Im gona have to stop you right here :
define soul
.
4
People are entitled to their unique beliefs; no one would argue that. But how can otherwise intelligent people, those who've at least reasoned out enough to the point that they can positively declare themselves 'atheist', not allow themselves at least the scant possibility---again, using intuitive reasoning alone, no emotion----that there exists something larger than than ourselves 'out there'?
Take the 'Big Bang'. It didn't just materialize out of the blue; something had to have flicked the proverbial finger that set the marbles rolling. And an "infinite" universe? Who but a "(g)(G)od", anybody's version, no matter, could have created all of it. Just the mere idea of 'infinite' is a mind-blower to our human little-brains, but to imagine even a finite edge of the universe has to predispose the notion of something else that lies beyond that edge.
And if there is a "God", who/what created God? Here again, these are your basic Freshman 101 questions to existentialism. It is this unknown, the actual questions themselves, that unites us, no matter how our respective theological solutions seem to divide us.
Personally, I focus on the much, much-bigger picture: Whatever it/he/she is, we ALL are subjects to this creator. One needn't necessarily make a literal pilgrimage to connect with this creator---merely going through life with open eyes, open mind and open heart will provide the answers too.
15
Religion is essentially poetry. Institutionalized or "organized" religion is mostly conventionalized or dogmatized poetry, leaving it lifeless or nearly so.
4
Well, Tim, I always used to enjoy your smart and sensible columns, but now I see that there's a little weakness in your thinking: your proneness to fall for the allure of religion. But, hey, nobody's perfect, so I'll continue to read you...as long as you don't write another one like this
7
Beautiful.
6
More of these stories please!
8
Thank you for a stimulating personal sharing in an era of toxic personal unaccountability for harmful words and deeds.
Consider: a helpful “ cure for malnutrition of the soul, (psyche and soma) is creating opportunities to prepare for-with “the other,” kin, kin as well as stranger, a meal-of-shared-menschlichkeit.
2
I say Tao, you say Catholic. We are both searching, it is all ok.
7
Mr. Egan, you need a talk show host to get you off your ambivalent rear to become a tourist along Via Francigena in order to feed your soul? A life-long atheist has much to teach you about a spiritual life.
2
People are entitled to their unique beliefs; no one would argue that. But how can otherwise intelligent people, those who've at least reasoned out enough to the point that they can positively declare themselves 'atheist', not allow themselves at least the scant possibility---again, using intuitive reasoning alone, no emotion----that there exists something larger than than ourselves 'out there'?
Take the 'Big Bang'. It didn't just materialize out of the blue; something had to have flicked the proverbial finger that set the marbles rolling. And an "infinite" universe? Who but a "(g)(G)od", anybody's version, no matter, could have created all of it. Just the mere idea of 'infinite' is a mind-blower to our human little-brains, but to imagine even a finite edge of the universe has to predispose the notion of something else that lies beyond that edge.
And if there is a "God", who/what created God? Here again, these are your basic Freshman 101 questions to existentialism. Personally, it is this unknown, the actual questions themselves, that unites us, no matter how our respective theological solutions seem to divide us.
Personally, I focus on the much-bigger picture: Whatever it/he/she is, we ALL are subjects to this creator. One needn't necessarily make a literal pilgrimage to connect with this creator---merely going through life with open eyes, open mind and open heart will provide the answers too.
1
A nice slow walk into the unknown...keep the faith.
3
Sorry, but this year is 2019 CE, and I'm a woman.
Not only do I NOT believe that "80 percent" of Western civilization believes in miracles, but until I see the "BIG ONE", which will be religions setting aside their noxious misogyny, then I shall remain atheist and ignore 'fake news' like "80 percent... believe in miracles".
And last week, in the Washington Post they said that "40% of Americans believe that exorcisms work".
That was in an article on a 6-year-old boy who had been murdered by his father because he was possessed by a "demon".
Sorry, but on Sunday's I have noticed that the streets are empty of cars, the parking lots of churches are empty and I would be surprised if the true number of church-goers is over 5%.
Yet the property that is church-owned is in the trillions.
My source?
Goggle.
Just google: What is the worth of the top ten churches in America?
What an odd god if the god has to have 51% of the populace treated as inferiors.
Not interested.
7
Arrgh. religion is the root of all the problems in the world.
Unspeakable cruelty, death, all in the name of "who has the better imaginary friend"
The biggest existential problem is the population explosion, again, fueled by religion. How many atheists do you know with more than 2-3 children? Catholicism, Islam, Orthodox Judaism, Hinduism, all preach having too many children. Only Buddhism, technically not a religion but belief system, get it right.
And please don't try to tell me it's because they can't afford birth control in developing countries. It's goes back to religion preaching to the masses against contraception.
You can lay it all at the door of religion...
6
"One sibling in my family was nearly destroyed by religion. The clergy in our diocese committed a monstrous crime...."
After such a record of miscreance committed in the name of Christ, after the lion's share of human suffering caused by religious intolerance, what possibly, can "faith" mean?
2
If you want a quick spiritual pick-me-up, give a listen to Stevie Wonder's "Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away." Sublime.
2
One doesn’t need organized religion to be spiritual. G-d is in all things in this amazing universe. We have no idea how we got here, why we are here or where we are going but we do have G-d in us and that is love. Love your fellow human beings and this amazing planet and you will be at peace wherever you are. Yes, it takes focus and some work.
5
Atheism is like the 97% : oh they’re right all right — dead right — but people like that, similar to the great intellectual, Hitchens, didn’t realize that they weren’t going to die and not go to heaven, indeed, they were dead before and their experience here on Earth was heaven!
I know, it’s a let down for those focusing on 72 virgins, but considering all that which had to happen historically in order for human flesh to become a living receptacle for that weightless consciousness called “I think therefore I am.” — René Descartes, one does have to allow for the child to deny its godly existence! That’s just human.
The good news is: god doesn’t know where he came from either! That’s our job! To figure that out and pilgrimages are a great way to do it — far away from the cogs of supposed progress.
I recently went to see the movie God, tussi great ho. Tussi means " you" and " ho" means are. So "God, you are great".
The director and the main actor are Muslim. The other actors are Hindu. But it is a version of God which both Hindus and Muslims can accept. The port Kabir sang of that common God centuries ago.
It would be great if we could get away from Christian narcissism behind this essay.
Christianity is A religion and one I respect. But when it pretends to be THE religion, I feel like biting my nails.
Excuse me but you are not the only non-atheistic game in town.
4
The Roman Catholic Church is doomed. It can’t end soon enough for me. I survived sexual assault and battery from my parish priest at age 12. It destroyed me. I missed the life I deserved to have by birthright.
51
We are all spiritual beings? Perhaps, we are all deluded beings. Egan seems lost in the past. Your end is coming and you will be dead.
2
You can go on a pilgrimage without a religion. surprised? Americans have no IMAGINATION at all and this yet again proves it!
2
I never felt that I am in spiritually malnutrition. The reason for that I do not feel conflict what so ever between religion and science or modern life.
There are serious things to accomplish in the life not becoming troubled soul.
1. Acceptance of death or life has an end.
2.There is no after life
3.We must have god while we are living
4.Truth cannot be denied because it is against (human made) religion.
5.God is exist because we have abstract view of world, Most likely animals too. God is not exist in the universe , it is exist in our mind and thoughts. Therefore God didn't create us, We created god because it is necessary more a must.
6. Religion is a human invention therefore it is subjected to change its rules , there is no other way around it.
7. If you cannot solve your spiritual malnutrition , nobody solves for you, Christ will never save you, Allah will never award you, etc. It is you and your troubled soul, answer is not out there. In short if you cannot find the way, i am sorry your programming in the very beginning was deficient or insufficient to tackle with this problem.
8. Take a trilobite fossil in your hand and look , it past from that moment that animal died at least 350 million year, then think how old are you. This is not a good question for mere mortal human brain. To cope with that serious concept requires next step in the evolution. You are not there yet.
9. Just accept the life and keep commonsense and carry on.
Read books.
1
In this country, the people who proclaim the loudest that they are the most religious, God fearing souls are usually the most bigoted, hypocritical and immoral. Evangelicals come to mind. Their continued fidelity to corruption, greed and mendacity while preaching to the country is more than hypocritical, it’s godless.
10
God may be. Christianity has been a failure.
4
October 19, 2019
"At that point in life where your talent meets the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be."
Albert Schweitzer
4
"if you take Someone Worth Worshipping (alias 'God') away from human beings, they'll (without realizing what they're doing) worship someone-unworthy-of worship); e.g.; a Roosevelt or Stalin or Hitler -- alias themselves." e. e. cummings
"alias themselves" makes me think of some of Trump supporters who profess God but identify with Trump's anger, resentment, and aggressiveness and express this much more than they identify with or express God's love.
2
I would like to believe that there is a soul inside humanity, but the state of the news each day, tells me otherwise. The human animal, which I believe we are is pretty much controlled by its two strongest drives, sexually predatory behavior, and anger, and murder. What has taken place within the Catholic Church over the last centuries, but only brought out in the open over the last decade and more, and what is going on in the middle east, Africa, and the bloodshed in Mexico on a daily basis sadly shows this evil, primitive, and predatory behavior of human upon human. Hope for humanity, when most of the leaders arrest people, put them in jail for extended periods of time, and kill, and torture them. We don't need to name all of them, because they are in the news almost every day, or have been in the last year, often with the blessing of DT. When you can take all of Congress, and DT along with you for a year, we might recover as a nation, until then, there is no soul left in this country.
2
While in college I took a course on The History of the Western World. A major event receiving focus in that well-structured and presented course was the centuries-long conflict between science and religion. This raised questions which I have been unable to fully resolve within myself for decades.
Individuals living the modern world, in the developed nations, display a crying need for regular affirmation of spiritual values — charity, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, honor, honesty, sacrifice, decency, acceptance, loyalty and brotherhood.
An institution that upholds these laudable virtues, while discouraging their negative opposites, is desperately needed. A meeting place where “the better angels of our nature” might be nourished and encouraged would be wonderful.
To a great degree our existing churches and synagogues meet this need. But along with morality and fellowship, mysticism and superstition are an integral part of organized religion. We are told that we’re surrounded by invisible forces, the mysterious actions of which are unknowable. Satan and demons. God and angels. Heaven and hell.
Holy books are defined to be TRUTH itself, yet they are filled with stories that defy science and reason.
In the church of my youth, the wonderful hymns we sang together and the warm comfort of belonging I felt were somehow overshadowed by Noah’s ark and the parting of the Red Sea.
What of us? What of those who long for half of what church offers, but cannot swallow the other half?
3
Agnosticism is an intellectual position about knowledge, atheism is a statement about belief. When Christian apologists say things like “Yet each mystery explained [by science], as the science-loving Pope Francis would say, builds the case for God,” then you know you’re no longer on intellectual ground.
5
shucks, you just lost me as a reader; i am definitely not a spiritual being...whatever that is...
Over the ages religion laid waste to Europe. Arguably, at its peak in the middle-east we now see that same bloody religious history repeating itself. Tell me about religion! Tell me how nourishing religion is for the soul. Tell me about our collective inferiority complex and the curative role of religion over that malady. Help us.
3
Colbert has it backwards. It takes a lot of guts to acknowledge indeterminacy and not knowing, and go forward anyway. That is one of the appeals of belief, of dismissing the problems of organized religion and claiming certainty. Reality is messy and most organized religions tell you that if you think so, it's your problem, the chink of self-doubt that they claim they will cure if you only give them the power to do so. Belong or don't belong for your own reasons, but be careful not to drink the Kool-aid.
5
I am an agnostic, and am indeed without balls--being neither a man nor an atheist. I am open to the possibility of there being a god as well as the probability that there is not. I recognize that something in the human nervous system makes people--including me--have spiritual experiences and that may in fact be how we detect god(s). On the other hand, ringing in my ears doesn't *necessarily* indicate the presence of bells.
I see beauty in the world around me, but there is no separate existence of Beauty outside of my perception of it, nor did my eyes evolve for the purpose of seeing this reified Beauty. The perception of Beauty appears to be an accident of human evolution, but this doesn't stop me from seeking and creating beauty. The perception of Spirit may similarly be an evolutionary byproduct, but this doesn't stop me from seeking or enjoying spiritual experiences.
And thank Possible-But-Not-Probable God that I grew up and remain a Unitarian-Universalist.
4
Mr. Egan,
I have always admired you and your writing but here you have
become lazy and self-indulgent. Please read and reread the responses here from both RBW and Sebastian Schubl. They state most eloquently what's so disappointing about your ess
1
I have never understood the urge to find God. Born and raised in Germany, baptized and confirmed, I never found any solace in the story told by people of faith. I do like a good story, but the story of organized religion seems to me to be more about power and subjugation. I can believe in fairness, social justice, justice, and building a just and fair society. Some may say that indicates I believe in a higher being, because I could not possibly find my guiding principles outside some kind of religious belief. I find that a meaningless and vacuous explanation. Be that as it may, we all have questions about what may happen to us after death. Fairy tales of heaven and hell may help some of us. On a light note, imagine you meet all those people in "heaven" that claim they will be there. Do you really want to join them? Again, those of us who need the image of a God should go for it. If it helps, so be it. Just don't impose organized religion on me. Too much harm has been done over thousands of years by those prophets.
1
How ludicrous, centuries of killing, never ending prayer, etc. Imagine how much better the world will be with no religion.
6
Can going to a sheep and wool festival in Rhinebeck NY suffice?
3
Love the comment "lapsed but listening."
Perfect description for an old Irish American Catholic like meself.
2
One day a friend, right proud of her PhD, said “I don’t believe in anything.” A UU at the time, I was still shocked at her inexplicable confidence. Oh, I believe in everything, I said. Everything and anything—fairies, Jesus, animals that talk, leprechauns—is possible!
I have always been proud to have broken away from my narrow Presbyterian upbringing.
But how boring—no matter how many PhDs—to never be surprised, or amazed, or shocked.
That would be copping to a malnourished soul.
3
Spirituality is communion with humanity - the free expression of our shared emotional experience - the pursuit of which is one of our most powerful instincts. We will always run toward it.
Religion is an effort on the part of the intellect to gain control over the instinct, which quickly overpowers it. Then the twisting begins and the monsters emerge (“monsters from the id” in the language of the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet). Think pedophile priests and Vatican-sponsored Nazi ratlines. Ultimately of course it devolves into a racket, which functions mostly to enrich its owners.
Most people have by now figured this all out, which is why the cathedrals of the world stand empty.
3
Dude, get a motorcycle. Every road is holy if God exists. You don't have to cozy up to the approved abracadabra.
3
Here is a doozy...
“Religion is story, a narrative about a force much greater than us, enigmatic by nature. “
This article is filled with non sequiturs and baseless statements like the above it makes your head hurt.
6
Why do you need a book and a priest in order to be kind and generous?
J. Krishnamurti
10
To me, organized religion has much of the same traits as the tRump movement: based on lies, fear, and lack of accountability. Rape a boy? Just confess and you're good! Above the law, self-serving, "I'm better than you". "Let us pray" where pray is really spelled with an e (wink!).
No thanks.
8
I’ve got news for you. Organized religion is dying in the United States. The obvious hypocrisy of the Trump swooning evangelicals who may be some of the worst people on the planet, along with the sex abuse scandals of the Catholic Church should be the end of both for anybody educated and with half a brain.
10
'Have an egg roll Mr. Egan,
Have a napkin, have a chopstick, have a chair
Have a spare rib Mr. Egan
Any spare rib that I can spare, I'll be glad to share...'
Apologies to Gypsy.
Modern man might be able to better assuage his malnutrition of the soul by working to heal the world he has despoiled and devastated. Self-indulgent walking and speculative homage to imaginary gods will not stop the inexorable destruction of the world by global warming, the death of the oceans and the Sixth Great Extinction is leaving the planet devoid of lions, tigers, whales, elephants, giraffes, chimpanzees, monk seals, macaws.
Millennia of patriarchal religions have done nothing to elevate humanity. Instead, humans, the males anyway, engage in constant warfare, rape, the oppression of the weaker, and the destruction of the planet. Religion has given us genocides and atrocities galore, from jihads to the Ku Klux Klan to the genocide of native Americans to the Holocaust. Now that humans have run out of hope for a decent future, for their children to have a sustainable future, they turn to religion for fantasy and false hope. Too bad those priests and pious ones are chanting nonsense all day instead of planting trees and reforesting the world.
"Why should it be that whenever men have looked for something solid on which to found their lives, they have chosen not the facts in which the world abounds, but the myths of an immemorial imagination – preferring even to make life a hell for themselves and their neighbors, in the name of some violent god, instead of accepting gracefully the bounty the world affords?" --- Joseph Campbell
2
Religion can be a very good tool like fire and a very bad master.
1
God no! Mother Earth yes!
2
If it is true -- as I have always hoped and believed --that G-d takes special care of falling-down drunks and the United States of America, then today is the day that we really need Him.
1
The empiricist… thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than seeing. – George Santayana
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. – William James
Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men[sic] of old; seek what they sought. – Matsuo Basho
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. – Dalai Lama Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide
“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.” -E. B. Browning
Deep suffering makes theologians of us all. The questions people ask about God in Sunday school rarely compare with the questions we ask while we are in the hospital. -Barbara Brown Taylor
Christian faith was first a lifestyle before it was a belief system. -Richard Rohr
If it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes a whole cosmos to bear forth the depths of divine love. - Cynthia Bourgeault
2
Religion’s worst enemy: Trump and stupidity. I will never understand how so many so-called religious people can support a man who hates so easily.
5
Nonsense.
' God created man in his own image. Ans man returned the favor' George Bernard Shaw
Our spiritual strivings are an exercise in intellectual diva narcissism and intellectual mental masturbation. Placing us the center of the why, when, where and who of life, the universe and everything.
All of our human 'spiritual' strivings can't be accurate, fair, moral, objective and true. They can all be the antithesis or off kilter or close to those things by accident,chance, context and perspective.
What our spritual strivings can be are fiction, mythology, supernatural, superstition and certain.
What our spiritual strivings can't be are science.
What our spiritual strivings can't be are curious and doubting.
2
I’m sorry, but our ancestors were religious beings in the day when there was no other explanation for the events unfolding in front of them. Today, not so. Instead of praying to Zeus or Abraham to change to keep us safe from storms, we can now predict the weather. Instead of feeling the need to force religion on others, lest they die damned to hell, today we understand what our ancestors wrote about have become myths. Personally, I take all the communal and positive ewisdom offered across religions as a form of social science. Bertrand Russell said it best. “Act as if”.
1
An agnostic is just "an atheist without balls"?
Keep fooling yourself.
We should believe in miracles simply because 80% of Americans believe in miracles? Grow a pair.
We should believe in miracles because hundreds of years ago Augustine implied that if we fully understood nature then miracles would would be understandable? Grow a pair.
We should be religionists because Christianity, for example, has a more appealing narrative (to some) than atheism? Grow a pair.
If I take this article at face value I see a writer who's based his understanding of the world on a collection of feel good anecdotes. A colossal collection of anecdotes, no doubt. I suggest that person grow a pair. Wrestle with inconvenient facts and dare to embrace uncomfortable or unappealing truths.
5
I don't agree with Stephen Colbert that an agnostic is "an atheist without any balls." First of all, only men have balls, and balls should not be considered the cornerstone of integrity, which renders over half of us deficient. My foray into Buddhism tells me that there are forces beyond the sweep of my mind that I can seek, but do not own all the answers to. I am not an atheist, because I know there is reality I don't know. That doesn't mean I believe in the angry, vindictive human male god of the Abramic religions.
4
In the summer of 1978, I journeyed from Paris to Santiago de Compostella on bicycle.
I was atheist then and remain so today. So, as you say, I have "balls". I also have no "trouble" telling a story.
My '78 pilgrimage was just three years after the the death of the ardent Catholic Fransisco Franco. The yoke of his 50 years of anachronistic medieval rule over the Spanish people was still fresh and apparent everywhere. The people in the Castilian towns of Estella and Sahagun (to name a few) "amazed" me. The lurking and beeady-eyed Guardia Civil scared the living daylights out of me.
I was also "amazed" by the many romanesque to early gothic churches along the way -- in Aulnay, Roncevalles, Fromista and El Cebrero. The were all testaments of our ingenuity but more so of our longing -- throughout human history -- for community and for places of silence to reflect on our personal journeys.
I didn't need to believe in a god (or God) or some church rituals to appreciate the cultural and religious wonders along the Camino.
I can do that without being a member of a church, synagogue, mosque or some other place of worship.
Though baptize Catholic, it is a religion that has been complicit in too many wars (WW! and WWII included), torture and abuse throughout history for me to practice my spirituality there.
Instead, I'll just ride my bike on a pilgrimage, across a plain or through a forest.
4
Religion does tell stories. Different religions tell different stories. Atheism is not in the story telling business - it is simply an acknowledgement that here we are, for now, on earth, to do our best in our own lives and, hopefully, to make the lives of our fellow travelers better. I tried to do this a couple of months ago, as I sat with my ex-husband's wife and sister, at his deathbed - trying to bring him comfort by our presence. When he died (at a tragically young age), we all cried. (Maybe I especially, as I had to then call my children and tell them their father was gone.) But I don't fool myself that he is "looking down on us" (as a friend of my daughter's said, to her annoyance). And when Mr. Egan (whose writing I enjoy) refers to us as "spiritual beings," I have to disagree. What does that even mean?
7
This is one reason why I support Bernie. We will heal our national soul and reinvest and reinvigorate our faith in our very way of life, and freedom for every American, by virtue of being a citizen, not only for the wealthy.
4
I'm sorry, but organized religion has an innate xenophobia that cannot be ignored.
As I have aged in this world, the testaments for spiritual awakenings always seem to stop at the self and the needs of the self, and proselytizing is just recruitment not a genuine concern for others. There is no compassion for difference, only a desire for others to shed their difference and assimilate.
While I think it's wonderful that you have found peace in your spirituality, the religion you find peace in hurts others. Even if you have subjective views about the bible... Leviticus 18:22 and other such atrocities are crimes against people. People.
16
Simply this: Avoid organized religion, at all costs. I’ve adhered to this since my teenage years, it’s been marvelous and soul Freeing. A more recent practice : Avoid Republicans, as much as possible. Fantastic for the soul and for the blood pressure.
Just saying.
471
@Phyliss Dalmatian
I was born and raised in Wichita and, alas, in an Evangelical tradition. I’m right there with you about avoiding organized religion at all costs.
The thought of growing numbers of Christians in China and Africa fills me with dread - so many new recruits for future religious conflicts.
Always enjoy your comments!
46
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Amen to your first sentence.
However, the 'influencers' tell us to engage and communicate with Republicans. To do so constructively takes much more wisdom and compassion than I can muster. It would be faith itself to believe that there are those who can do this to good end.
11
If you want to sense the “spirit” of a non-religious existence, read “This Life” by philosopher Martín Hagglund. Hagglund will show you the spiritual majesty of a dust to dust life, the beauty of not an eternal life but of a finite life.
“This Life” is one of the most spiritual books I’ve ever read and it attacks the crazy Christian idea that to be on earth and bounded by death is bad. We should want something more.
Religions like to scare us with their diatribe about getting to heaven or nirvana or wherever where we can live in bliss forever. It’s complete nonsense. One life is quite enough. Would you really want to live forever?
Tim Eagan’s spiritual walk needs to stop at the shrine of a finite life. There he will find a new form of spiritualism.
7
Thanks for this article, Timothy Egan. I look forward to reading your book.
Although this reader grew up in a Catholic family and never abandoned Catholicism, I often wondered what has kept me bound to the faith community of my youth. Later in life (will soon be 80), I came to realize that the "glue" that kept me connected was the heroic figures or "saints" that have inspired me over the years, and I am not talking about canonized saints, although a few of them are.
My reference to the "saints" include inspirational figures like Dorothy Day, and the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero and Dr. Martin Luther King (not a Catholic but certainly a model of faith and an inspiration), to name a few. But would also include the pastor of my home parish of many years ago when growing up in Illinois that had the "smell of the sheep" about him, long before Pope Francis made that image popular, as well as a good friend of mine that led the Saint Vincent de Paul society in ministering to the impoverished, and the heroic souls whose faith and fidelity to the 12-step program kept them and me "on the wagon."
All those referenced above have been companions on my personal spiritual journey, and they have kept me connected to the faith community of my youth. It has become clear to me that God is mediated to us via the human, as the annual celebrations of Christmas and All Saints Day on November 1 remind us.
2
I'm an atheist and not at all spiritual, but I can still appreciate the grandeur of the monuments built for worship. For me, they get at the notion that it's not at all about me. It's really the sublime, where I can appreciate my minuscule existence as part of a much larger whole. For me, that whole doesn't need any ghost in the machine. It's enough as it is.
1
A big problem with atheism begins with the word itself. It merely defines what isn't, not what is. Speaking as an atheist myself, we need a new word that embraces the is. A word that includes the spirit, the awe, the wonder. Just not the deity.
3
@Debnev
Agreed.
There is something transcendent about being a living human being on the planet Earth. Without embracing the concepts of organized religion, individuals can experience states of conciousness wherein a spiritual experience is realised.
This has nothing to do with the illusionary experiences afforded by mind altering drugs.
The state to which I refer involves life, time, love, the beauty that surrounds us, goodness and gratitude.
No God or heaven is needed.
We are already there. All we need do is relax, accept and rise to the glorious truth that is Life.
7
“Atheism has trouble telling a story.” While Egan’s story about the Via Francigena is beautiful and heartfelt, that sentence is a real clunker. Atheism is simply a null belief in gods or a god. It has no story on its own to tell. Atheists, if I am any example, are absorbed in the manifold, wonderful stories of the real world all around us.
7
Mr. Egan shares a common misconception about agnostics - that they are “atheists without any balls.” In fact, agnostics are the few who are willing to admit that they do not know — the answers, the origins of the universe, the meaning of life.
As an agnostic since I was 13, (I was also raised Catholic), i have strong ethical beliefs, thought-out morals, & I know that the purpose of my life is to use what I have to make the lives of others better, as best I can. But I don’t defer to a supernatural being to provide answers to all that is presently unknown.
Much will be answered in the future by scientific inquiry, and some existential questions will never be answered because they are not subject to rational proof. A few of us are able to live in that uncomfortable space where certainty is indefinitely surrendered. That isn’t squishy, or easy, or common - but it is where the undiscoverable truth lies.
6
I typically enjoy Egan's writing, but this column is full of misunderstandings.
1. "We are spiritual beings. But for many of us, malnutrition of the soul is a plague of modern life." Really? What does "spiritual" mean and what, pray tell, is a "soul"? Is there any actual evidence for either concept?
2. An agnostic “is just an atheist without any balls.” Completely wrong. A-theist describes one thing, and one thing only: It is a person who has no beliefs in any god. Ag-nostic describes something quite different: It means, not claiming *knowledge.* While some atheists do make the positive claim "I know there is no god/are no gods" — they are commonly referred to as "hard atheists" — the vast majority, right up to Richard Dawkins, describe themselves as "agnostic atheists" — they do not believe in a god or gods because there is not sufficient evidence, but they do not make the positive, absolute claim "there is no god," and most would, shown proper evidence, be willing to change their minds. A true gnostic atheist, one who claims certainty in his or her knowledge that no god exists, is just as foolish as any religious believer who insists, despite the lack of evidence, that his or her god exists.
6
@CB Evans Yes. When someone tells me they are "spiritual but not religious," I always want to ask, "What does that even mean?"
3
I guess I have balls then because I am a comfortable atheist. Having said that, I revere nature and I love the sense of wonder it provides. In nature, I can feel the order behind our creation and still be amazed at its complexity and beauty. I perceive spirituality as a search for meaning, why are we here, kind of thing. Nature provides the answer nicely. While walking on water miracles are behind my belief, curing cancer kind of miracles are within my frame of understanding. All this is not to say that there isn't more to our minds and our persons than we can appreciate driving to the office. In fact, I am very interested in psychedelics as professed by Michael Pollan in How to Change Your Mind. That is where I would pick up your journey Mr. Egan. Good luck! I'm looking forward to hearing about what you discover.
2
I guess you could call me an agnostic with balls. It is much harder to rest in a permanent state of questioning than to live in the balm of religious theology. Born and raised in Christianity, I am eternally grateful for having shed that weight off of my life 40 some years ago. And since, I have learned that 'God'--however defined--is the question and not the answer. Jesus wisely said 'seek and you will find.' Sounds like Mr. Egan is seeking and in so doing, he will find his way.
5
Your pilgrimage sounds like a wonderful experience, Mr. Egan. Personally I am able to commune with God/Goddess (no gender pronoun is really needed), the collective universal consciousness or a higher power whenever I take a walk/hike in nature far from the maddening crowds. When I am at the peak of a mountain with clear blue skies breathing in fresh air and gazing at a sunrise/sunset I am vibrating with wisdom & enlightenment. God speaks to me in a whisper and I hear him/her loudest when the external world is the quietest. Nature, flora & fauna is God's gift to mankind just as churches, synagogues & mosques are man's gift to his community. Mankind and our various cultures uses their own unique religious dogma or their particular interpretation of God/Allah/Yahweh/Great Spirit/Brahma, etc. to make sense of their existence. Many wars are fought using religion as a pretext as their egos believe their religion is superior to their neighbors/competitors. In this regard, I suppose I am most aligned with the Buddhist religion who reject the concept of a Creator God. Although even people who consider themselves as Buddhists have committed atrocities in the name of their religion (e.g. Rohingya genocide).
The universal spiritual force is omnipresent and available for anyone to tap into. Scientists in recent years have determined that the Earth is effected by vibrations and the magnetic poles. When people are vibrating through pure joy they are tapping into communion with God.
1
in the midst of the self-dealing, corrupt and hateful times that our politics have brought us what a beautiful, thoughtful and hopeful essay you have written. thank you.
2
If my soul is in need of a pick-me-up, I go on a long hike - deep in to nature, as far from other human beings as possible. It works every time! ( Problem is, my soul starts dying again within a day or two of returning back to “civilization.”)
1
Although I enjoy Colbert's comedy, I would change his saying to read that...."An atheist is really an agnostic "know it all'." As for religion itself, I defer to John Lennon's philosophy of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." Personally, I will take a pass.
3
Mr.Egan,
I enjoyed reading about your spiritual journey. I too, was raised Catholic and walked away many years ago for two reasons: the sexual abuse of minors and the lack of leadership and voice available to women. Having a degree in Humanities allowed me to read philosophy, from the ancient Greeks to Whitehead and beyond. The scientific and natural world provide me with wonder on a daily basis. I view organized religion as the road to war......all over the world.
2
I just find comfort in trying to be good.
8
Nope! No superstition in my bones. You're born and you die. That's it. Adults who believe in deities are like children who believe in Santa Claus. They believe what they've been told since Day 1.
A rational thinker understands that only a small percentage of humans believe in any particular deity. That everyone believes that their particular deity is the "true" one is simply a bias of familiarity.
2
@Michael Years ago, I had a Jewish friend who rejected out of hand the thought that if he had been born, say, in Saudi Arabia instead of in Brooklyn, he wouldn't have had the same set of religious beliefs he had. Somehow, he "knew" that he would have figured out that Judaism was the way to go, even as he grew up in Riyadh.
1
Instead of propping up religions that continue to oppress people and create conflict all over the world, why don’t we start the idea of pilgrimages into nature to appreciate the beauty and wonder of our world that - as a species - we are hellbent on destroying? You want to find God there? Great. You don’t? Also great. Let’s make it easier for our fellow humans to GET into the wild so everyone can appreciate it, especially folks who can not afford to do so themselves. Let’s develop A culture of traveling to our own nearest wild places and celebrate the beauty there.
2
"Britain — and much of Europe, the theological cradle of Christianity — has perhaps never been so removed from belief in God."
That's a Vatican party line statement.
Here in our small village on the edge of a forest in Germany, I am flabbergasted by how teenagers, younger people, are actively trying to do things to protect and love our environment; fight xenophobia; rail against corporate greed and injustice in general, and so on.
"Actively" trying. "Not all of you who say Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven."
"Faith", and "belief in God", properly understood, Mr Egan, is a verb. Not an utterance.
1
In the age of Trump, we really are not spiritual beings. Spiritual beings don’t vote for pathological liars and conmen who believe in nothing but their egos.
The churches that you visited are indeed beautiful. Many of them, I am familiar with. One feels a sense of awe inside. But it is for people who created them inspired by beauty rather than religion. Time to take the monopoly of the spiritual and it’s close cousin religion away from those who claim it. Beauty created by humans is a human achievement.
4
The question does God exist or not exist?--am I an atheist or a theist?--has grown tiresome. The more interesting question for our times is: What is reality?
Who am I? Just an ego? Something transcendent that is all of us?
3
"In the vacuous tumult of the Trump era, I was looking for something durable..."
The Trump era was brought to us largely through the misguided efforts of "devout" Christians. "Fundamentalist" Christians. Germany was a deeply devout Christian country - Catholic in the South and Protestant in the North. Stalin was very close to becoming ordained as a priest.
Show me how these groups lived according to the moral teachings of the church! Christians live more by the old testament, especially Leviticus. All blood, anger, self-righteousness, hate, retribution, racism. Most would never sign a document that was patterned on the Sermon on the Mount. Trump is the anti-Christ. But he is worshiped by "Christians". Trump and his followers confirm my long-held cynicism "about religions in general and Christianity in particular.
3
@Joseph Prospero I know a bunch of highly educated people(physicians, lawyers,e tc.) who voted for Trump who are non believers in a deity. It is not all religious people who voted for him.
1
Isn't it great to live in a country where all of Mr. Egan's nuanced points of view are allowed?
2
Awakening is far away the biggest challenge and the greatest (potential) gift of being human.
From some source that is far to great for us to ever Grok, we have been given the gift of existence, of self-awareness. In this world of Illusion, we have been given the gift of a miraculous body, a machine that we can drive, easily and thoughtlessly (think Jake Sully in the movie "Avatar"). We touch our nose - Miraculous! We blink our eyes - Miraculous! And, ye goddess, we have eyes! We can see with those eyes! Miraculous!! And yet, because we've "always" (at least in our three score and 10) had this miraculous body in this miraculous existence, we become jaded, blase. We forget the miracle.
We can honor this gift, we can pay back, by Paying Attention and Giving Thanks constantly - now, and now, and now… Thich Nhat Hanh admonishes us to "breathe in and give thanks, breathe out and give thanks, ad infinitum…". If we're not conscious of our breathe, we're not conscious. It seems almost impossible to stay on the path, yet we've been preceded by Others (a few?) who have found the way, who show us that it is possible.
It is so immensely difficult to remain Present. We allow ourselves to be lost in memories of yesterday or dreams of tomorrow and miss Now. And it is always Now.
1
I am agnostic which makes me an atheist by most religous standards.
I do not go to any church, I do not like them. They are like religous amusements.
I find most religous people to be arrogant and condescending, like the author of this piece.
America claims to be a christian nation and to have religous freedom which are mutually exclusive. You can not be a Christian nation with religous freedom.
The very same way that, if the bible were true, no person could be more or less holy than any other.
This I am very eager to prove by showing Christian's what creation 8s and how to properly use a cross.
Creation descibes a process I call, abstract determinism.
You do not have to believe in this, you can see it, touch it,and even build it yourself if you have the time.
So, all we need is somebody with hundreds of large wooden crosses laying around unused. I've been waiting for the church to fold but they are still being propped up by a government that doesnt see the link between rape and slavery.
Spoiler alert, creation in genesis descibes the 7 stars from the book of revelation and, you with a few short lessons, you could build fractal art forever. The waters are a form also and more amazing than the stars. Together, they are the tip of the iceberg or the key to designing anything.
Heaven is a concept, there are many heavens but the one that is most famous is the sixth star. All of them can be modled tight down to the fluttering surface.
No god needed.
Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda...
That, Mr.Egan, is the atheist's story...
Look, Tim. Read Carl Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections as a starting point to realize that the real journey is within. Then find a Jungian analyst; there's lots of them in NY. This will get you on your way. A Via Longissima.
I first commented that the secular, i.e., "atheistic" view of life was essentially too big to fit into a simplistic narrative, otherwise known as a "story." But other commenters caused me to remember that my remark is/was not necessarily true.
There is a wonderful all-inclusive source that tells the story in an easily understood yet profound manner. It's David Christian's course, "Big History," and associated books.
Tim Egan, for a thinker like yourself, I suspect you'll find it better than amazing, and you can take this pilgrimage without any of the customary blisters and sores!
No one needs the rigid dogma, guilt-based coercion, and sanctimony of old men wearing funny clothes to be ethical, moral, honest, and to treat everyone else with kindness.
2
Tim! How can you say Atheism has trouble telling a story? The story of human existence is the story of Atheism! I understood your point—that Atheism doesn’t have the traditions of Christianity—but it could be fairly said that it is all the story of Atheism.
2
Using "logic",and accepting first as a prior that the Mother of God created the Roman Catholic Church, I am more than embarrassed with the flawed logic used by Pope Francis to ban women from being ordained priests.
1
It bears repeating here: as the scientist Stephen Jay Gould stated, 'science and religion are not in conflict: they are non-overlapping magesteria'. Science describes empirical reality, religion deals with how we organize the moral universe.
1
For the last 45 years my pilgrimage has been to Northern British Columbia where spend several weeks alone in the woods, walking on rivers, fishing four steelhead with a fly rod.
The stunning beauty of those rivers sends chills down my spine and when my magic wand pulls a glistening steelhead onto the beach, I thank God for the gift of life and I thank God for the gift of rivers and I thank God for the treasure of solitude and I thank God for the miracle of natural phenomenon.
Then without fail I think of Christopher Hitchens and say to myself....sorry Dude. Really sorry you missed this chapter of life.
@Eric M. Sorry, dude. The fish and the river didn't need a "god" to put them there, and they exist there without one.
4
I've enjoyed your political opinions for awhile Mr Egan, so I'm disappointed to learn you're neither skeptical nor cynical enough to avoid succumbing to this sort of fantasy. I've been to most of the sites you mention & they are indeed relics of a declining feature of human life. I'm 84 & glad that my grandchildren are growing into a "developed" world of disappearing religion. Note: you make no distinction between "proselytizing" religions (christianity & islam) & the others: the doctrines that insist on exclusivity will be destructive as long as they exist...
3
Science, reason, common sense, observation: it all points to the absence of any God. Live by the poem Elijah Cummings recited on his first day as a Congressman. "I have only just a minute" by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays. It tells you how to live your life.
2
I live now in the heart of Cathar Country in southern France, rich with Catholic history both good and bad: The Cathars were an evangelical offshoot of mainstream Catholicism that flourished in the 12-14th C until the Catholic church systematically wiped them out in the French Crusades (aka “Albigensian Crusade” if you look it up on Wikipedia). Somewhere between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Cathars died in the process. As much as I can appreciate the soaring Gothic cathedrals, I have a lingering distaste for the Catholic church’s bland explanation that, “Yes, it happened, but it was necessary to consolidate the Church.” I’m sure that line would pass muster with most autocratic rulers even today.
As Mahatma Ghandi said, “I like your Christ, I just don’t like your Christians,” so whether you choose to believe or not is secondary to whether you keep your moral compass pointed north or not. I like how Noam Chomsky frames it (this from an interview with George Yancy in the Times): “One can contrive a religious motivation for virtually any choice of action, from commitment to the highest ideals to support for the most horrendous atrocities. In the sacred texts, we can find uplifting calls for peace, justice and mercy, along with the most genocidal passages in the literary canon. Conscience is our guide, whatever trappings we might choose to clothe it in.”
Peace be with you on your continuing journey.
2
We didn't invent God to explain mystery, or to comfort us cowering from thunder. That's a silly conceit of intellect.
"God is love" is literally true, and vice versa. Humans have always been ready to claim understanding and abuse power but it's all irrelevant to that basic fact.
Consciousness is the last frontier, not Astrophysics.
1
Is any of it true? Did God create the universe in six days or banish Adam & Eve from Eden or flood the world and destroy all life but that on Noah's ark? Did Jesus turn water into wine, raise Lazarus, heal the sick by miracles and rise from the dead?
It's probably not. If you don't start off believing it is true and you look at the world for verification, you're unlikely to end up believing.
That's okay - some people have little interest in what is real and prefer what comforts them, and as long as they curb their passion for their beliefs and don't try to force them on others, there's no harm done, except, perhaps, to themselves.
But history tells us they haven't and they don't and they won't in future and the more writers like Mr. Egan rhapsodize the more likely his fellow pilgrims will turn again to torture and murder as they always seem to end up doing.
1
“200 million people a year worldwide”... make a pilgrimage. Well, that’s to ignore India, where likely more than double that per year make some sort of pilgrimage. Somewhere between 120 and 150 million people went to Allahabad for the Kumbh Mela alone. But then, we’ve always suspected that India is a spiritual anomaly on the planet.
1
And all the impacts of your journey, Mr. Egan, were products of your own mind, not God's.
2
Is it possible that the soul is intertwined with the body, both personal and culturally? If so, then can the soul resist degradation and becoming dependent on illusion if it lives in a cutthroat capitalist culture?
Little wonder the older religions are, the more they cling to wealth and other illusions. Martin Luther eventually gave up the battle, got married and had kids. He would look at today's world and nod his head in recognition.
Hugh
Miracles are not supernatural; and if you accept that, it makes sense to say that “ daily we walk blindly among miracles “.
Europe is the cradle of Christianity? That sort of misunderstanding is a big part of why Europe has wandered from Christianity. Have you never heard of the Eastern Church -- Eastern Orthodoxy?
Tell me, do you refer to Notre Dame or Lourdes as "Jesus Disneyland"? If not, what does "Diderot Disneyland" tell us about your alleged open-mindedness?
As for "Christianity's dark decades of intolerance," which decades stand out for you? The Crusades? The Inquisition? "Conversion therapy"? Current US immigration policy? "Creation science"? It's more like Christianity's dark milennia, still going strong.
I'm an atheist, in case that isn't obvious. But the offensive remark from Colbert on agnosticism that you quote approvingly reminds me of the insistence in certain gay circles that there's no such thing as bisexuality.
Do we need spirituality? Well, we do need something like that, a sense that there's more to life than whatever's happining this moment. We also need air, water, and food, but I don't worship those things or hold them up as a source of higher truth. (Well, food, maybe. I have been known to argue that the meaning of life is potstickers.)
We atheists are as capable of wonder as you theists. Here's something wonderful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWfFco7K9v8
3
@Brian Harvey Well said, thank you!
1
A nice walk on the Appalachian Trail will do me just fine.
2
First off, 'agnosticism' is the logical stance since whether one is a believer or non-believer their convictions depend on an 'absolutism' that is indefensible. No one knows for sure if there is or isn't anything beyond this life, everything is just someone's guess. That said, you can believe in something in anything, just realize that there is no certainty, no matter how hard you squeeze your eyes shut and beg for things to be as you would like or cross your arms in stubborn determination. Better to just enjoy life today, now and wait to see what, if anything comes next.
1
The problem with atheists is that they think they have figured everything out - no longer interested in questioning the nature of the world. That sounds incredibly boring to me, and also incredibly smug.
The problem with liberals is often the exact same thing. Maybe if we were a bit less sure of ourselves, we’d have more friends and allies.
1
We have lost philosophy along the way... people thirst for meaning. Instead religion offers imaginary beings and claim only the writings of "their" religion is true. Philosophy is human way to look at existence and deal with life. Religions are complicit control through magic tricks and a willing suspension of dis-belief. Either you are in the club or you are not. If you aren't - you are considered ... a lost soul. It's much "easier" to be in the club.
1
“We are spiritual beings.”
What exactly does that actually mean? You base an entire article around an assumption that is unclear, unexplained, and unverified.
2
You're not a "skeptic by profession" if you're willing to believe something because you so desperately want it to be true.
2
"You need to ride your bike against the wind.”
It's a guarantee that any time someone speaks to faith in The New York Times "oh ye of little faith" will stomp all over it. In fact, I can guarantee, the naysayers sit with their coffee in a state of self-satisfaction that borders on a religious experience.
James Fowler's Stage 4:Those who break out of the previous stage usually do so when they start seriously questioning things on their own. A lot of the time, this stage ends up being very non-religious and some people stay in it permanently
Stage 5:It is rare for people to reach this stage before mid-life. This is the point when people begin to realize the limits of logic and start to accept the paradoxes in life. They begin to see life as a mystery and often return to sacred stories and symbols but this time without being stuck in a theological box. People who reach this stage start to realize that there is truth to be found in both the previous two stages and that life can be paradoxical and full of mystery. Emphasis is placed more on community than on individual concerns.
Fowler believed you cannot pull someone into the next stage, they have to reach that on their own. Frank has moved to the next level and the reaction of Stage 4 people is expected. Frank, keep pedaling against the wind.
http://www.psychologycharts.com/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html
@JPP
I meant Tim. Got thinking about Bruni. Wonder why.
That wasn’t amazement you found at the end, Tim; that was fatigue.
1
“We do not have all the answers.”
That confession of humility is where all faith should begin. Faith goes off the trail; through the guardrail of the slow walk when it seizes its opposite and professes knowledge it does not possess for the purpose not of gentle, persuasive conversion but of demanding, aggressive adherence to a truth not seen and even less deeply felt.
This arrogance that many “Christians,” especially in the United States under Donald Trump, a man willfully ignorant of the apostles and disciples of Christ, has now come to intersect with the political—the Faustian bargain that is the temporal. It has become a deafening cacophony of emptiness that is truly un-Christian and, in this world, tries very hard to rout those of contemplative bent.
In America, as well as in many places in Europe, the spiritual is now the enemy of the physical state, a godlessness in which the political has now been established as cult worship with bowing nods to the nationalist and racist. These adherents cling to personality and to shrill dogma as the only true avenues to a “faith” that cannot be believed unless it is witnessed, especially in the subjugation and marginalization of others.
The evil among us tell us that they *do* have all the answers. Their followers believe the lies. It’s why we are where we are today. There is not enough self-doubt or introspection; everything is absolute—and absolutely absurd.
Into the silence of prayer and meditation stalk wicked certainties.
1
Evolution is the story of God and it is the story of all of us. We all came from the womb and while in the womb we were once one cell specks of being, monkeys with tails, (around four weeks after conception) to the status from fetus to human when taking our first breathe. About 14 to 20 or so months, out of that mouth will come the words, "I love you." That's what it's all about. It's up to us whether we nurture this love and let it bloom or we smother it. Smothering it can lead to a nuclear destroyed planet. God is hoping we make enough right choices, but if we don't, God will move on to other things in this more than fifty-two trillion galaxy Universe. Let us hope our love will be strong enough for a more positive out come. Honest prayer will help our love to grow and it does have the power to melt nuclear weapons. We should believe in ourselves as much as we believe in a God who started this whole shebang fourteen billion years ago.
Hitchens also said that 'religion poisons everything'.
I think he's right.
We see it today.
Decades after The Renaissance, reason is subordinated to blind faith, and those so-called christians have subordinated themselves to the most vile man to ever appear in American politics.
Jesus would want nothing to do with any of them.
2
Now that we know that the seasons change on account of the solar cycles, what do we know? Required reading for all caring persons: Horizons by Barry Lopez. Follow his Via Francigena
and then inquire about "deep walking" at the local mall.
“Atheism has trouble telling a story.” Nice line but big fail! The irony of your argument is that when you think about it, the point of atheism is that it does not seek to explain. I would argue the actual problem is that religion has NO trouble telling a story. But after thousands of years, we know that so many of those stories: the world being flat and 6,000 years old, the universe revolving around the earth, the prophet riding to the moon on a horse, the filthy habit of eating shellfish, pork, beef, etc, etc , etc, are patently ridiculous. Nice try but if it’s your explanation or Hitchens’, I will take ‘Saint’ Christopher every time.
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Science can explain what is, but story explains what should be.
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My best friend, Chuck, asserts that he is a"militant agnostic." Asked what that is, he replies, "I don't know, and NEITHER DO YOU!"
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" 'Doubts are allowed by God..' "
Well, the doubts are there, whether they are allowed or not.
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When one contemplates the vastness of the Earth itself and the universe beyond about which we know so little despite the wonders of modern astronomy, together with the great variety of religions and philosophies, it is ridiculous to argue that one religion represents the truth, either concerning history or morality. All religions have terrible flaws. Many are also arrogant. Many ostentatiously religious persons are arrogant. In the United States of America, we do not try to force our religion on others. To do so is un-American. Just ask James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Because they are both dead, you will have to read their writings.
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I saw your book this week on display in the Dallas Love Airport,fyi.
My sister has served in the state dept and traveled all over the world. She has not seen the fervency and hypocrisy of Evangelicals anywhere else but in the US. I think they've done a lot of damage to true Christianity, which is about a pure heart and surrender.
Fortunately, the Evangelical Church is losing a lot of members according to the Pew Poll. https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
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Atheism is NOT another religion.
Religion is to atheism as another channel on the TV is to turning the TV off.
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Want to nourish your self deeply?
Take a walk deep in the woods. Pay attention.
Also, talk with your neighbors. Have dinner with pals.
Call an old friend. Read a terrific novel.
Love.
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Christopher Hitchens said: “We no longer have any need of a God to explain what is no longer mysterious....
St. Paul said Galatians 3:25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (science). But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. But once a person has learned to have faith, there is no more need to have the Law (science) as a teacher. Now that the time for faith is here, the Law (science) is no longer in charge of us."
Let us be amazed by faith and science, too, which is a work of God.
“We don’t have all the answers” says it all. That’s where the Buddha began.
I do not deny God; I deny man's ability to define God.
I believe in walking. I do not believe in God.
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“I was looking for something durable: a stiff shot of no-nonsense spirituality.”
Aren’t we all.
Your *scientific* Pope Francis is most certainly not. We in the healthcare fields, understand that trans persons are suffering a judgement and hatred that has no true reasoning. In science, and in medicine, this is a fetal developmental phase anomaly. There is NO just XX, or Xy always. Biology is amazing, and definitely not a strict binary. Why have those born with inter-sex (having organs of both) never been persecuted?
Indigenous tribes all over the globe recognized at least 6 gender expressions, until forced binary by White Patriarchal Supremacist Christianity. All humans are unique, as unique as each snowflake, as each fingerprint.
Pope Francis told a trans man, to live in the body he was given. Having worked both in pediatrics and the OR, I was incredulous. Should an infant with spina bifida have to live in the body given? How about a mother with breast cancer? Seems Christians, or other organized religions, that also worship their male leader, are full of desire to feel in control of their life: thus fear, thus hate.
I believe in being spiritual. Not being spiritual in a fear way, a judging way, but one of love and compassion. WWJD? I think we all know. Loving one another is quite the accomplishment given the time we are here on this world. It is work.
I'll take that work, over feeling so very certain of my religion keeping me safe, and having to be immersed in hate of other.
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Don't overlook the obvious.
"Atheism has trouble telling a story." Obviously you haven't read "The Ancestor's Tale", by Richard Dawkins. More to the point, Atheism has trouble lying to you. But if you need to believe in fictions, have at it. I'll still read your columns, because I share your morality (if not the basis for it).
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I’ve always had a ton of respect for you, Mr. Egan. That didn’t change after reading this piece, although you seemed like the last guy who would write something like it. Personally speaking, however - and all things considered - I’m not terribly fond of the “story” of religion.
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I'll take treks through nature over a pilgrimage to historical religious sites any day.
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@Larry Figdill I'm an atheist who enjoys the European cathedrals. (Glad that my husband and I decided to go inside Notre Dame our last morning in Paris last year - before the fire.) And they do put me in awe - not of "god" but of the people who were able to design and build them.
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Mr. Egan, I applaud your search for the one thing that can fill the void in your soul. The answer will not be found however in architecture or special places across the globe. The answer is found in The Word.
Read your bible. Ask God to reveal His truth to you. The Bible says “you will find me when you seek me with all your heart”. Suspend disbelief, reject the misinformation of Satan, and accept the inheritance that is promised to you and all who simply step out in faith.
I am malnourished...and thrilled to be so. I pushed my chair away from the buffet twenty-five years ago and have subsided on a healthy diet of reason daily since. “Atheists have no story”? Well, I suppose that is true. I don’t need one because I have nothing to sell. I will instead continue to sit quietly in my corner and listen the the over-fed squabble over pork, pudding and pedantry.
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@Eric Anderson
Hunger is thrilling. But so is a good meal. Yes in this current time a thin lucidity is much more appealing than an over fed and false illusion. But connoisseurs can offer the best of both abstinence and fulfillment so why limit yourself? At least attend a party or two and try a sample.
You never know:)
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Atheism provides no hope to individuals or communities. Whether you approach it philosophically or scientifically, everything will end in a whimper. All the things that matter—love, grace, joy, justice and beauty, will end. Christianity says that all of your hopes and dreams, for yourself and for those you love, can come true. And it provides a comprehensive and in part mysterious way of considering all that is. That is why it is a Faith that should be seriously and not just casually considered.
@ehillesum The reasons you give for "having faith" (i.e., believing in something with no reason to believe it's actually true), are the same reasons one might give for believing in Santa Claus - because it's a nice thing to believe. Perhaps you might consider that the joy, music, light and hope that we all have is here, right now, to be enjoyed while we are on this earth. And to show to our children before we go so that they might also enjoy them.
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This is lovely so many, many are unable to sometimes both know and do this spiritual journey. This is the crux of our world at this time. And it is a true crucible. When they are so many in dire straights and yet there is money for golden toilets - how can we reconcile are souls ?
Jean Vaniet in his early years with L’Arche would arrange and travel with the disabled and their families to Rome, Italy. Perhaps in his post life he may have given us a new paradigm for a new world. Not to deny joy but to spread it around like manure in a garden. To get flowers one needs to do all the work and sharing the burden though at times contentious is always better than me, myself , and I.
And please substitute any saint or hero or Sheri in Jean’s place. I am sure he wouldn’t mind.
I grew up an American Irish Catholic, required to go to Mass every Sunday. As an adult, I finally took the jump to atheism – not joyously – but just lacking faith. I now live in Germany, and have visited many old cathedrals and monuments reminding one of the power the Church once had, and the places where Martin Luther challenged that power, and the places where people were murdered in the name of one religion or the other. Jaded, but perhaps not hopelessly so, yesterday I visited a small Franciscan chapel on a mountain side of the Bavarian Alps. Walking along the stations of the cross leading up to it, I commented to my husband that this really is what Christianity is – it’s about Jesus and what he sacrificed for. What has stuck with me from my days going to church, were the teachings of Jesus regarding how to treat your fellow man/woman. Whatever form you want to accept them in (the golden rule?), they are sorely lacking from our Western society today (often from practicing Christians) The outside of this chapel was full of photos of the local fallen soldiers from WW2, and had a painting inside asking what the senseless destruction was all about. Reflection is surely needed by all of us.
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The death of US Christianity is greatly exaggerated. While Pew Polls note that many people are not regular church goers, in fact the majority remain affiliated with the church and identify as spiritual. The bleak void expanded daily by the culture of narcissistic greed and income inequality can’t and won’t last. Just look at the many public demonstrations across continents this week. When despair takes over people’s lives, spiritual nourishment is the only outlet left. The trick is to ensure that despair is harnessed into positive action, not destructive rage as history shows can easily become.
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@Ted I see narcissistic greed in evangelicals, not atheists. They spend their lives trying to limit the rights and choices of others. They support the evil, odious man in the White House.
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Nice. I will look forward to reading the book. As a retired, lapsed Irish Catholic this is inspiring me to look into doing the same walkabout. I really love to visit holy places, churches and such. I had an experience once that confirmed my belief system.
It was in a Catholic church, Holy Cross, in Marine City, Michigan, which was pastored back in the '60's and '70's by my dad's brother, Father Jim we called him. It was built in 1903 in the traditional Cathedral style, though quite small. We would gather at the rectory next door with all the aunts, uncles and cousins for every Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas. My last visit was likely in 1963 or so.
In the year 2000, at the age of 50, I did a "pilgrimage" of sorts on my motorcycle. I had not been "home" for 17 years. The intention was to visit all the places in the state that held strong growing up memories for me. When I arrived it was June and a sunny day, a bit after 12 noon, and it looked exactly the same on the outside. I was not prepared for what happened when I went inside.
It was empty of people and full of spirit. Like really full. The benevolent presence I felt I will not describe as "god". I prefer the term "spirit". It was very, very strong and one of the loveliest moments of my life. I have had similar experiences, both in nature and in other sacred buildings. I lingered for a while enjoying the memories of our annual visits. After an hour or so I got on my bike and rode away.
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“Religion has a better story.” Of course it does, it’s fiction, and fiction is, by nature, designed to capture our attention and imagination. It’s also designed to to evoked our emotions—sadness, joy, love, longing. Do not underestimate the power of fiction. And the story of Christianity, crafted over many decades by many writers who had to opportunity to see how effectively their stories affected listeners, is a compelling story and fulfills a need in all of us for connection and caring (Jesus loves me this I know ...) and meaning.
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Of late, I comment less in the NY Times and more in Quora so I can cut to the chase of philosophy, law, religion; and reserve raw politics for a little spice rather than being the main meal. It is also challenging to reach out to an international audience where people from India are more active than the approximately 25% of registered users from the U.S.
I was struck by Mr. Egan's observation about European spiritual interest in decline while the people of China and Africa seem to be looking to U.S. spiritual leadership (and the modern ethics of Donald Trump). I don't expect them to subscribe to the NY Times anytime soon - unless they are researching a paper on the seven deadly sins.
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We seek spirituality because of our very understandable fear of death. As Ernest Becker wrote in “The Denial of Death,” it is this psychological defense mechanism that fuels our greatest strivings, our greatest art. Death is the great, frightening unknown. Doing a pilgrimage will only give you the quiet and relatively undistracted experience of clearing your mind of the ceaseless chatter, that we call thinking, and providing us with a quiet, mental space to observe only “what is.” Will this free us of the fear of death? In that fleeting moment of the cessation of thought, yes. But thinking will return and with it we will revisit the past, skim over the present and wonder about what will come next. The future. And at the end of that train of thought is. . .death. Religion teaches us to “believe” in life everlasting, but, alas, there is no proof of that. So, what next? Walk on, just walk on.
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A walk though the park with my dogs allows me to check on the changing colors of trees and bushes, perrenials getting ready to go dormant and busy squirrels digging holes to store their nuts for the winter.
No phone, no talking but a nod or a wave of the hand and a smile to a fellow walker or runner are the only events.
I let my thoughts run like clouds, not focusing on anything but the world around me.
Spirituality? Getting in touch with my inner self? Daily religious experience? Daily exercise and dog walking? Honestly, I don't know and I am OK with it.
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@Jay Tan I hear you, I do the same thing. That why it is good to have a dog. It forces you to go for walks.
We think of miracles as things divinely bestowed, without human intention. But for me, the most astonishing miracles are man-made. I'm thinking of the tiny chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut built by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier on a hill southeast of Paris in the commune of Ronchamps. Although the site, dating from Roman times, has great historical significance, the strange little building seems timeless, without a past. Its thick, white-washed walls enclose an intimate, ambiguous space that encourages silence yet amplifies sound, inside and out. Devoid of decoration, it is penetrated by refracted light that seems to come from everywhere. Entering it, you feel at once exalted and humbled - the very essence of a spiritual experience.
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This is a lovely story of personal pilgrimage. We are all spiritual beings whether we have or believe in a particular religion or not. The lack of understanding this has been detrimental to ourselves and our planet. In my mind, when the word God is used I have an understanding not just of the Christian God that I was brought up with, but of a universal intelligence and wisdom that pervades our being and the universe, omnipresent and indescribable. Connecting to this brings meaning and truth to life.
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Mr. Egan so beautifully captures the longing and loneliness that disaffected Catholics feel. His solution is the only one that has made sense to me: finding beauty in a messy world.
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I'm sorry, I've never had anyone actually define for me what spirituality even is. Everyone I ask, even experienced theologians, seems to go in circles. So no, I can't describe myself as a spiritual being. Whatever that is.
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@Catherine Bingo.
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Thanks Mr Egan for a thoughtful and heartfelt piece. It is a pleasure to read something that is not about politics etc but about the really important things like making sense of our existence. And thanks for opening yourself up to criticism and mocking because you choose to search for meaning in a way that is congruent with your upbringing. Takes guts and I applaud you.
You are correct. The trail in Italy is beautiful.
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Philosophers who tried to prove or disprove the existence of God were always on a fool's errand; She reveals Herself through the heart, not the head (alright, it you must, "He reveals Himself"). For those who open take the time to be quiet, there is no denying the spiritual richness in places where people have worshipped God for hundreds of years. If those old churches are too far away, get to the forrest, the beach or the mountains. And if they are too far away, turn off the TV and close the computer for a few minutes.
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I believe that it will be centuries before religion goes away, which is to the detriment of mankind. We must connect to our soul and ultimately to our Creator to truly experience life, but religion must give way to spirituality in order for this to happen. Religion separates us not only from each other but from our Creator as well. I enjoyed this article and hope many others will too.
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This was great. I loved this article — I hope you were taking notes for your next book. It will be a fascinating read for sure.
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“We are spiritual beings”. That’s certainly true of some people. That’s certainly not true of other people. It’s one of those statements many people make while others automatically nod their heads. I’m not judging anyone for being spiritual, but please don’t assume that everyone needs to make a pilgrimage.
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Yes, we are spiritual beings and I applaud your physical journey. As long as we allow all people their own individual journeys without harming or oppressing others, spirituality is a good thing. It seems, however, that when spirituality is institutionalized, bad things happen. Keep it personal.
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While walking this week in an empty and beautiful place, the metaphor of Christians as gamblers came to me. Instead of focusing on creating a safe and comfortable life for all the human creatures we share our lives with, they are willing to gamble on a jackpot for the downtrodden that may never ever come to be. If I lived my life with the firm, sure faith that next week everyone including myself will win Powerball, people would call me delusional and foolish. If I walk past a homeless man believing he will experience eternal bliss, I am considered spiritual and righteous.
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@Carr Kleeb I am not Christian, but I think you misunderstand Christianity.
You have heard, of course, of the story of the Good Samaritan? "What you do unto the least of these you do unto me." Christianity has many varieties, and some of them seem to have strayed from the teaching of Jesus. But I'm sure it's not about walking past a homeless man or gambling on a jackpot.
I am a deeply spiritual atheist. I could walk that route and marvel at the world with as profound a sense of being and love of this world I witness as anyone. I have a convection to life and our universe as marvelous as anyone. I take these spiritual treks daily as I walk, swim, kayak, hike, drive. As I work with children, chat with the owner of my favorite cafe, wave to my neighbor, see my husband come through the door. Shall I go on? As I hike the Sierras, sail around Iceland, drive through British Columbia. Walk through a museum, greet my friend’s dog.
I have many many stories to tell. Do you know the one about the barnacle that lives on the back of a whale?
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I don't often disagree with Tim Egan, but as a resigned-to-atheism humanist, here I must. Of course atheism has a story to tell. It begins with the Big Bang - for which we at least have evidence, until all the other creation myths. It unspools for billions of years, creating galaxies and stars and planets and finally our own tiny, fragile Earth, home to the miracle of life. Through millions of years of evolution and natural selection, homo sapiens finally emerged, men and women conscious of our own existence and now powerful enough to put an end to it. With the advent of anthropogenic climate change, we are now writing our own story and whether or not there is a happy ending depends entirely upon us, not some imaginary sky god. I am nourished by the miracle of life and one real world is enough story for me.
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@Christian, as a scientist myself I still feel that science is far from able to answer all of our questions. The narrative you speak of starts with the big bang. But how did the matter present at the moment of the big bang come to be? How did the laws of physics that guide our universe come into action? When did time begin or has it always been? How can the universe possibly be infinite and if it is not, what is on the other side of its boundary? In short, I have no problem with science and a belief in God existing side by side. I believe that He set our story and the laws of the cosmos in motion and gave us the critical minds to develop science to understand much, but not all, of it. Miracles explain the rest.
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@Don
I think the Big Bang is a miracle. Being able to attempt to explain it is a wonderful gift we have been given by the cosmos. I find no need to resort to mandating that a God did all this but if true, and I believe it is, it makes me appreciate the magnitude of the Gift and the Giver.
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Respect for nature and the realization that we are connected to all on this earth is what spirituality is to me. Once we stand in awe of a flower blossoming, a leave turning from green to red to orange to yellow to brown and seeing the tree spring up again to green leaves, that is “God” in action. We can all have a spiritual journey in our own backyards. Defending nature is defending ourselves. Spirituality in action whether in our own backyard or on a trail across the world leads to the same place: conscious living.
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Very much enjoyed your journey. Thank you!
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Agnosticism, properly understood, is not squishy, meandering uncertainty. It's an appropriate intellectual posture. I like to say I'm a principled agnostic but de facto atheist.
Agnostic because one must always, in principle, be open to new evidence in any area of inquiry. Atheist because, after millennia of examining and arguing, it's hard to imagine what new evidence could be forthcoming.
My job as a rational being is to make judgements about reality. One need not assert the non-existence of God in order to observe that there's just no sufficiently strong evidence for God's existence. If I can't make empirical judgements in this sphere, why should I think I can do it in others? Is that not our paradigmatic slippery slope?
Neither our thirst for meaning, nor our allowing ourselves to be amazed, argues for the existence of God. The universe IS amazing, and more so with each new increment of knowledge. And we're hard-wired to crave meaning. But (and this is the harder path) I'm afraid we have to make our own, both individually and collectively.
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@Mike
You were given life, doing nothing to earn it.
Maybe each experience you have had was a gift as well, including your obvious intelligence. Do you ever wonder though, about the amazing generosity of the giver?
This I believe is the point of this article and maybe your understanding will help someone else understand their experience better? Isn’t that what prompted you to contribute?
If so, The Giver is both speaking to you and through you. Your way is never totally your own...
@Matt "The Giver[s]" were Mike's mother and father. The fact that we don't understand "everything" doesn't argue for creating fairy tales to explain that which isn't understood.
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Quite a stark contrast between this article and the speech USAG Bill Barr gave this week at Notre Dame. Barr sees the teachings of Jesus ( i.e., liberal theology) as a threat to “order” just as the establishment did in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. This beautiful article illuminates the opposite pathway.
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"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." (Matthew Chapter 9)
Working on a self-driven project archiving the Gospels, I was having problems with my spreadsheet and I lost two days of difficult work. I was re-doing that work and I kept having the same problem (operator error, BTW). I ended up redoing it four times, which meant closely re-reading the same passage (The Call of Matthew" chapter). I was getting very angry and frustrated, wondering why I was fool enough to think I could do this project in the first plave. It wasn't until the fourth time that the beauty and humanity of that quote, which is Jesus speaking to Pharisees who question his faith, hit me square in the heart.
We are weak. We pay attention to all the wrong things, particularly when we think we are not. God speaks to us but we judge the encounter away, afraid of what other people will think. In fact, I think God speaks to everyone with regularity but we will not allow ourselves to listen. That is what I was doing that morning, but God won that one.
Let him win....
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"We are spiritual beings." There is no reason to assume this and there is no evidence that it is true. Humans are beings of instinct, like all others. There are instincts that bind social animals together in groups and religions show all the signs of being a manifestation of such instincts. Those who claim to get their religion directly from "spirits" are normally regarded as crackpots - anyway the religions that are practiced are based on intercommunication between material humans and the authority of some of them, and not on anything directly transmitted by "spirits".
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@skeptonomist
But would you not also admit the the phenomenon of “instinct “ is equally without “proof”? It is an explanation of a concept, not an actual physical entity. Genetics may explain some of instinct, but are not Instincts per say. And what of the ceaseless questioning of existence we all have? It could be easily argued by your reasoning that the questioning “instinct”is evidence of a biological need for faith.
A skeptic can still enjoy this mystery, can’t they?
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With all due respect, I am not convinced by this piece. Clearly Mr. Egan is sincere, but he relates not so much a spiritual pilgrimage as an emotional retreat—into the comforting faith of one’s fathers. Christianity defines faith as belief in what one’s intellect cannot accept, and so Mr. Egan, unwilling, at least here, to imagine a spirituality outside Christian terms, is torn between what his reason demands and what his heart desires.
It’s a false choice. The desire for such a faith is nostalgic, a retreat into his own past, before he grew up and read Diderot and Hitchens. It strikes me as a loss of nerve. For me, pilgrimage is not retreading the well-worn path of our ancestors, but adventuring out, searching for a spirituality that builds its wonder on what we know, on what science tells us and reason comprehends. If I see an October leaf as an angel, it’s not wonder; it’s a mistake, blinding me to the real miracle—of autumn.
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I climbed the mountain (several) looking for god - nothing. I descended into the valley for a long time and realized that there being nothing in the superstitious realm was OK. In fact, it was liberating because I didn't have to get on my knees anymore and humiliate myself as less than or compete with others to see who could be the most humble, self-abnegating, demure, reticent, conformist pilgrim of them all. Once I gave up the delusion, a great cloud of confusion, dread, secret anger, self recrimination and false hope evaporated and I became much happier. It was the longest, most arduous pilgrimage of my life and it ended well.
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While on a Fulbright Hayes Seminar Abroad to Greece and Turkey, I was profoundly humbled to have an epiphany in Meteora, Greece a monastery with unparalleled views of beauty. Upon descending the staircase, I felt a physical wave of energy from the top of my head to my feet that felt like words saying, you are forgiven for every wrong you have ever done, then I felt another wave of energy from my feet up through my head saying now that you are a tabula rasa what will you do with it? When I returned to our van with our Greek guide, I explained what happened to me and what I felt and he said casually oh, that’s an epiphany, we have them all the time here in Greece! Travel is its own form of religion, in a way.
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It is the connection to nature and community that makes the pilgrimage meaningful. Each year several thousand “pilgrims” set off on the unpaved long trails of America: the Appalachian Trail being most popular. It is a transforming experience to be among a diverse and purposeful and supportive gathering of people, to meet ever more good and generous folks along the way. To experience everything nature can offer in terms if beauty, surprises, hardships, humbling feelings of connectivity to creation in whatever way it came to be. It is about being dedicated to a process of internal transformation through physical work and mental openness in the great outdoors.
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I enjoyed Tim's tale, and wish him well. (Especially if it helps him write more--he's the absolute best.) But I recognize it as deeply related to the culture he grew up in: where the search for meaning starts somewhere in the realm of "spirituality" or "religion." But what if that were not the starting point? I search for meaning as much as any of my fellow humans, but am continually uplifted by the magnificence of the natural world around me, the improbability of my own existence, the inconceivable vastness of the universe, and the vastness of what we still don't know but have the capacity to learn. All of that is plenty thrilling to me. The search for "meaning" in something supernatural--or if that sounds pejorative, beyond natural--has always felt small to me. So, if I disagree with
Tim, it's only with his suggestion that "atheism" (a word I hate since it conveys a belief in non-belief) has no compelling tale to tell, and inevitably leaves humans wanting more. For me, reading The Origin of Species was pilgrimage enough. And I'd probably be as much as sucker for the Diderot amusement park as he is for a walk along the pilgrim's path. I hope for a world in which all of us searchers can thrive, and honor each other's journey.
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I appreciate your hunger for depth and meaning. I empathize with your desire to connect to something more ancient and enduring than the latest travesty of Trump
among myriad modern travesties. As an atheist (formed in an epiphany I had around the age of 5) the great story, the powerful force greater than myself, the source of awe is found in science. The story of the universe, the interconnectedness of being and the great mysteries are all found in the study and discovery of how our actual universe exists and functions. For me, it is a better and more profound story than the words found in the old and new testaments. It speaks to my heart and my imagination. Don’t write atheists off as passionless or uninspired. Quite the opposite if you view the world beyond your cultural bias. Just a thought from a dreamy, wonder-filled atheist.
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I am a non-practicing Episcopalian who did the Camino de Santiago as a cycling expedition. Much to my surprise, it was a very moving experience. It didn't send me back to the church, but it did heighten my appreciation for history, the religious feelings of others, and the power of meditative activity
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Thank you, Mr. Egan. This accentuates a spiritual journey that began after I had a stroke a year ago. My pilgrimage will be one I had thought about for years but post-stroke will do, probably in 2022, God willing: by bicycle on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. It’s not just about the bike ride.
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@Michael Cairl I expect you'll have a wonderful experience. I did.
I gave up on organized religions ages ago, but I never gave up on the existence of a spiritual presence in my life. I couldn't deny there was such a thing, so I let it live with me and around me. My favorite recognized spiritual teachers are Buddha and Jesus, and I try to guide my life with their words. In this state, I have wandered far and wide metaphorically and allowed spiritual presences in my life. Doing so hasn't brought any danger, but some relief, strength and calm, and a few admonishments.
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Someday a comparison between the hegira, the diaspora as compelled journeys with a religious basis and a traditional medieval pilgrimage needs to be made. What insights did Muslims and Jews, for example, garner from the experience of being forcibly expelled from Spain as opposed to the ostentation of spiritual "discovery' that some baptised Catholic was embarking on?
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"Atheism has trouble telling a story." Atheism is the antithesis of a "story", a fiction, a legend, a myth. Atheism is not a belief. It's simply a non-belief of something for which there is no evidence.
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@jrb
For those with eyes to see and ears to hear the evidence for God is everywhere.
@Garry. Yeah, no.
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History teaches us that faith ebbs and flows through generations. Faith teaches us history is like pilgrimage described by Mr. Egan: we are obligated to examine our individual lives by the light we have to see.
Atheists and believers share the same need: to comes to honest terms with our existence. If this is true, the words “love God with all your heart soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself “require at least the latter. Agreement on God is in God’s hands, he has given us plenty to do in regards to each other.
But a universal agreement on who and what God is , is really about the fact we all will one day die and we’d really like to know what that is before we get there. We are all pilgrims in that sense.
5
If we are open to the experiences of life, spending months afoot on an actual pilgrimage is unnecessary. Spirituality is not found in a building however magnificent. (At a previous visit to St. Peter's in Rome, I found its religious hubris to be stunning. The names of famous Catholic cathedrals are inlaid in Latin in the floor at the location indicating their smaller size than the mother church in Rome.)
I have found spirituality in many other places.
At the summit of Mt. Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire amidst the rocky scree at the tree line, I learned what striving and persistence was all about. At my foot was a caterpillar ascending even slower than I was.
Cradling my newborn daughter as I carried her from the delivery suite to the nursery over 40 years ago, I learned what it meant to commit yourself to the welfare of another above all else.
Standing on the deck of the naval ship on which I served on a quiet day as the sun set, I understood how very vast was the sea and how very dependent I was on the help of everyone aboard to safe passage through sometimes difficult weather. I also understood at the same time how very small is our blue planet and how dependent we are on all aboard this ship of life in the cosmos.
Everyone is on a pilgrimage. Some of us will make the journey unawares, looking down at our feet. A lucky few will gaze upwards and appreciate every mile on the path.
31
Wonderfully said.
1
Thanks for that.
There is mystery and wonder and fantastic, unfathomable creation in the world roaring out of the seeming emptiness at every moment.
Calling it religion or faith or spirituality matters not.
6
While I've only walked a hundred or so miles on The Camino de Santiago, I've walked countless miles in countless places on a daily basis for at least several decades, finding myself in others as, I hope, others have found something of themselves in me.
And nobody got hurt!
Spiritual journeys have a destination that sometimes make it easy to get lost, yet found.
See you on the trail!
8
I have no problem believing in God, in the joy of His Creation, when I am alone. It is when people step in that I falter.
We can criticize organized religion - I surely do all the time; I feel that my own Church traded away Democracy, compassion, our planet, our place in the world power to represent the good, for a Justice who'd vote against abortion - but in truth once people get their hands on religion, it runs a high risk of losing spirituality to internal politics.
I don't know that a pilgramage would do much to recover inner spirituality, when I haven't lost faith in God, but in the willingness of people to act in His image.
I pace my hope, not in places and ideas, but in my kids, who are kinder and more open to the idea of community kindness than my own generation is.
6
@Cathy
Not all Christians have traded as you have described: and the beauty of this country is that we are free to change our association as our conscience demands. Nurture the next generation, yes!
But you will find plenty of company in your own generation who welcome and applaud your sharing the winter of your discontent and look forward to the healing that is sure to follow. Reach out- Hope never dies.
1
Beautifully written and compelling. Thank you.
As for some of the negative comments I'll never understand people who feel the need to castigate others for having different beliefs than they do. In some ways these self-described enlightened rationalists are as dogmatic in their views as the narrow minded religious fundamentalists they despise.
Each of us tries to find peace and a sense of awe in our own way. Some find in a church or temple or mosque. Some find it in nature. Some in science. There is no right way to do it. What inspires me may not be what inspires you and that is fine.
22
@Brooklyncowgirl
"What inspires me may not be what inspires you and that is fine."
Of course it is. However, what I don't understand is how you'll "never understand." For one thing, criticizing a belief - for instance, pointing out that it's false as are most religious stories - is not the same thing as "castigating" someone for having that belief. In my experience religious believers frequently confuse the two, and feel that they have been done a personal wrong when someone points out that their belief is baseless.
Furthermore, it's pretty simple to understand what some of us have against religion: Experience with it. Pain resulting from it. Abuse by people propounding it. Hope that helps.
4
@Brooklyncowgirl that sounds nice, but the "whatever works for you" attitude is entirely incompatible with mutually exclusive religions like Christianity and Islam.
Jesus never allowed for finding "peace or a sense of awe in our own way". He said that he himself is the way and that no one comes to god except through him.
It's not the minority "self-described enlightened rationalists" with their unidentified dogma and narrow-mindedness that seeks to constrain. It was and always will be the majority religionists - opposed to new discoveries, demonizing "unbelievers", and using manipulative tactics to recruit and maintain their numbers.
3
@Brooklyncowgirl that sounds nice, but the "whatever works for you" attitude is entirely incompatible with mutually exclusive religions like Christianity and Islam.
Jesus never allowed for finding "peace or a sense of awe in our own way". He said that he himself is the way and that no one comes to god except through him.
It's not the minority "self-described enlightened rationalists" with their unidentified dogma and narrow-mindedness that seeks to constrain. It was and always will be the majority religionists - opposed to new discoveries, demonizing "unbelievers", and using manipulative tactics to recruit and maintain their numbers.
A walk in the woods can be a spiritual experience when one is alone, undistracted by a companion, dog or cell phone, wholly receptive to one's surroundings,. The sense of connection to the universe can be mind-blowing. But one might also find spiritual connection through contemplating the elegant genius of a single leaf....
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."
(Wm. Blake)
17
Mr. Egan, I have profound respect for your pilgrimage, as I do for any Christian who decides to wear the scallop shell. Pilgrimage, however, is an act meant to deepen a faith that already exists. For those looking for spiritual guidance in these troubled times, the most important walk may be from your front door to a house of worship. Find a congregation that nurtures you, and take that walk once a week, on Sunday.
2
Pilgrimage has many meanings and purposes!
Tim, The search for spirituality is still as strong as it has always been, but with the power of technology all around us it is manifest in the following of more modern versions of the oldest stories, such as in Star Wars.
'Teach yourself to let go what you most fear to lose'
- Yoda
3
@Ramesh G
Or, “s(he)is no fool who gives up that which s(he)cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”. Jim Elliott
I enjoyed your reflections and descriptions in this piece. I too have been in some middle place; faithful but filled with questions about man’s actions. Thank you. Perhaps a book?
1
Yours is an interesting trip into history and the spiritual, but I cannot help but be fearful of the feelings that drove you to do it. Many respond to the uncertainties of change and the challenges of society by turning away from reality (and trying to understand that reality) and turning toward a religion--teachings that claim to have all the answers and moral certainty. This is the path to fundamentalism, which too often leads to intolerance of others and then to hatred and death for the "unbelievers." Like almost all religions, Christianity has way too much of this in its history for me to be comfortable with a resurgence of religion in response to these trying times. Better that we learn to be comfortable with the tumult, using our basic human kindness as a guide to see us through.
12
Read Richard Rohr
1
One could spend a lifetime contemplating the claims and ideas in this missive, as one could for existence itself.
Mr. Egan, are familiar with 'satisficing'? That's one mistake here.
Christianity may be an adequate first-step for seers, but fails as a place to finish.
And, per usual, definitions must be attempted. If your 'God' is some personal, monitoring entity 'out there', see 'satisficing. If your focus of spirituality is rather the primal ontology, the beingness that is orthogonal to concept, you are much closer to the mark.
1
I feel a spiritual connection to the Cosmos, but I have no need for organized (man-made) religion...particularly the exclusionary kind.
While I don't absolutely reject the existence of a "God", I also believe the human ability to even conceive of what that existence might entail is not up to the task.
I have no problem with others practicing religion, as long as they don't try to impose their guidelines on me. To me, religion is a coping mechanism. That's fine, as far as it goes.
17
Timothy Egan is looking for spirituality on consecrated ground. A church started in 990 and built by men cannot compare to the spiritual magnificence of Yosemite Valley or the redwood forests.
15
Yes, "Atheism has trouble telling a story." And magical thinkers abound with stories.
We must adjust to a world explained, not be "miracles," but knowledge, which may or may not conform to our narrative expectations. As our understanding of the world/universe expands, knowledge imposes more demands upon us, if we are to gain insight into scientific advances. We must exercise discipline, critical thinking, and, above all, time. Perhaps our knowledge will generate a new form of narrative; perhaps not.
There is no reason why this process must agitate. To the contrary, turning from the distractions of our age allows us better to focus on what is meaningful.
The creation narratives of any religion, or all of them, do not induce understanding, nor are they necessary for inner peace.
Just enjoy the walk, Mr. Egan.
7
Extremely well written, thank you! My confidence in organized religion has utterly imploded. Yet, my individual faith in Divine remains robust, so are my Spiritual practices of meditation, prayer and affirmations. Agree on key point: God is Mystery. Look to all the hypocritical, immoral and just money-driven church leaders for the massive decline in organized religion participation in USA, and Europe.
16
“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” Douglas Adams
There is much to be said for getting away from the daily grind. To spend time somewhere beautiful and peaceful to restore mental balance.
But our species desperately needs to get a grip on reality. God is not coming to save us. We live in a skim of breathable air on less than a third of the surface of a rock in an otherwise entirely unforgiving universe, and we are rapidly rendering the little space we have uninhabitable not least because the majority of the people on it believe that one or more giant fairies will come to save us.
This desire for pilgrimage is not a good thing. You will find peace close to you, if you look hard enough. Everything else is believing in magic.
The human race needs to grow up.
42
@Triogenes I love your description of where we actually live..."We live in a skim of breathable air..." Our minds, our imagination, we can go anywhere into that "unforgiving universe" and there is where i sometimes travel with the help of music. Imagine two legged creatures with their almost unbelievable fingers and thumbs actually making beautiful sounds that others creatures have dreamed up on their various instruments. This music helps me to soar through the universe and frees my imagination. Didn't Einstein say, Imagination is more important than knowledge"? Somehow in ways we don't yet understand , there is a Plan cloaked in a form of Love that is directing all of this and hoping we make the right choices. Pilgrimages is one way to help. Music is another way. For me, they all point to a God who wants us to succeed. Will we make the right choices?
1
Very fine essay it spoke to my heart in a honest way. I have been on a spiritual pilgrimage of myself since I retired from working for pay. One Sunday morning I walked into a Quaker Meeting House sat down and never left. One thing is certain about me I'm not a ritualist. The meeting where I am a member is a non-program non-creedal meeting. (Google it) We sit in silence, clear our minds, and wait on the presence of God to lead us in our lives. It is a very individual experience and spiritual. It is also a journey a quiet, moving, and transformative journey to self and love.
9
Timothy Egan has written a thoughtful column which is very timely when the world is witnessing the triumph (hopefully temporary) of an American president who is incapable and seemingly uninterested in feeling empathy for suffering people.
Donald Trump, even beyond his greed for personal wealth and power, is perpetually vindictive. He takes great pleasure in planning the punishment of his critics and executing that punishment with a Tweet or a hastily drafted Executive Order.
Decent men and women seek a respite from Trump’s chaos and cruelty, and many apparently are turning to religion for that break and to re-invigorate their better natures.
For those of us who recall our world history and believe that more crimes, including murder, have been committed over the centuries in the name of religion, a different path is necessary.
Some find the same purpose and solace sought by Mr. Egan by characterizing themselves as deists or theists. The labels do not matter, although secular humanism does have a less restrictive appeal because there are no dogma or doctrinal requisites.
There is less danger that in the future a secular humanist would be tempted to punish someone holding other views.
4
My late aunt was a Catholic Sister Of Charity for close to 70 years. In her later years she served as a Eucharistic minister, bringing communion to the elderly,infirm and house bound.
One time an old woman was bemoaning that fact she could not get to church. My Aunt Lucy took her to the window and said "Do you see those trees? God is right there."
It is my favorite story about her.
7
Last summer I stumbled into the village church in a tiny town at the end of a remote mountain valley in the Italian part of Switzerland. A choir from Locarno was giving a concert that evening. 30 or so men and women; a mixed lot who shared a joy for singing. A skilled and passionate conductor. My friend and I sat in the empty church while they spent a half-hour going through different passages and getting the feel for the room.
I wept.
So, yeah, we are all spiritual beings.
5
"Atheism has trouble telling a story." Really? From Darwin's Origin of Species and the Descent of Man to the modern cosmologists - there are complex, dramatic, and, yes, beautiful stories that capture the imagination more fully than any found in Western religious scripture.
302
@Jon
True John, but those are not atheist stories, those are science stories and they lend themselves equally to either belief.
12
@Jon
What I love about science is that everything we think we know now will one day change with more observation and understanding.
The question is how honest we are in our search to accept our limitations of perception.
Faith accepts this implicitly and allows for that which is greater than our understanding to be given a chance to be heard with our limited time. No one will die knowing it all. Let us not die before our time by refusing to keep our eyes open until the end.
18
@Matt Faith accepts whatever it wishes to accept regardless of scientific evidence, Science is the opposite of faith: it requires constant questioning and blows off theories inconsistent with observable reality.
10
Pilgrimage routes are so meaningful to people who want to find themselves, having an inner dialog while contemplating the beauty of the land .
It is a way to evade every day noise, confusion, commitments, appointments, nerve wrecking situations, anxiety with its many physical symptoms.
Walking on a pilgrimage path your mind is capturing the silence, the wind playing with leaves and flowers,the astounding beauty of Mother Earth, bird singing, bees buzzing, a distant bell from an ancient church tower .
It is a way to find yourself, to reconnect with the small child inside you, full of enthusiasm and laughter, that was forgotten deep inside and now resurfaces and brings you peace, serenity and hope .
94
@inter nos
Yup, and can easily be done without involving any religion whatsoever.
Because for thousands of kids, "reconnecting with the small child inside you" means reliving molestation by their "religious" fathers.
3
There are many ways to make a pilgrimage. I actually think it’s possible to do without leaving the confines of your own home, as counterintuitive as that may seem. Search for whatever nourishes your soul. It may take a while. When you believe you have found it (there may be many more than one thing), seek it, follow it, reach for it, focus on it, however and wherever the journey of pilgrimage may take you.
69
@Clyde It would take an extraordinary mind to draw from within one's walls the pain, ecstasy, humility, compassion, simplicity and providence encountered one step at a time, step after step after step where each hill begets another and another. It is outside, in the rain, the cold or the heat that our ego shedding steps takes us closer to finding our spirituality. Try it some day. Millions have.
7
@Ken P Not really - many do it through caring for a child or an elder or a friend. Others do it through books - that is a significant reason we read. Not everyone's pilgrimage has to be yours.
15
@Clyde
To paraphrase Thoreau, you can see the whole world in your own back yard if you know how to look.
8
For nourishment of the soul, I think the Japanese have the right idea with the “animist” beliefs of Shintoism, and the idea that every mountain, every rock formation, every stream and waterfall, every tree and flower is possessed of a spirit and deserving of respect and reverence. When I visited Japan, a Japanese man explained to me that for him, walking in a forest or other natural landscape was like being in an enormous open-air cathedral surrounded by “saints.” I reflect on this lovely imagery whenever I have the opportunity to be alone in “nature.”
229
@Susan - Yes, first time I entered a European cathedral 1966 it was immediately obvious that builders thereof were attempting to provide the spirit of sun filtering through Overstory (see Richard Price) of a primeval forest, often w great enduring success.
24
@Susan
I have visited some of the remote Shinto pilgrimage shrines. They are in awe inspiring natural environmentals and deeply spiritual.
I would like to do the most famous Japanese pilgrimage trek.
7
@Susan Yes! I live literally across from where the Rocky Mountain foothills commence along the Front Range of Colorado. Indeed, my cathedral is on the hiking trail several times per week, and as such, we choose our trails with great consideration.
12
People are drawn to religion by their need to explain the unknown, their fears, their anxieties, the need for reaffirmation, the need to overcome despair, a hope that there is a permanence to our being via an after life instead of nothingness, and a hope that goodness will triumph over evil.
68
@Jim Benson I think it can be more than that, too. Besides trying to solve inner problems, religion or spirituality can be how people understand the sense of wonder and awe of the world. I cannot walk through a beautiful landscape without feeling a sense of divinity.
10
@Jim Benson
I don't mind people having"hope", but for far too many that hope and what it leads to blinds them to the life around them. It is one thing to hope and quite another to believe in fantasies that take them away from the reality of the universe.
6
@Treetop I can be amazed and inspired by the wonder and infinity of the universe without the aid of spirits or creation stories.
7
My husband and I left the Catholic Church during the child sexual abuse and cover-up scandal, which was also while we were going through empty nest syndrome with very mixed feelings, as one child after another left for college. This was a big pause in our lives and a "now-what" feeling.
So instead of going to mass on Sundays, we decided to go for long walks, mostly in a large woods and falls surrounding our neighborhood in NY. This opened our minds to the idea that nature is sorely neglected in the major religions, and why is that, especially if humans are supposed to revere God/Creator and his creation?
We found a peace in wandering through nature and paying attention to the sounds, smells, sights, and the rhythm of life's changes. This was our pilgrimage of sorts.
We participated in international conferences as professors and experienced some unexpected spiritual moments walking through old churches--a tiny wooden Catholic church in Krakow in winter, a suddenly peaceful darkened Catholic church in Venice that displayed gigantic Titian paintings where a choir was practicing.
Sometimes on our hectic travels we ran into some extra helpful or engaging people in other countries, whom we called "travel angels"--they were so memorable and amazing to encounter. Can't get along with certain southern family members but could establish instant rapport with some stranger in strange land. Learned nationalism is intentionally alienating
Spirituality is journey, not a brand
235
@PB
Are you making a distinction between learned nationalism and some other kind?
Your 'brand' reference might suggest 'learned religion' is also 'bad' in some way without also being 'good' in some way.
I think there is much in religion that might help one get along with 'southerners' (after all, roughly half the country).
I often avail myself of walks in the woods, despite the fact that one risks being temporarily, if not permanently, lost.
3
@PB I relate to your experience. Spirituality and religion are two separate paths. I chose to walk in the woods which for me is a cathedral divine. I need the peace I find there just as I used to find that peace in a church.
I think whenever you separate yourself from the business of life you are open to listening to something deeper within and without you.
The kingdom of God is within me and it is my job to bring the kingdom into my daily life and offer myself to others.
7
@PB You say that Nature is sorely missing at the core of most religion, but Nature was religion before monotheism. Every world culture has revered Nature, and ascribed anthropomorphic features to the deities, whether they be Poseidon, Zeus, or nyads and dryads. Think also of the Druids. The introduction of monotheism corresponds to the building of a pyramid with males at the top, and everyone else below, in one form or another. It's man's self-approbatory remaking of man in God's image that created the schism between humans and the natural word which nourishes us all. And now, we see the results. Man dominates the planet and is killing it.
4
This spiritual malnutrition that Mr. Egan speaks of is not necessarily a longing for deity worship. It is a longing for togetherness, for purpose, that outstrips contemporary societal groupings. Religion can provide that togetherness.
From anthropological standpoint, we are a tribal species which has long since formed groups based upon belief systems. This need is baked into our DNA. It is a natural desire that gives up comfort when fulfilled. It feeds us.
That need is what this essay addresses. Egan is using a Christian based journey. That's OK. There are many others. They all get people to the same place and that is a feeling of purpose and belonging.
I'm a science guy from the get go. I view most of the writings in the Bible as stories, literature of the period. But I still go to temple and I enjoy going. I seek a righteous life. I seek community. There are a few life lessons in that old book that have value.
Holidays anchor us. They keep us from drifting aimlessly through life. We need those milestones in the course of a year.
So don't be too hard on Egan if you reject his journey. We each have to find our own way. It's part of being human.
476
@Bruce Rozenblit
I love your comment. You elaborated exquisitely on what I, as a follower of no religion, have long felt: people find God in one another. That connectedness to one another, that shared human wisdom, that accountability for our lives, all right here on earth, are pathways to the ethereal.
Thanks, as always, for what you wrote. Take care.
104
@Bruce Rozenblit I also used to enjoy the loving presence and community found among prayerful people at different faith-based institutions. I overlooked much seeking common ground, but couldn't ignore the "Lock her up" chants encouraged from the pulpit. That so many of my fellow citizens thought this OK and then voted for (and continue to support) a man like Trump made me realize the depth of hatred toward anything or anyone feminine. I had overlooked too much. Today, I am virulently anti-Christian and consider misogynistic and Abrahamic religions with their sick and murderous books the root of the problems we have today. That people consider this gospel--and act on these beliefs-- is chilling. Were people to view these writings as literature of the period would be one thing; but they do not consider the words as literature or history but as coercive weapons to be wielded against others in their battle for dominion. There is nothing awesome or loving about this. In blatantly and unashamedly trampling over our Constitution's 1st amendment, it is time for churches to be taxed as the political institutions that they are. To anchor oneself, consider celebrating the holidays of the seasons--the beauty of life and renewal found in nature.
81
@Bruce Rozenblit
Very nice post. We do, indeed, have to find our own way.
And there are, I'd say, more than a few excellent life lessons in "that old book." And holidays and rituals are important and useful in the course of life.
On the other hand, all of the life lessons in the Bible can be found elsewhere, often stated better. And in addition to the wise and good parts, there are piles and piles of nonsense that men have used for 2000 years to increase the ignorance and suffering of our fellows. And that's putting it mildly. And not to mention, say, to gain and hide wealth and abuse children and women.
Some say that without the Bible and/or the Quran, men would have found other justifications to harm one another, and this is true. But that's like a suggestion that we should not bother with cancer because there will still be heart disease.
47
I’m not in Europe on a Pilgrimage, though the initial spark began with my husband’s long-expected death and a family reunion in Spain to celebrate his life, followed by my decision to take some time on my own since I had to travel here anyway.
But to my surprise, I have found great evidence of spirituality and even some packed churches despite the vaunted “disappearance” of Faith in a Europe which long has toiled to build magnificent cathedrals and monasteries.
In Protestant Edinburgh I went to Mass at a Jesuit church, which was full on a Saturday night, especially full, it seemed to me, of immigrants. And in the church bulletin, it was clear that the Pastor has initiated many outreach activities to help immigrants and others in need. In Cologne, on a warm, beautiful Sunday evening, there was also a large number of worshippers, despite the evidence of large crowds enjoying the evening in other ways. And in a tiny village in Spain, I accompanied one of my husband’s sisters to a packed Sunday Mass, celebrated by a newly minted 24 year old priest, who looked more like a pious teenager, but spoke eloquently of the need to thank God for all our blessings, even the most insignificant.
I’ve felt the hand of God at the passing of my dear spouse and many times during this long European journey - in ways large and small. I’m not a regular church goer. But I do regularly sense the presence of the divine and thank this Presence privately for so many gifts in this beautiful world.
11
Catholicism holds a communal embrace of Christianity. There is certainly a mystical, spiritual, personal, devotional essence. Yet that is understood to occur in the midst of the Church (the ecclesia or gathering). I take my pilgrimage alongside others. I embrace a mission of service with others. I uncover my flaws and discover the mercy of a higher power alongside others. I engage with the community of believers and witness the human condition in all its battered and broken reality as well as the redemptive power of faith and love. It does not deny suffering but holds suffering and death are not the last word. In the end, for the believer it is NOT all about me. For all its many, atrocious flaws, it brings and expansive not a reductionist view to humanity.
4
So, Mr. Egan your experience sounds as though it had profound meaning for you. But I can't tell what it led you to. Are you a believer again? A Stallion or gelding?
Personally, I have decided our insignificance in the cosmos reveals there is nothing to reveal more profound than gravity and chemistry and physics. Our being here is the miracle. And in a hundred or a thousand, or a million or a billion years no perpetual praying will go on.
When our star burning out engulfs the earth there will not even be time as we know it anymore since there will be no planet called earth orbiting a star called the sun to count them.
6
Spirituality Yea! Religion Nay!
As an atheist Jew, if I see religion again gaining in our America I'll post my sentinel and go to sleep.
Nature-loving is enlivening. Secular Buddhism seems fitting. Pilgrimage without a god would be bracing. Lighting a candle in the dark is fitting. Saving our round mother earth is ennobling. Learning is enduring. Religion offers mommying and dadding. It also is one way of mythologizing. Stewarding is bolstering. Teaching children well enables their becoming. Uplifting ritual is it's own blessing.
Pilgrimage for preserving. Pilgrimage for an eye opening. Pilgimage for humanizing., for leaving and returning.
8
In my family we have a canonized Saint.
My grandmother’s family was invited to his canonization in 1962 by the Pope.I have watched video of the ceremony in Vatican square. They still set up my Uncle’s nativity crèche that he created and kept at his church in Vatican Square under a Christmas Tree. I went to his church in Rome w my family in 2010. I viewed my Uncle’s body encased in silver inside a glass sarcophagus in his church. The church was a gift to him by a pope. And it sat on another church older. His church was built in the 1300CE .But the church below had been there since 800 CE.
The pilgrimage I took was very meaningful to me. And I just couldn’t get enough of all the little church chapels filled with stunning artifacts and art work and statuary.
My uncle is St. Vincent Pallotti.
Your pilgrimage reminded me of mine .
My sainted uncle was my inspiration for being involved in social justice equity issues and becoming a “ healer” as a nurse. My motto has always been if you have something of value that is useful to someone needy give it away. And give yourself away everyday to fellow human beings in need. Agape love. We need to learn that kind of love again.
6
To state "we are all spiritual beings" is a projection of Egan's belief that he is a "spiritual being". However, for many, to be a human being is enough. One doesn't need an alternative inner self to feel connected to the universe. The natural world borne of evolutionary forces is sufficiently amazing and surprizing absent sky-gods and other creation myths.
As Marx observed, religion is the heart of a heartless world. He was not hostile to religious belief, and understood its drawing power. Death and human suffering drive many people to the opium of the masses. It would seem that that there is a space to be filled in Egan's life, which is hardly a criticism, as I'm sure any sentient person will be confronted by the existential vacuum at some point. How that emptiness is addressed varies.
America is the most theocratic nation in the advanced world, while religious belief is peripheral in Europe. The Puritan legacy remains, however distilled, but to what extent does the vast economic inequality in America compared to Europe's far greater egalitarian economic system, perpetuate the embrace of religion?
Egan sniffs at atheists and Enlightenment philosophers because they don't fulfill his need for a higher power. This seems to my anti-theist mind like abdicating autonomy, to which he is certainly entitled. All of life is interpretation, as he makes clear in his final paragraph. Not all pilgrimages, either external or internal lead to the same discovery.
26
This article was lovely. I note that the new book from which this essay is adapted, contains this--"in Search of a Faith".
What pains me most, is that the majority of humans on the planet do not have the luxury to go in search of anything, and instead put their faith in the first dopamine hit.
4
For those seeking a spiritual path why not invent and create your very own vision that can guide you through life?
There is no prescription for a personalized faith. Just concentrate on what part of your life has been most enlightening and place that in the forefront of your consciousness.
Whenever you feel the need for a break from life revisit that special memory that gives you solace.
3
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the religious pilgrimage. Your gift as a writer held my interest in the topic, however, it is of great personal interest to me as I review the evolution of our species, the topic raises the question: when did humans become spiritual? and even deeper, why did we become spiritual? What does the archaeological and fossil record of our evolutionary development show that spirituality contributes to the survival of our species?
In developing your book, I recommend that you read a few of the books by Edward O. Wilson. Two that may be particularly useful are "The Meaning of Human Existence", "Social Conquest of the Earth", and "Consilience". You and Ed Wilson have a lot in common in your love of nature and he is an outstanding biologist, naturalist, and the founder of sociology.
Like you he is also a great writer.
6
Thank you, Mr. Egan, for this story about your pilgrimage, both physical & spiritual. These need not be separate of course, just like science & faith need not be separate.
What is the story of creation in Genesis but an allegory of cosmology & evolution? (To me the far more interesting question than did God create the world over billions of years or in 6 literal days is, did God create the world over time controlling every development [is God still controlling every development, then, even he-who-must-not-be-named]? Or did God set it all in motion then sit back with his foreknowledge blinders on (except for a few peaks) & is waiting like we are to see how it all turns out?)
I'm amazed both by the awe-inspiring discoveries of science (e.g., that we each contain more bacteria [our microbiome] than our own cells, so we are not really a singular entity but more of a colony of life forms in symbiosis), & by the equally awe-inspiring insights into how God has been involved in my life, or stories of God in other people's lives.
I love to read stories from the Science section in the NYT, & I love to read short parts of the Bible on a daily basis. If only people--at least Christians--would read the New Testament (especially the Gospels) & live by the wise words therein (or at least most of them; some things God left for us to work out on our own: e.g., slavery is bad, women are equal to men, homosexuality is found in nature).
Life is a pilgrimage; enjoy the journey & learn & grow.
10
@JediProf
What a fine post. I feel the same way.
6
@JediProf
"God left for us to work out on our own: e.g., slavery is bad, women are equal to men, homosexuality is found in nature"
Hm, God sure left out a few rather important items.
I am not a member of a church nor a regular church-goer. That doesn't mean I don't believe.
You have to marvel at the universe and our tiny planet in it.
I cannot even grasp the concept of an "infinite" universe, and if it isn't, what is on the other side of the limit of it?
So many things are still being researched and new discoveries are made daily. All of these kinds of things make me believe that there is something more. We may learn what that is someday.
7
"Religion is story, a narrative about a force much greater than us, enigmatic by nature. Atheism has trouble telling a story."
I certainly cannot argue against the idea that religion is a story. It just happens to be a made up, fictional story to lull listeners into complacency and obedience and co-dependency with the religionist story tellers and collect alms for the patriarch story tellers (without fail, they are male).
Atheists' have a narrative based based on working to understand the place where they find themselves existent. Just look about at the real world and an atheist has all the narrative necessary. And it is infinite.
Thus, there is no need to make up stories to placate and pacify the needful (un)opiated masses. And unlike religion, there are no dues to be paid.
The believers of a"force much greater than us" is just a belief in the made up stories. Believe the stories if you want, but there is a better way. It is known as Truth instead of Faith. It is Faith that is "enigmatic by nature." It is Faith that is the "nature" of those who chose to believe in it, even though it isn't real.
25
@Nik Cecere
I have concluded in my 8th decade that there are many ways of passing on Truth. One of them I sent through stories and nearly every religion has such stories. But to hear the Truth one needs to understand that Truth is not always factual. Truth can be conveyed through fiction.
Keep an open mind. And rejoice in whatever manifestation Truth comes your way. Be open to surprise!
2
@Nik Cecere Biological evolution is one of the greatest stories in the world, and it happens to be true.
@Nik Cecere At the risk of offending those who conflate intellect with knowing, atheism is just another religion.
People who have trouble understanding that Jesus was raised from the dead usually protest against a type of belief that is not part of Christianity -- the quite unusual idea that the corpse of Jesus became reanimated with elan vital, that his dead and decaying ribosomes suddenly started generating proteins again, his lungs drew air and his heart beat.
That's not what's going on.
Faith is like this: Elijah Cummings just died. I spent some time this morning listening to some of his final speeches in Congress, this man born of sharecropper parents, who only weeks before his death insisted that we are "better than this."
And while I was sitting at my breakfast table listening to Elijah's words on You-Tube, he suddenly appeared to me, plain as the noonday sun. And he was speaking directly to me, encouraging me to love kindness and seek justice and walk humbly. He said to me that for the sake of love for ourselves and others and God, we might have to endure all manner of strangeness and calamities, but that ultimately, living peacefully in service to kindness is redemptive, however naive the powers of this world might want to make it seem.
And then he was gone, and my heart felt warm, confident and gently stirred. Now I know that whenever I feel the need, I can talk to Elijah Cummings, and I'll be the better for it.
That is the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. Nobody every really dies, it just seems like it.
Looks can be deceiving.
14
@Kip Leitner
So true!
Recently I said to my son about his father, who died in April: “Papa’s ashes are dead. But his words, in the writings he has left behind, are alive and can never die.”
Pilgrimage routes are interesting to travel as long as one keeps in mind that they’re outmoded, the result of a pre-technological understanding of the world that explained phenomena not understood as magic.
We now know better. The routes are beautiful and often serene, and serenity is enough - there’s no need to believe in magic to enjoy them.
6
"Atheism has trouble telling a story."
Atheism is actually a conclusion, not a philosopical competition with a huge array of often mutually-incompatible spiritual constructs.
The most magnificent story is real: the initial evolution of life, the astonishing diversification of life from early bacteria to complex life forms, from algae to plants that cover the earth, from simple animals to fishes...to dinosaurs...to Homo sapiens, which coexisted with other hominid species, and finally to modern humans with the curiosity and ability to develop technological ability to drive society - and to use those skills to decipher the incredibly complex pathway we've been on.
Will we find life of other kinds on other planets? moons? We're looking, and don't be surprised at what is discovered.
This is the real story. I understand that many people have a deep need to fit their lives within legends that governed their societies and families. From a wider perspective, though, is it reasonable to assume that a diety who considers humans to reside at the pinnacle actually waited through billions of years, through 150 million years dominated by dinosaurs, to finally create humans and modern society within only the last few thousand years?
This is why atheism is a conclusion, not a competing philosophy. The real story, and the huge amount of knowledge yet to be learned about how life evolved, how our bodies work, and how to face our challenges, is a fitting quest for us.
29
@Jon S.
I don't agree atheism is a conclusion - I think its literal meaning says it most concisely: it means lack of a belief in God. Atheism means not believing in God.
That's why the protestations that "atheism doesn't tell a story" are off point. Of course it doesn't tell a story. It's literally NOT telling a story. Doesn't mean there aren't plenty of stories to be told, but scolding atheism for not being one is silly.
I find it hard to feel spiritual in a world driven by greed and power. Instead I feel battered by the smiling men in their designer suits and innocuous flag pins. All they have to do is scrawl their signatures and thousands die violent deaths and are left homeless. And the self righteous right wing who smile broadly while lying through their teeth espousing policies that they pretend not to know will end in disaster for the only home we have. Spirituality is no comfort right now.
31
Some commenters have advised that maybe it is best to avoid organized religion. And they have a good point; these sects are more often than not arbitrary, man-made, and founded or created according to the social and political mores of the time. (For those who are Catholic as well as those who are not, I would suggest reading James Carroll's CONSTANTINE'S SWORD.) I, like Timothy, was born, raised, and even educated through college with this religion as my spiritual influence and guide. However, I think I speak for many when I say that Catholicism was controlling into every aspect of our lives. As the years went on, I remained a Catholic, of sorts, holding onto the tenets which reflected more of Christ's words and teachings and rejecting those which unfairly judged those of us, indeed all peoples, too harshly. No religion which truly calls itself a spiritual path to goodness and love can rob an individual of her or his personhood. It is called dignity.
14
@Kathy Lollock
Thanks for opening up about what Catholicism has meant to you. My only real familiarity with that faith came from going to a Catholic high school for all four years. The teachers were a mix of Nuns and laypeople. It struck me that the former were more open minded and less dogmatic than the latter. One Sister in particular encouraged us not to put God in a box and to think of different ways to conceive of God, like as a mother.
The thing about organized religion - any of them - is that while they are spiritual paths and can lead to goodness, they are ultimately human constructs. Because people are flawed and complicated, human creations like religion will reflect those traits. So maybe rather than treat religious authorities as absolutes and doctrine as infallible, we should not surrender our independence of thought to a faith group any more than we would surrender it to a given person.
I greatly appreciate what you wrote. Take care.
10
@NM Thank you, NM. I always enjoy talking and sharing our common philosophy with each other. It seems as if we think alike. I still have a hard time with priests, but several of my girl friends from high school went on to be Sisters of Mercy. They are so in-tune with the 21st Century...so spiritual, loving, compassionate, and accepting of all peoples with absolutely no sign of judgement...ever. They usually have us non-stop laughing, especially when they start on Trump! They loved President Obama.
14
I have practiced and surveyed many different religious practices. They all seem to have a little ‘something’ appealing. Shintoism was the most appealing as it sees the ‘divine’ every where and in everything. After all of that, for many years, avoiding any organized religion was the answer. No influence by anyone.
5
@Heysus
Quakerism isn't bad, either.
I'm not a believer, but if someone said I had to pick a religious belief system, I think Quakerism checks most of my "rarely causes anyone a problem, seems to encourage good behavior" boxes. (Whereas most religions, seemingly, can't even manage to coax human decency out of some of their members.)
One can easily be amazed without having to "go into the light" of faith to quell their discomfort with explaining their amazement. One can have reverence for the astounding beauty of the natural world and feel a great power within it all without dumbing it down by attributing it to some anthropomorphic superhero. One can subscribe to awe and wonder and have a rich admiration of "Mother Nature," or a pervasive (nonanthropomoprhic) spirit in all things, e.g., what some call Manitou, without having to sign up for an explanatory myth. I prefer to be simply amazed by the existence of the wind rather than try to "ride my bike against it" in some inner fight over my discomfort in abandoning the religion of my upbringing. I would hate to see an author I have read and admire so much as Timothy Egan suddenly give up the struggle and let the lure of myth overtake his reason, as has happened to so many who are scared to just accept the magnificence of a night sky without having to reduce it to some explanation from Genesis.
21
Timothy Egaan explains what so many long for, an explanation for what we don't know, to know where we originated and where we will end up. To borrow from a song, "What's it all about...."
What seems to stand out is the universality of these all too human desires and quests. Especially in this country, so many don't seek a pilgrimage to have them revealed by introspection but are far too willing to have them handed out like pills from a church, mosque or synagogue where interpretation and explanation are unchallenged by religious figures who demand loyalty rather than by questioning.
But for some, the sense of wonder and discovery, of making known what was unknown, explaining miracles a part of nature rather than as exceptions to it are as satisfying and rewarding as any religious journey of discovery. I my many years, I have found so many of these same intrepid discovers to be as moral and as ethical as the most devout religious followers.
In no way does their journeys obviate or diminish those who are religious, Nor should their journeys be diminished or obviated by religious ones. Different people take different paths to find their peace, understanding and place in the world.
There are far too few examples of this mutual tolerance. But there are far too few examples of political, cultural or racial tolerance either. Perhaps the cure for all of those is more pilgrimages of all different kinds.
6
Singular faith -- a freely chosen personal reconciliation between oneself and something larger that invests a life with meaning and purpose apart from impulse and appetite, and provides a depth of understanding, empathy and tolerance of humanity that informs a collective sense of responsibility and becomes a moral code to illuminate our own path on a shared journey forward -- is to be lauded.
Group faith, on the other hand, degrades the individual struggle with faith and meaning, and substitutes easy, unthinking conformity and a belligerent morality of group entitlement and privilege to justify intentional injustice and exalt superstition and what starts as a suspension of disbelief but becomes a reality-denying worldview.
A personal journey inflected with the solitary agony and ecstasy of an engaged life can be nourishing for the soul but group faith is invariably akin to junk food and rampaging barbarians who would reduce human complexity to simple binary choices dictated by unholy men with pay-to-pray authority that genuflects to mammon.
That's how one person's pilgrimage can become an ungodly and murderous crusade.
In my creeping dotage I no longer think of god as the explanation of what we don't or can't know. God is the easy button for those who don't want to know and don't care.
I am not a lapsed Catholic but a recovering human.
24
I am an atheist and just finished Camino de Santiago in Spain this May, not for religious reasons but to hike a long one. It was a beautiful experience ( and so much easier than backpacking in the Sierras ) and we met many pilgrims who did it for spiritual/religious reasons. The beauty of the country, the friendliness of the people , the historical sites were enough to lift one’s spirit, without needing God. Of course this is my experience and for some devout Catholic the journey probably had totally different meaning, which is OK. Whatever makes your life richer and more spiritual is a gift in itself.
10
I agree with the writer that "atheism has trouble telling a story", at least a complete, satisfying story. I'm not a subscriber to religion, per se, but my biggest challenge with atheism is this: people often find it liberating, but I disagree - I find it crushing. If there is no God, or greater being, then we must all at least have the courage to admit how completely and truly, INSIGNIFICANT we are. If you can admit to your own insignificance, then you must admit to how insignificant your actions are, and the actions of others are. If that's the case, what gives me the right to complain or demand justice for any act of hatred or injustice (murder, sexual abuse, etc). If someone rapes my family member, I can and will demand justice. But with atheism, that insignificant person committed an insignificant action against me, another insignificant person. Thus, it has no relevance to the world. But I can't come to terms with that...it would be too crushing. We as humans demand justice precisely because we know we ARE significant.
7
This brief story was told by a Catholic nun to attendees of a Centering Prayer retreat in response to the question, How do we know God exists? A man sat next to her on a plane and while they were waiting for take-off the man noticed her full Catholic nun habit and remarked, "You must believe in God." She replied, "Yes, I do." He continued, "Well, I'm atheist. I don't believe God exits." The sister asked him, "Do you believe in existence?" to which he replied with confidence, "Of course I do!" The sister, with a warm smile, responded, "Good, then you believe in God."
10
@Rebecca Cortes
Any story involving a nun who has dipped her toes into the moving waters of Paul Tillich's theological paradigm deserves a thumbs-up!
To practice a religion or none at all should be an individual matter. Organized religion has allowed people to confirm to their own set of teachings. But today ,that has also led to more conflicts and wrong doings. Look at the abuses in Catholic church,the killings in middle East and Myanmar (a Buddhist majority country)in the name of religion and rise of antisemitism. As long as no one pronounces their religion as superior and respect followers of other faiths too,everything will go on smoothly. More wars have been fought over religion than for any other reason. Faith is more important in following any religion than propaganda.
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction"- by Blaise Pascal (well known French mathematician).
11
You are very articulate. Please explain to me what it means when someone says "I was brought up a Catholic" or "I was brought up a Baptist." To me, it means that they associate themselves with a certain religion, not by willful choice, but by inculcation and indoctrination. And why is it that only homo sapiens have souls but not other animals? What is a soul?
In religion, there are more questions than answers.
3
We're all outed here without any choice on our part.
We have to make the best of a bad situation.
Finding meaning, however banal or beneficent, is the glue that prevents us from choosing suicide.
Camus claimed, "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." Despite life being absurd, don't commit suicide, is his free advice.
Ecclesiastes 6 centuries previously said that life is meaningless of meaningless. He didn't raise question of suicide but being forced to live, make the best of something not of our choosing. Eat, drink and be merry. Love your spouse, etc. Simple prescription for an incurable malady - life. Or, as George Washington said to bumble through it.
We have no control over being born, no willing (Job, fortunate is the one who never saw the light of day). We're all forced on this uncharted pilgrimage and some will find meaning in hiking, others in bingo. We're bullied to find meaning rather that choose suicide which many of our fellow pilgrims do. And increasingly.
The one thing we have control over is not to bring life into this "vale of tears." Only a sadist would force life on an unsuspecting person.
6
@Emmett Coyne
Your last sentence is the most intelligent and humane reason for population control I've encountered in a long time. Thank you.
I do not think you ever convince non believers that there is a God just as you will never convince true believers that God does not exist. It has been said that religious people score higher on the happy scale in life. Just walking into a beautiful Catholic Church in Manhattan can lift one up when one is down. It rarely fails.
The stained glass windows at St. Patrick's Cathedral are magnificent and beautiful. I have never been there when there was not a crowd of people. It is one of the most important spiritual houses in the world. I try to visit whenever I am in the neighborhood. It is such a joy to be around like minded religious people and it gives me hope. We are all searching for happiness and my Catholic faith is the one thing that meets that goal. It is everlasting.
8
@KMW I have read that the ones who are the most troubled are the ones who are uncertain either way. The true believer and the true atheist tend to be happier than the ones who waffle in their convictions - either way.
1
@KMW I get the same feeling from a tarn in the Sierra.
Awe and wonder is related to spiritual health. Being grateful is related to health. Seeing that there are miracles all around us is healthy. The only self-definition of God was furnished about 4,000 years ago from a bush that burned but did not burn up: "I AM." There is not even a verb in the Hebrew, which means more like: Being. In philosophy it is called "ontos" and the study of it, "ontology." What is, is God, in other words. We are also.
2
@KMW
The Catholic Church is often wrong as with Galileo and it’s handling of pedophile priests, and failure to condemn Catholic Adolph Hitler. Hitler was raised in the Church and never renounced his faith nor was excommunicated.
1
We happen by accident to live in a period of rapid technological advance, which is to say a time of economic opportunity. Self-fulfillment takes on an economic, not a spiritual, cast. During most of past history self-realization by material, physical effort was closed off so most people turned for the hoped-for success denied them in their everyday lives to some imagined future other world. Today people can get a feeling of wholeness and success in the here-and-now, so that's what they're mostly doing. I imagine belief in religion, that is spiritual salvation after death, was about the same then as it is now, which is to say, close to zero, but in those days it wasn't done to admit it.
5
@Ronald B. Duke ...Success, yes. Wholeness, I doubt it !
'Where are you going, my lovely', I asked a friend earlier this week when we had an exchange. 'On another pilgrimage in Spain, and perhaps we could go together; come along with me'.
We discussed the brutal Love of God versus the Compassion of Christ, while remembering that our friendship is based on spirituality.
When in Rome, she brought back a blessing from Pope Francis; one which I carry in my heart, thinking of his pilgrimage to Bethlehem a few years ago, where he would stop to listen to strangers in his path.
The time when a young boy, devastated over the loss of his dog, asked him for comfort. 'In the Garden of God, there is a place for all creatures, great and small', replied the Holy man.
'My religion is Love' from an African friend, a devout Muslim, the most compassionate.
Dante died alone this Thursday last near the cathedral in Argentina where he was born. He came to America early in youth and after many years, returned home. Our friendship grew in time, over an exchange of daily correspondence; sometimes a brief word was food for the soul, but he has left a void in his absence.
A prayer for Dante and perhaps he is praying for us. It was a friend whose family perished in prison camps, who introduced us so many years ago. We rarely speak of God, Christianity or Religion, and so it has been with the greatest friends in life.
Perhaps it takes a bit of everyone to make this world we live in; perhaps there is a bit of God in everyone's make-up.
6
Beautiful, Timothy. I, too, was born and raised Catholic, not of an Irish family but rather of an Italian one. I am not lapsed; instead, I refer to myself as a cafeteria Catholic...frankly, one who tends to pick and choose Church teachings. I make the distinction between the words of Christ and what we call the Precepts which are arbitrary, man-made, and more often than not patriarchal. There is a difference as many informed Catholics know. Yet, even though the Church has had a tumultuous history with times of debauchery and corruption in the form of greed, exploitation and abuse of both Christians and non-Christians, and among the most heinous, pedophilia, it somehow along the way taught many us about the ethereal, our souls' need for spiritual cleansing. We go through tough times in our lives, all of us. That is a fact of life on earth. But there is such a feeling of transcendence and love and selflessness when I go to Mass, sitting there in quiet for one hour a week of peace, respecting the ritual and solemnity.
9
I was baptized and went to Sunday School as a Methodist. "Jesus loves me, this I know..." In high school I attended the Presbyterian Church with my friends. My favorite hymn was "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." On my 25th birthday I received a gift that made the organized church obsolete. On LSD, I stood naked and alone on a beach on the southern coast of Crete, aglow in a state of utter joy and fascination. I walked into the clear sea until the water was over my head. I became a member of the Larger Circle of Meaning, the All That Is, where the cathedral is Nature and the miracles are synchronicity, grace and love. My credo I later stole from Robert Duvall who, in the movie "Open Range" said, "The Lord and I have an understanding."
6
I would highly recommend that no one take LSD alone and walk into the ocean over their head. If you really feel like you need to take psycho active drugs please do it in a controlled environment with trained a therapist near by to guide your “trip”. Peace Out. p.s. read Michael Pollan’s great book How To Change Your Mind. For some insight on the use and history of psycho active drugs.
SOMETHING DURABLE
If you were asked, "What makes most sense?"
Say, "Body, brains and benevolence.
A full harmonious mix thereof
Ensures the world undivided love."
6
Atheism has trouble telling a story? How about the magical tale of four amino acids lacing themselves together in an infinite variety to build the entirety of life? The immeasurably vast expanse of the universe with unfathomable variety in planets and solar systems and galaxies? The five billion years of our own planet's history teeming with life unknowing and uncaring about the god written about in your two thousand year old book? Maybe what troubles you is that the story atheism tells is not a static tale endlessly reinterpreted but a living changing fascination that broadens every single day as the un-divine minds of our world add to it. The nutrition for my soul is the incredible strides science and its atheism make every day to do the things your religion promises but fails to deliver. I am sated. No pilgrimage needed.
51
@Sebastian Schubl
I find it awesome and fascinating and true that we bumans and other species are made of stardust. The Big Bang created Hydrogen and Helium and and scarce amounts of lithium. All heavier elements were created in very huge stars and spread th tough the Universe by supernova explosions. This is science, not mythology.
11
@JSK exactly. When I go to a museum and see a chart discussing the big bang theory it is spine chilling. When I see dinosaur bones I am humbled. I never had that feeling attending a church service as a child - that all seemed so egotistical.
7
Beautifully said!
Mr. Egan, I hope and pray that you have returned to our Church. I know the chapel in San Gimignano and I hope it had inspired you as it did me.
7
Really great column. Call me lapsed and listening too.
13
@Harry
I really love that phrase. Always listening, hoping to be surprised by some unexpected glint of wisdom, sings of a connection beyond the ordinary -- or concealed within the ordinary.
4
Pilgrimage is great--not all can do this--Cure for Malnutrition of the Soul--Close your eyes and just breathe--slow it down...
Breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need
Is to just breathe
Just breathe
7
On the other hand, I've evolved into a confirmed atheist. I find the holy scriptures of all religions, while expressing some useful ideas about moral and ethical living, are by their ambiguity and contradictory and violent narratives, also abundant happy hunting grounds for sociopaths and psychopaths. I will grant at least one useful passage from the Christian bible: "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you." It's a terrific foundation upon which to build a good life. In the meantime, spare me any pity about leading a barren and unspiritual life for you can't imagine the degree to which this transition has intensified my love of life and of the beauty and splendor of our glorious planet.
34
Actually "do into others.. " is not of Christian origin. it is the basis for all moral teachings and can be found stated one way or another in almost all of the ancient religious texts. the expression itself is an atheist sentiment.
11
Tim,
You say that atheism has trouble telling a story. I reply that this is because life and reality are very complex and do not fit in a storybook, even one of, well, Biblical length.
I'd also point out that lots of really good stories are fiction, and integrity means always using the same method to determine what is fiction and what is not.
Reality always wins in the end, doesn't it?
Having read your work for some time, I'd say you were already on a journey of the spirit before your long walk. Such journeys do not require deities or religions or myths or tribal dogmas. They require a good and curious intellect, an open and caring heart, and a healthy strength of character.
Look up Julia Sweeney, or the next time you're in NYC, Susan Jacoby to discuss. You'll be amazed and probably laugh a lot (laughter does wonder for the spirit, btw).
And so you want to be amazed? Go look at a photo of earth taken from space and consider how fortunate you are, given that only the tiniest percentage of humans who have ever lived have seen that photo, not to mention grasped its significance. Consider that the people who assembled the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic narratives (among many others) would not have even been able to figure out what or where the object in the photo is at all.
37
@RBW
Excellent response to Egan's essay!
3
@RBW Or be amazed at the intricate web that's all around us at all times.
Song of the Builders-Mary Oliver
On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God -
a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside
this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope
it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.
1
Yes.
It is possible that people in the west, especially the young, have not lost spirituality at all, just organized religion.
Can you blame them? There has been such light shed on the hypocrisy of the main faiths. And quite frankly the main religions are hostile and angry a lot of the time.
The Catholic Church wasn’t hit by the fact that priests were uncovered to be pedophiles. Every section of our society from business to coaches to homes to neighbors has sexual predators. It was the cover up & the fact that the organization thought more of itself than the faithful.
Muslims aren’t violent suicide bombers. A few are, but not the majority but many leaders used religion to spew hate instead of addressing what is really the fight...resources/territory/power.
And in this country, in particular, religion is used as an outlet for whatever ails someone. The ridiculous fight every year about demanding people say “Merry Christmas” without any consideration that person they’re so angry at might be Jewish or a Jehovah or a Mormon and may also be MORE involved in their faith than the person screaming at them at the grocery store.
Nobody is running TOWARD these organizations but it doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned with the status of their soul or the well being of others.
I have made many pilgrimages in my life, some through the Catholic faith and some not. But I feel a presence around me always. I can’t name it, but I feel it and it drives me to be good and better, not hateful.
9
@Lynne, Mormons have no aversion to 'Merry Christmas' and are known to celebrate the holiday with great enthusiasm.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed you journey Tim. But I do not understand how you have concluded that agnosticism an untenable position to hold. It allows for amazement and wonder; it also allows freedom of thought that atheism and organized religion do nor... which allows for more amazement. As an agnostic I can make pilgrimages of many faiths and appreciate each.
9
@Ted A --I would argue that an atheist can make these pilgrimages as well, but on the level of history instead of faith. As my father, an engineer with the heart of a history prof, understood, the history of humankind is strewn with the mistakes of religion, and we must understand them to move on in our own age.
7
A beautiful column. But one can make a pilgrimage of faith without ever leaving home. Born Roman Catholic, also with a substantial Irish heritage (my confirmation name was Patrick), I left the church at 18. I never ceased exploring, but was pretty much a hard core atheist for 50+ years. I nearly converted to Judaism in law school, but found its God too human, too angry. I realized after studying them that atheism and Buddhism led to the same end: oblivion, be it simply death or Nirvana, the end of suffering because the end of desire.
My Greek Orthodox wife never attended services except weddings and funerals during our long marriage out of respect for my atheism. I attended those with her out of respect for her faith and her family. But when our youngest child decided our grandchild would be baptized Greek Orthodox, as our family's "paper guy" I was tasked with finding out what was necessary for that.
One thing led to another. I started reading Orthodox literature. I attended a service to see what it was like. Then, hesitantly, even derisively, I uttered my first prayer in over a half century. And something responded. I don't profess to know what. But it happened again. And again.
In brief, I was Chrismated Greek Orthodox this year, shortly before our grandchild's baptism. My faith is now the core of my life. I leave every service renewed, my physical ills fade away. I have hope, and joy, and I soar daily in prayer. And yes, I am amazed, Mr. Egan.
17
This was a beautiful article, Mr. Egan. You expressed your experience with honesty and simplicity. I have no need to view another man's experience through the lens of spirituality, religion, atheism, or science. For me, the quest for spiritual knowledge has no conflict with science. I am Jewish, and I can also feel comfortable chanting in Sanskrit or practicing Vipassana meditation or talking about science with my atheist brother. The only time I have a problem is when people blindly follow dogma or use religious text as an excuse for bigotry or violence. For me, the deepest truth is ineffable.
16
“We are spiritual beings. But for many of us, malnutrition of the soul is a plague of modern life.“ No, we are not spiritual beings, if “spiritual” means magical, unsubstantiated, mythical rationales. And we don’t have souls. That’s nonsense. We are people in search of meaning. “God” and “spirituality” are false answers to questions about the meaning of our lives. Such knee-jerk acceptance of “faith” is easy, convenient, but unthinking. In the end “god” is a shallow, immature construct, like unicorns or leprechauns. We can each find meaning for our lives, not in churches, or pilgrimages, but in our day to day interactions with each other.
21
@John Ranta agree. It is easier for some to go on a Pilgrimage than to help their fellow humans - harder to look misery in the eye and help - day in and day out. Much easier to look at church's and search for something outside of yourself and to let the world recede.
2
I agree.
@John Ranta
Mr Ranta...Prove it.
Had Augustine lived today, he would be a physicist and might even be able to explain quantum physics. Alas, he lived too soon.
Science is the pursuit of the unknown by the best methods we have devised. It is religion, a concern with revelation.
Religion is a tropism that we cannot explain. It just is and we sense the lack of meaning when we fail to thrive by turning toward whatever means something positive to us.
As Dante said, "In the middle of my life, I found myself in a dark wood." That "dark wood" begins at birth and ends at death and we are in the middle of something so much greater than ourselves, that we simply have to trust it. "Faith" is the wrong translation of the Greek. The meaning of the NT Greek word is "trust."
8
It's always interesting to me (a flaming liberal) to see how intolerant my liberal friends can be of Chrisitans (organized or otherwise).
My Evangelical friends (which I'm not a member of that group), out social justice my liberal friends through action (vs pontificating). And they do it quietly. They have my respect in much the same way as do my atheists friends (who sometimes try to tell me their way -- no God -- is the One True Way). Hmmm.
9
@Thrill is Gone I imagine the reason some of your friends are intolerant of Christians is because Christians are intolerant toward them--rabidly so from what I've seen. They are a scary bunch. Many won't leave others alone. Most disturbing is their militant "desire" (LOL) to take over government. I'd say that alone should warrant intolerance from every citizen..
Thank you, Timothy Egan, for sharing the story of your journey.
As an elementary school student attending a NYC public school in grades one through four, I thought of myself not as a Roman Catholic but as Release Time. That was the name given to kids who left classrooms once a week and marched to a parochial school for catechism.
Watching uniform-clad students back against the hall walls as we filed in, it seemed we were slightly less suspect than my Jewish or Protestant school friends - and to be shunned.
Sent to a parochial school starting in fifth grade, I learned the low regard in which Release Time kids and their parents were held. They had not coughed up tuition for a proper education. A scandal. After a few years, I bought in – all the way to graduate school.
I appreciated the education but early on had grown critical of the organized religion. At heart, I am not a lapsed Catholic or a former Catholic. Just Release Time.
12
Wonderful, Mr. Egan, you felt the presence of God, or was it a feeling of awe? A feeling, but only a feeling. People feel awe. If you limit your definition of God to this feeling of awe, that's OK, honest but circular. This feeling, which comes from our brains, provides no further evidence of a complex omnipotent deity. Is it so hard to accept a natural feeling as a feeling and distinguish that feeling from all the supernatural mythology of religion?
6
Thank you for sharing your journey, Mr Egan. As always, such inspiring writing for us all.
11
I did a pilgrimage in Ireland about 15 years ago and came back liberated from the notion of original sin.
18
I heard a lecture by Archbishop Tutu maybe fifteen years ago. He said that for him, the greatest support he felt during the revolution was prayer-his own prayer and the prayers of others for him. Many in the audience were disappointed. They didn't want to hear that. When asked for clarification, asked for the "real" force behind the revolution, he again said. "Prayer." I think your onto something.
6
I too spent most of my life dismissive of faith and turned away, but there's nothing like getting old (66) with a cold wind blowing across your back to make one realize something's missing. Amazingly, I stumbled across John O'Donohue's Anam Cara. No matter your stripe, I recommend it highly, as do many others - it was a huge sensation when it came out in 1998. Now, my very own bible.
9
Some years ago my son and I walked down 5th Avenue and toured all the beautiful churches that were all decorated for Christmas. Neither one of us believes in all the religious mythology, but we discovered a wonderful thing when we reached our destination, a favorite restaurant in Little Italy. We were both feeling very peaceful and emotionally uplifted. I hadn't experienced such a feeling of tranquility in a long time.
9
@Carole A. Dunn
You received an invitation. Did you RSVP?.
As human beings, we are all 'spiritual' in that we sense the possibility of an existence of something outside ourselves. Further, for as long as we've been around, we have sought some way to understand and to order the world around us, to have it make some kind of sense to us, particularly at the times when it seems to make no sense, or when it seems cruel and capricious. The ways in which individuals do that are many, and faith in something or someone larger than ourselves has always been among the most widespread means we have employed. Right from the beginning of civilization, thought, when, as the Sumerians wrote, 'the kingship descended from heaven', men have used it as a means of power and control, using the power of organized faith for some of the greatest things we have done, and for some of the worst. My maternal grandfather, who was a churchman, once told me that the most dangerous of the faithful were those who claimed to be able to read the mind of God, "for if God is all that we believe, then no human could possibly read His mind". This is the saying I remember when someone stands up tells me that I should obey his version of faith because he knows what God thinks. No man can know what God thinks.
6
I believe there is a gene, or a sequence of them, that determines one's religious beliefs.
Though I do not consider myself an atheist, most of those who believe in an organized religion would consider me one. My God consists of all things and I find Him most often in nature, whether it be a walk in a forest, or observing the behavior of my fellow human beings. He takes no human form and has no ability to effect what any of us do.
I am completely unable to accept any Deity that would allow children to die of cancer, or to be raped by adults.
I accept those who have faith in any form of religion - as long as they accept my freedom to believe differently. Unfortunately there are some who insist that every person must adhere to their beliefs (such as forbidding abortion or LGBT rights). I do not know how to stop this, but I know it is wrong.
And although our Constitution, on the basis of freedom of religion, is supposed to protect the rights of those who are members of the LGBT community or wish to have an abortion, these religious zealots continue to fight to undermine those rights.
13
Global Christianity—from Africa to Asia to Latin America and beyond—is indeed growing, massively. It is the most underreported story in the media.
It is, as you are discovering, also the best antidote—alongside the Bible itself—to white, American, evangelicalism.
11
When men makes themselves divinely chosen Kings, and absolute authorities of all things over the people...religion seems to find a hold. Africa and China are such places. The Muslim Middle East is stuck in that paradigm. Poor and beaten, they have little places for refuge. In China, the burgeoning middle and upper classes are adrift, wondering what the wealth is for. Whats the point, when given that mobility if they are now becoming the first modern example of a true Surveillance State, ruled by a despot. ???
The US, like usual, is an anomaly in that matter. Freedom from absolutism has long driven many of us to seek solace in the pews, hoping for concrete answers to Life from their self-proclaimed holy men.
Modernity, despite all the obvious and hidden benefits, has done little to assuage our fears and wonder over our purpose. In the US its been used mostly as a weapon of attack on "others" for far too long. Its been a weapon of division and prejudice.
Going on a pilgrimage is mostly a distraction for many who participate. Much like the many hundreds of religious/spiritual retreats people go on every month, be they Xtian, Jewish, Buddhist or New Age. Weekends of religious contemplation are not fixing our societal ills.
Look around at your family/friends, how many are living up to the tenets of their oft-touted, chosen spiritual practices?
Why? Most people are not involved in a true practice. But are fixated on participating in rituals they think bestow blessings.
3
It seems to me that we humans are meant to wander, at least from time to time, whether or not we can articulate just why we're setting out, and perhaps especially if we can't. Mindful travel--especially on foot--clarifies thinking, deepens purpose, and gladdens the heart, in my experience. I am a long-time Buddhist, and so by definition a follower of a wandering monk. My first pilgrimage was to travel on my own to the various sites in India important in the life of the Buddha and later masters. My second--inspired by a talk at Europe Through the Back Door--was to walk the Way of St Francis from Florence to Rome, in the company of a good friend. To walk the trails St Francis walked, to visit his mountaintop sanctuary at La Verna and the town of Gubbio where he tamed and befriended a marauding wolf (my favorite St Francis story), to sit under the ancient fig tree said to have sheltered Francis during a violent storm, and then eventually to walk into Rome--these are experiences that remain in my heart and mind, and that I continue to draw on in troubled times.
8
To be the object or subject of adoring love is the nourishment we need. Our faith teaches us to see the ideal in each other, but it’s each other we should love, not the ideal.
6
“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
A Course In Miracles
Very nice for you, but I find my "god" in the Unitarian Universalist congregation, where we pay attention to our journey through this life and this world, and study and learn how to help each other do it. My fellow members nourish me more than any Christian church ever did. What may be right for you may not be right for me. That's why in this country - at least so far - we don't have a State religion. We leave each of us to find our path freely.
12
@Brookhawk
"Very nice for you...."
Do you know how condescending this sounds? I hope not.
@Brookhawk, The roots of Unitarian Universalism lie in liberal Christianity, specifically Unitarianism and universalism.
1
@Brookhawk 'Though you'd never know it looking at our State Dept.
Egan writes "Yet each mystery explained ... builds the case for God." The exact opposite is true. That's why sophisticated theologians don't advocate basing belief on deities with "god of the gaps" arguments. Science will continually fill those gaps leaving less and less room for gods.
And science has a story---of an evolutionary epic in which the universe slowly becomes self-conscious thru the organisms it creates. The story is so much more satisfying than ones of talking snakes, human sacrifice and the like. With the added benefit that the story of cosmic evolution is true.
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@JGM
I fully admire science to its limits, but it does have limits, and that is where religion enters. To ask, "why does anything exist?" is a valid and important, maybe the most important, question. Science can't answer that question. Or rather, when it does, I suspect the answer will be a religious one. And it will be fully scientific as well.
And as a science lover, I would not trade the breathtaking art, myth, and literature that religion has produced for anything. I cannot imagine the imagination as anything but impoverished without them.
1
@Eric
Science states that anything not expressly denied by physics must occur.
@JGM How does explanation contradict the existence of God?
Atheism has no problem telling its story, Tim. It’s just that its story consists of many small stories: one for each mind that explores. Nor do you have to “find” atheism, any more than you have to find gravity. All of us begin life with a need to learn and grow. Deism in all its forms is a termination.
Sometimes, people tuned in to an official Faith Channel manage to hear news of the outside world, where people discover things for themselves. But most of the faithful listeners just turn up the volume, pretend it was noise, and keep on plodding along the path that has been beaten for them.
35
This excellent and succinct comment should be a Pick.
3
Travels are nice. Paths are nice. They lead to adventures and learning new things. However this man is one of the delusional. We are not spiritual. That hokum was created by humans to keep other humans in line and get them to do a whole bunch of stuff that any rational person would not do.
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@amy feinberg What a sad life you lead.
Mr. Egan, such travels on foot are a wonderful way to experience the interior of your mind as you follow your foot path. It will lead to self-knowledge as well as to an understanding of God.
The Camino to Santiago is highly revered for many reasons and is also glorious. I hope that you'll have a chance to trek across the Pyrenees and northern Spain. The culmination in the Pilgrims' Mass at the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is one of the most moving things I've ever experienced.
7
As a fellow resident of King County, I look forward to and greatly enjoy your essays. My wife is a graduate of Holy Names Academy, which I am sure you know is a 4 year high school for Catholic females. My mother’s side of the family is all Catholic, but my father, born in Scotland was Presbyterian, which was my original religion. I think atheism has a compelling story found in the study of astrophysics. Having two MIT masters degrees, I disavow all supernatural phenomena. I probably am closer to a Deist than than an atheist because I believe Nature is the closest thing we have as a god, and she is not a personal god. She governs via the laws of physics, which we are still learning. There is no credible evidence for anything supernatural. As Clarence Darrow once said, “I don’t believe in god because I don’t believe in Mother Goose”. That said, I revere Jesus as a great teacher and philosopher and try to live by his most important rules, which are compassion and charity for everyone.
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Don’t understand why this comment isn’t a Pick.
1
The Catholic Church may not be for everyone but it is certainly for me. I love the rituals such as the rosary, the novenas, and the devotional prayers. There is something for everyone. It is a beautiful religion rich in tradition. Why do we have 1.3 billion members? I guess it has meaning and importance in their lives. It certainly does for me.
10
@KMW I so want to love the Catholic Church, too, and in some ways I do. That being said, how do you square the opposition to birth control in a time of existentially threatening climate change large related to our numbers? When will this change? The biblical reasons for this policy are extremely thin! Is it because of the old bogeyman, pride? While the Catholic Church furiously attacks abortion, all of life on earth is at risk of coming to an end because of this.
23
@KMW As a girl growing up in South Boston in the 60s and 70s, our world revolved around our parish. It was a wonderful childhood and I got nothing but good out of it (except for my slight prudishness). But then it all came tumbling down. The Church was so arrogant in the aftermath of the crisis that they further victimized those they had hurt. Then they betrayed the flock by selling off the beautiful churches and schools our grandparents had built.
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@DF
My very Catholic wife, whom I adore, had a grandmother who was the 14th of 15 siblings. My wife had no desire to be a mobile incubator. She never used birth control, but she made sure I did. The result? Two lovely children.
2
We tell stories Timothy to hold facts at bay. Atheism needs no story to tell. And with that single article of faith I nonetheless find amazement often. Am I certain? Of virtually nothing save the love I feel toward others.
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"While organized religion may be dying in Europe, the pilgrim trails of the Via Francigena, and the better-known Camino de Santiago in Spain, are drawing crowds." Maybe you are right we are spiritual beings and the above is an example of our need for spirituality and how it is transformed and expressed.
I've walked the Camino in Spain and hope to return on my 60 th birthday. I have a deep longing for devoting my time to my spirituality that will not be satisfied by attending a weekly mass. I
dream of complete devotion to my spiritual needs which bring me peace and compassion for myself and the rest of us.
6
A lot of “me” and “my” in there whereas Jesus focused on others.
Reading this the same week that I pursued the photo essay in The New Yorker about Iran, where the theocratic rulers legalized marriage for girls at age 9 and boys at age 14 in order to boost the population of believers. Result: over 5 children per family and a population that can't even afford the ugly high rise housing the regime has built for them. THIS is what religion brings. Perhaps, if you ignore American Evangelicals, Christianity is no longer the threat it once was, but other religions are happy to fill in the gap.
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@CA exactly. And they are reproducing at rates that eclipse Europe. The RCC gets most of it's new adherents from the semi developing and developing countries and not from the developed world.
1
"Atheism has trouble telling a story." This is a good thing, as there is no story. In my view, "atheism" describes a vacuum and not a thesis. Enough of the fiction already.
16
Religion does not have the answers. But each of them has the right questions. It is then up to each of us to decide how to respond.
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@John Graybeard
That's an interesting way to look at it - religion has the right questions, just not the answers. Hm.
Excellent article.
I had only known about the Camino de Santiago, which starts in Belgium I believe, before reading this.
3
@Sirlar
I think it starts in Paris. My wife and daughter walked the last 120 kilometers and enjoyed the overwhelmingly spiritual experience. My wife was 65 at the time.
@Sirlar
The Camino de Santiago begins in France.
Thank you, Timothy, for sharing. Your words made me smile and gave me joy.
Have you read any Brian Doyle? If not, I suggest you do so. You will find amazement in his Book of Uncommon Prayer and other writings.
4
I often park my truck in a beautiful area of wilderness out west.
I sit in the passenger seat and write. I have plastic screens for the windows to keep the copious bugs out of my eyeballs and nose. When it is cold, I try to situate myself to get the abundant sunshine. Extra shirt or light jacket and all is good.
I always seem to write better this way, away from tech life, and crowds. I get in to whatever is on my mind.
I can hear the birds, and the leaves rustle, smell the smells. It seems pretty spiritual to me.
26
As many here are mentioning, there are many types of pilgrimage that one can engage in that have nothing to do with any organized religion or concept of a deity.
But I don't think anyone had mentioned yet just how many find both the sacred and the profane at temples like Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden or the Orange Bowl.
These are houses of worship, too, because, to use the words of Dr. George Sheehan:
"Education, said William James, is a process by which we are able to distinguish what is first rate from what isn't. Sport, more often than not, shows us the elements of what is first rate. It does this because it is the long sought after moral equivalent of war . . .an arena where man finds the best that is in him, a theater that reveals courage and endurance and dedication to a purpose, our love for out fellows and levels of energies we never knew we possessed. And where we see, if only for moments, man as he is supposed to be."
And yes, the temples of sport can be as corruptible as any other house of worship. But, in their grandeur, and in the activities they are meant to house, one can find just as much transcendence.
4
This was a wonderful article.
I was raised Christian, but I lost faith because of my early life expereinces..
I most recently considered myself an agnostic, but now I consider myself Christian.
Why the shifts?
It's hard to explain exactly, but not really. Did that sentance maked sense? Probably not.
It's because I live with something called PTSD, and I also have Stockholm syndrome.
It makes us act strange occasionally, because it is a logical oxymoron. Why would you defend your harmer? Why would we act this way?
The answer is: Survival. Sometimes survival requires being a bit
'irrational' to the common eye.
That's the crux of it. I don't think I would have lost my faith except for my treatment by some bad people.
Now I try to heal. I think I can. But I'm going to file a complaint with the police.
I lived in a terrtified neighborhood. I don't know how many people he hit, but I think it was perhaps at least 4. He hit many more than just me.
Suddenly, life makes more sense, and I know that I believe in God.
6
I visited Dubai recently and was fortunate to have attended Mass twice while there. My Mass had approximately 2,500 people in attendance which is not bad for a country that is overwhelmingly Muslim. This is the norm for each Mass I was told.
There was full participation and the congregants were faithful and devout. They spoke up during the service and sang with such enthusiasm. It was so encouraging to see such devoted Catholics and it made me appreciate and love my faith even more. This was one of the many highlights of Dubai but the one that has left a lasting impression.
6
Mr Egan, I appreciate your thoughtfully written piece but, if I, a scientist, had any remaining feeling that there might be a god it has been completely extinguished by the existence and success of Donald Trump.
33
@MKlik
I travelled on a path from questioning Christian to atheist. My faith was slowly eroded by hearing about Christian participation in the Rwandan genocide, Catholic paedophile priest scandals which the Church did everything possible to cover up and the enthusiastic support of hypocritical USA Evangelicals for Donald Trump.
As James Baldwin said succinctly: "If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him."
It was my visit to Auschwitz in May this year that was the final nail in the coffin.
Generally speaking organized religions, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc, etc., degrade women into second class participants. Based on that alone I have no desire to participate in an organization that doesn't fully appreciate half the world's population. ON top of that, many religious organizations have shown more interest in raising money and the leaders living a luxurious lifestyle than actually seeing to the spiritual needs of the congregants. Thanks, but I can find spirituality and ponder the human condition without sacrificing myself to the needs of an organization mostly concerned with self perpetuation.
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I am always curious about which god.
The god of Abraham, Yahweh, was a storm god. If today's god is something else, there is no reason to believe any one of the many versions is the true one.
But, even without the involvement of a god, the cosmos and its collected processes are and that we, in part, understand them is nourishing.
7
@David Bible
As a teenager long ago, I enjoyed the tales of mythology. I considered Odin (Wotan) to be the most rational of the Chief gods. The tale ends with Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, and the rebirth of civilization. You gotta love Thor and hate Loki. Funny how our days of the week are named after Norse gods, and our months after Roman gods, as are our fellow planets of our Solar System. I think many religions are quite respectable unless you take them too seriously.
1
I agree with Timothy Egan that human beings have a need for spirituality. I feel that spiritual need in myself. I would love to go on a pilgrimage as well if that would heal that spiritual longing within myself; however, that pilgrimage would be to see God's miraculous creations in this universe that do not include humanity or humanity's effects. The ideas of human beings regarding religion messed me up too badly for too many years. I am a product of the Bible Belt, of Evangelical Christianity, of Fear and Ignorance. Perhaps Timothy Egan can return to his spiritual background; I cannot and will not return to mine. I am still physically surrounded by it, and that is hard enough. I need God, but I do not need other people to tell me where to find him or her. I want to find him or her on my own and on my terms, not on the terms of organized religions.
13
I'm an Atheist and I'm amazed every day by things in this world.
I don't need spiritualism to be awestruck, amazed or humbled by the universe and our place in it.
Until someone can tell me what the spirit is, where it resides and what it's made of I'll have to take a pass.
I know there are those who will say I never gave a supposed god or spirits or angels etc.etc.etc. a fair shake and asked them to "speak" to me. They would be wrong.
Many years ago I asked numerous times for any god or gods to reveal themselves to me because I truly wanted to know them if they existed. Nothing ever happened and I moved on. Of course I was given the usual mumbo jumbo by those who claimed to "know" the supposed gods ways and they told me this god doesn't work on our time table or it's all about strange and mysterious ways...I tend to think the religious traditions and thought are something else.
In Yiddish there is an expression that loosely refers to things passed down from generation to generation but that aren't provable...It's called Bubbe - Meise. The loose translation in English would be fairy tales or old wives tales.
I hope I will continue to be amazed for whatever time I have left on this globe and I know I won't need to look anywhere else to experience it when it arrives.
40
@Magan : Do you have any idea just how many of those "old wives tales" science has validated? I don't know the exact number either, but I know it is more than a few. As for the spirit, I find it mystifying (as I do love) but have no doubt it exists. I personally also find paradox absolutely fascinating. And I wish you and all of us well on our journey.
4
@LJ Examples?
I find amazement and spirituality in the nature of things as they are, and as we come to understand them, or understand previously unknown aspects and levels of them.
That we share 92% to perhaps 98% of our DNA with different primates is astonishing to me.
That different plants and trees and animals can have as much as 60 to 80% of their DNA similar to homo sapiens, seems to tell us that life is connected without question.
That we have found Quarks and Higg's Boson's, and electrons, and gravitational waves is all wondrous.
But this knowledge can not fully explain how, or by what forces of the universe we are what we are. Lots we know and don't.
Man is a curious creature who seeks answers to the unknowns. Faith and religion have attempted to answer. Whether through elaborate mythology of ancient civilizations, or faith in the modern era.
I have never found the mythologies of the past or present convincing or soothing, save native spiritualities encountered on the 6 continents I have visited, which seem to always have wonderful relations to, and reverence for the land, and the life it provides.
So I am in the netherworld of atheistic-agnosticism, open to what I can understand, to what we can discover and learn.
And Stephen Colbert, whose wit, comedy,Intelligence I love, can politely and with respect, get stuffed for such a blanket condemnation.
18
Thank you, Tim for sharing some of your pilgrimage with us. I too, am a cradle Catholic and I left the RCC just a few years ago, after a lifetime of being very Catholic and very enmeshed. What finally got me was the stubborn march towards orthodoxy by the conservatives wanting to return to pre-Vatican II days and the sexual abuse and subsequent cover up of the abuse of both children and women through the centuries.
Most of our family which have been Roman Catholic for generations is no longer active in the church. However, I consider myself very close to the Divine, the Holy Spirit...God. There’s a difference between religiosity and spirituality. My experience of the Sacred, takes place everywhere and anywhere, forests, kayaks, hikes in the desert or mountains...etc.,etc. I still know many wonderful priests, who I call friends, but do not attend Mass nor tithe. Though recently at a friend’s mother’s funeral, I was in tears during the Eucharist, I do miss it dearly.
Thanks again, Tim, will look up your book. Blessings of peace to you!
7
I took a walk today on a brilliant, beautiful autumn day in Vermont and the natural world was, as Egan says, "amazing". No higher consciousness necessary to explain it, just millions of years of evolution.
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@MKlik
Exactly. So it's not true that "atheism has trouble telling a story." Atheism has many great stories to tell.
17
Atheism is not without a powerful narrative, nor does it lack a story of courage in the face of social conformity and ostracism. Buddhism is a story of inquiry into the nature of reality, a deeply spiritual journey. It is not about subjugation to a Divine figure, but rather an ethical system for relating to people and the natural world with deep respect and compassion. Thoughts without a thinker, spiritually without a fearsome God.
22
Simply wonderful Seattle neighbor Tim! As a scientist, Buddhist and someone who has walked with my wife on the Tuscan part of the Via Francegena, I strongly relate to your connection to what is wondrous and mysterious and the spiritual. Many scientists are curious and want to know more about what we don't understand about this world, that's why we're scientists, knowing as TS Eliot put it 'humility is endless.' Given how little we understand, it seems pretty unscientific for people like Dawkins and Hitchens to proclaim 'there is no God,' when in fact they don't know that. It's a hypothesis that can't be easily tested.
10
@Edward Clark
Neither can the "hypothesis" that there is a God be tested, of course, and given what we know now about the natural world it does not seem necessary to hypothesize a higher consciousness.
13
@MKlik
So you agree with my point about Dawkins and Hitchens, who also are making an unnecessary hypothesis?
1
@Edward Clark
It is impossible to disprove the existence of certain things. For example, there is no scientific way to conclusively prove there are no ghosts in the room in which I sit. Similarly, there is no way to disprove the existence of God.
Therefore, it is only reasonable that the question of God’s existence must be approached from the direction of positive proof.
Hitchen’s razor — "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence,” can also be dismissed without evidence. Dawkins and Hitchen’s aren’t much help.
Although it may seem a bit childish and less than scientific, the best test I’ve come up with is this:
Look up into the night sky.
Call out, “God! If you’re there, if you care about me, say something.”
Wait for a while.
Then yell, “Why in the world are you hiding? Do you think this is funny?”
If you get no answer. No matter how many times you try. Assume there is no God.
1
Thanks to Mr. Egan for this balanced and beautiful description of a religious pilgrimage. One of the 20th Century's most famous (and infamous) atheists, Antony Flew, described how his rejection of atheism was "a pilgrimage of reason" [this is the title of the 4th chapter of his book, There Is A God]. Egan will, of course, be subjected to the ridicule of militant atheists who neither possess the intellectual brilliance of Flew nor his integrity in the face of facts about the universe. Alas, turn off the phone and don't bother with Twitterdom's responses.
5
@M.Bledsoe
Please provide your evidence for a belief in god. It is based on faith, which is a term for wishful thinking. Religion has been a major source of human misery. Do you think Jesus would have supported religious wars?
6
@JSK
Would Jesus have supported ANYTHING our current president does? Not that I can think of.
1
beautiful piece, thank you. I agree w the search for soul but for me, as a woman, it's not in organized religion... I find it instead in music, dance, nature, poetry, just the inhaling and exhaling of all that is so miraculous in "this brief transit where the dreams cross..." To find peace, grace, equanimity..."even among these rocks," a refuge against the chaos of these times...
13
I admire Timothy Egan's spiritual pilgrimage to search of a loving god. It can be a difficult quest.
When I want to see evidence of evil, and the work of the devil, the search is much easier, only having to look at anything emanating from the current occupant of the White House.
21
It’s interesting that you end with a reference to Christopher Hitchens, who, like the other neo-atheists, not only threw all organized religion under the bus, but would never even acknowledge the reality of personal religious experience, a direct relationship with the sacred, and always a mystery. It sounds like that is what you were after. Good for you and I wish you and all pilgrims well as you continue your journey.
7
why Christianity?...there are thousands of religions, and hundreds of pilgrimages...most (all?) claiming to be the one, true faith (and many dismissing (or hating) a religion not their own...I agree with the number of comments here that suggest one can be a spiritual being, and embrace an ethical, human life without the trapping of any organized religion, or a need for "God"...one can allow oneself to "be amazed" as you say in your last sentence, Mr. Egan, but it does not have to lead to a "case for God", but it can lead to a deeply peaceful, spiritual experience...
26
@Jim
In Egan's case, the answer to "Why Christianity?" is simple: It is the faith into which he was indoctrinated as a child. Had he been raised Hindu, then become an atheist, his late-in-life — and dare I say, cliched — return to faith would have pointed him to Hinduism.
This is among the many powerful pieces of evidence that religious belief is cultural and man-made, rather than the product of some unseen, unproven supernatural force.
@Jim religions faith is transmitted through family. Had he been born in another place (perhaps the Middle East or Indonesia), instead of the words Christian, he would be doing the Hajj. He needs a faith and a deity to believe in.
"But for many of us, malnutrition of the soul is a plague of modern life." Instead of malnutrition of the soul, it seems more that the wellspring has been poisoned. "Deep walking" takes many forms, on many paths, both physically and mentally.
Beautiful column, Timothy Egan, thank you.
13
Mr. Egan, I too lost a daughter and like your sister, only God could heal my deep pain. It made me realize that there has to be a being bigger than us, because in the final analysis, we are here today and gone tomorrow.
11
It’s interesting that you end with a reference to Christopher Hitchens, who, like the other neo-atheists, not only threw all organized religion under the bus, but would never even acknowledge the reality of personal religious experience, a direct relationship with the sacred, and always a mystery. It sounds like that is what you were after. Good for you and I wish you and all pilgrims well as you continue your journey.
4
Agree with your comment, with the exception of “organized religion” Hitchens was right to through it under the bus. Way too much evil has been done by organized religion, namely the Roman Catholic Church.
There is a general assumption that the true path to faith and spirituality is through membership in organized religion. But many people find their path to faith and spirituality outside of organized religion, and there is no reason to assume that their spiritual discoveries and articles of faith are inferior to those of people who chose to become congregants.
28
I do not agree with any part of this article. For me to believe it I must believe that there is an essential part of a human being which exists outside the laws of biochemistry, quantum mechanics and general relativity. The brain is a physical organ which functions entirely within the laws of physics, biology and chemistry. If we feel spirituality it is because those laws are consistent with that feeling or cause that feeling. That the human brain is so complex that physics, medicine and other natural sciences are so far away from possibly understanding it; that does not mean that what we cannot understand today is not capable of understanding. In 1900, nobody understood general relativity nor quantum mechanics. Yet today if they were not true, in the sense of reflecting reality ( and not Kellyanne's alternate reality) nobody would have a GPS on their smartphone. This is not a pessimistic view of humanity. It is the opposite. Look at how much more humanity still has to discover.
30
Understanding the universe, and our place in it, is like explaining the internal combustion engine to an earthworm.
Somehow we (in our arrogance) believe our brains have evolved far enough to comprehend the universe and our place in it. So, to do that, we have invented religion.
But religion has evolved to be as different as Republicans are from Democrats. One view of religion is RULES RULES RULES. The other view is love.
My father was a pastor. His main idea was that the meaning of Jesus was that it was possible to have a good life on earth, through love. It was not an emphasis on RULES RULES RULES (p.s. which basically means RULES for other people, not you).
So I agree with Egan. Spiritual people, who believe in the power of love as their spirituality, are the kind of people I want to be around. Just like I want to be around my father, even though he is now deceased. When he preached, he filled the church. I miss him terribly.
20
I am a practicing Irish Catholic who takes my faith seriously. I went to the noon Mass today at a beautiful upper east side Church founded by a French congregation in the mid 1800s. As I was praying, I closed my eyes and for a moment was transported back to France. It made me think of Lourdes, a pilgrimage site that I have visited twice and has over 6 million people making the pilgrimage every year. It is a beautiful place in a gorgeous setting. The devout who attend are a site to behold. Their deep faith is contagious.
Faith makes everything possible. For me it is absolutely necessary. It helps one when the chips are down and things seem hopeless. It is my refuge and strength. I know with God in my life things will turn out all right in the end. He is never far away but you must believe in him.
I thank my devout Catholic relatives and especially my parents for passing down their faith to me. I saw how it sustained them in times of sickness and despair. My parents had their problems like the rest of mankind but with God at their side things eventually turned around and life was good again. I can still hear my deceased mother telling me "put your trust in God." My parents were not religious zealots but people of deep faith who not only talked the talk but walked the walk. I will never force my religious beliefs on anyone but neither will I ever abandon my Catholic religion. It is who I am. It is the greatest gift I have been given.
16
That’s wonderful that religion is what you need. However, there are many of us who find God everywhere without the rules, regulations and dogma. Please don’t limit God, God is everywhere and God is Love. Many of us, do not need to be a in beautiful church at noon Mass to experience the majesty, awesomeness of our Creator. This doesn’t diminish your experience.....nor ours.
Peace.
Mr. Egan,
Indeed we do not have all the answers. But I would much rather be on a scientific journey. And it is science that is not really scared to say we don't know everything. Religion much less so. As it is practiced by hundreds of millions, it most definitely claims to be the final word. Adherents of religion A are killing those of religion B even today. You don't see mathematicians doing that over the Axiom of Choice.
Secondly, I don't even know what the word "spiritual" means. It is just a sort of anodyne mumbo-jumbo that is made up to cover lack of understanding, when actually it has no meaning at all.
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@whaddoino
Although I agree with much of what you wrote, I cannot agree with the idea that “spiritual” is mumbo-jumbo.
As a boy, one of my uncles, a man who had survived 39 missions as a bombadier in the Army Air Corps in WWII, patiently explained to me what he meant when he said, “Loyalty above all else, except honor.”
Loyalty and honor have no substance. They cannot be seen or measured in scientific terms. They are intangible, yet very real.
Loyalty and honor are spiritual concepts.
Spiritualism does have meaning, at least it does to me. And my college degree is in mathematics.
7
@whaddoino
As a practicing scientist, I agree that scientists should be ready to say they don't about things, that even a well reasoned hypothesis is simply a 'best guess' and may be refuted. All the better reason to be open minded, not dismissive of people who believe in God. The fact that you don't know what 'spiritual' means does mean that others don't. My own definition is that the feeling of deep connectivity with all living and nonliving things is 'spiritual'; I've felt it while hiking among old growth cedars for instance.
6
@Tom W
Loyalty and honor are valuable but I might say that they are humanistic concepts - they arise out of our awareness as humans but they do not require the existence, or the belief in a higher consciousness.
8
That Mr. Egan finds beauty, wonder and spiritual nourishment in the stories religion tells—"a narrative about a force much greater than us"—is fine, but however comforting such stories are, it doesn't make them true.
It's hard for humans to grasp firmly the passage of time. Most hear that the Grand Canyon is seventy million years old, a few ticks in the age of the universe, and move on to the next tourist destination. Some, however, find awe in the natural world that equals that which the most fervent believers get from their faith.
If Mr. Egan hadn't had blind faith forced on him before he reached the age of reason, would his book be about faith or science?
30
Gee....does a story have to be true, in order to provide comfort? Many of the stories in Scripture have been passed down from one generation to the next, many are very worthwhile and offer us an insight into lessons learned, as well as humanity’s folly.
3
@Mari, yes, it helps if a story that purports to be the word of God, which is as many take it, is true and doesn't need to be taken on blind faith.
I can't recall a place in the Bible where it says it's stories are figurative, and to assume that it doesn't say that because it's a given is applying modern thinking to reasoning over two thousand years old.
It isn't that people today who don't take the Bible as truth are smarter than people of Biblical times, but they do know more thanks to twenty centuries of scientific endeavor.
1
@Mari
Would you rather base your life on true things, or things you find comforting?
This is a wonderful, moving column. Just one quibble: Europe is not the theological cradle of Christianity. It's a Eurocentric perspective, and misleading.
St. Paul was a Middle Easterner, as were any number of other early Christian thinkers. Athanasius, who roughed out the Nicene Creed (adopted in Asia Minor) and defined the New Testament canon, lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Augustine lived in North Africa.
Early Christianity, when the fundamental theology was established, was centered in an arc that ran from Alexandria through western Asia Minor. And I haven't mentioned Jesus of Nazareth, who never stepped foot in Europe.
100
@LetsBeCivil--Christianity was born in the Middle East, but it was Europe where it was able to grow and thrive in later centuries.
6
Correction: Augustine was a born Spaniard, he may have lived in North Africa but was very much a Spaniard!
@Susan Let's be honest - it also brought the Crusades, centuries-long religious wars, witch huntings (the real kind), and all sorts of intolerance and violence.
1
Faith, Hope, and Love. Thank you, Mr. Egan, for affirming us on the Spiritual Journey.
12
Egan, normally a dependable voice of reason, has this one backwards.
All knowledge is a matter of probability. All of it. We’re all on a sliding scale of agnosticism because we don’t know anything for sure. Stuff on one end of the scale seems very likely, like most of science. Stuff on the other end, like the existence of deities, seems very unlikely.
That’s not squishy. It’s honest.
If you’d like to nourish your soul, try the arts and nature. No belief required.
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@DC - you are basically right, but art and nature also imbibe of the spiritual, of which Egan writes. I have faith that ultimately science will explain the beauty of art and nature, and suspect the explanation will itself be beautiful, closing the circle.
7
@DC
This is true, but do you think any of the atheists commenting here would admit it?
Their faith based reasoning (see Paul Davies' Times article on science and faith) would be at home at Bob Jones' University when put beside your wonderfully accurate agnosticism.
1
@Don Salmon
I find most atheists to be very rational. If you provide solid evidence that proves the existence of supernatural gods, I will seriously consider it. But extraordinary assertions require extraordinary evidence.
8
Thanks Timothy Egan for a beautiful essay, from what sounds like a wonderful book. I am lapsed Irish Catholic, too, but despite all of the Church's woeful behavior, I still wonder about my soul, whether it is really there and unique, or just a product of bioelectrical energy. And I still appreciate how Catholic philosophy has evolved over the years, to the point where the Pope Francis encyclical Laudato si is the most powerful and lucidly argued takedown of out-of-control capitalism that I have ever seen.
"Spiritual beings"--that is so true, and Egan describes why that being is worth exploring. We've sought the spirit by searching from the inside out, the proverbial 40 days or the monastery. Like Mr. Egan's experience here, we also seek it in physical company with each other--walking together, for purpose or fun; marrying and welcoming children together; singing old songs; having festivals that got randy all on their own, olden times definitely not forgotten.
The only catechism I really believe in is the forgiveness of sin, and the community of the saints, not in heaven but the countless ones here on earth. That's enough for me but if all we do in the end is return to star dust, that's OK too. I think that many such beliefs would be welcome on Egan's pilgrimage, his walk of ideas, step by step with spiritual beings.
30
A resounding amen! Well said!
"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible, a miracle of sorts", Einstein'statement. Although I envy the, no doubt, memorable trip you took along the 'via crucis' road of christianity, spirituality need not be theistic at all, as we humans have a conscience (somehow, somewhere) that 'knows' right from wrong. As an agnostic, whether there is a God or not, is not for us humans to know, we just aren't that smart. But that does not mean we cannot find redemption in life by reflecting upon the joy life imparts on us, especially when it is shared among all living beings equitably (and yes, it includes humans too!)...while protecting mother Earth, that nurtures us and of which we are part of...even when we have to ride against the wind. So, we ought to agree on this, 'we are spiritual beings', as we try to uphold the truth, based on reality, reason based on evidence; and humility for the little we know...and the wisdom to know it.
21
I understand God to be omnipresent. God is in every particle of every atom that exists. God isn't a big beard in the sky or a vast spirit in heaven. God is in everything and of everything. This worldview makes God more mundane, practical, and miraculous in ways that people discount as 'every day stuff', like the transpiration of plants and the dance of the stars in the sky as they bob and spin in their courses -- each affecting, and affected, by each other. But if this isn't evidence of God, I don't know what is. Raising the dead and curing the blind seem small things by comparison.
40
@Art Likely I love what you have written here-- wondrous, amazing and divine.... the god that inhabits every particle of every atom that exists.
Thank you.
5
@Art Likely
Your description of god describes Mother Nature, the only true God. I can see, hear, smell, taste and touch Nature.
3
“Yet each mystery explained, as the science-loving Pope Francis would say, builds the case for God. It’s a case I came to understand, to feel it and see it, only after I’d allowed myself to be amazed.”
The problem is of course the Old Testament literalists who won’t dare let their children believe that the earth is any older than 10K years. Try teaching Biology to kids who have been taught from an early age to think that man in a primitive boat went all over the world and grabbed two of every living species. They quickly lose interest in entertaining any concept of evolution, which is absolutely necessary for higher level biological sciences.
I grew up in an evangelical church, and I had what I consider terrible science teachers in an Alabama public school. But now that I’m an educated adult who no longer attends an evangelical church, I understand that the science teachers probably weren’t as terrible as I remember. They were simply not pushing the envelope with parents who didn’t want their kids to be taught evolutionary biology.
How can we get these kids to love science? I didn’t love science until I got out from under the constraints of religion. I still believe in a Creator, but if I dare to say that I don’t believe the Noah story literally, I’m called a “fake Christian.“ This is what we’ve got to figure out how to combat. We will never have enough STEM graduates until we can teach kids that it’s possible to believe in science and a Creator at the same time.
29
@Corrie STEM graduates aren't the only ones who can believe in science and a Creator at the same time, though particle physicists do seem closer to it than pretty much anyone else.
10
@Hypatia great point. I think it’s sad that Bible literalists kill spirituality in children. One of my grandfathers was not a big churchgoer but he was a better man than pretty much anybody id ever known. He was honest and generous, and he always said it was better to sit in the woods or in a boat thinking about God than to sit in a church thinking about fishing. I was alway off in my own little world thinking about something else whenever I had to sit through sermons. Think of all the time wasted in evangelical churches that could be teaching kids how to be stewards of the environment by helping them develop a spiritual relationship with nature and therefore God. My mother got so mad at me when I told her that Bible school in the summertime was a waste of kids’ time if all they’re going to do is teach Noah’s Ark and a literal six day creation. But it’s true. These women get so bent out of shape about decorating for Bible school and meanwhile, we have some of the lowest Science test scores in the nation. My mother is the type of person who thinks that a front row parking place at Wal-Mart is “the favor of the Lord.” It’s maddening. Never mind all three starving kids in the world if you get a front row parking spot, right? That kind of belief system truly does kill spirituality. kills science, kills creativity, kills spirituality. All for the sake of what? They don’t even know...
12
@Corrie --As an English teacher I like to combine the stories of faith with scientific reason. For example, I like to think of the biblical creation story (and every culture has them), as a metaphor for the time period in which we left the animal kingdom and developed whatever capabilities rendered us "human," or a separate species from the primates from which we evolved. That sure makes more sense for me than a talking snake offering some lonely lady named Eve an apple.
The Christmas story is also a beautiful metaphor--a homeless family consisting of an unmarried pregnant woman and boyfriend, (who claims not to be the father of her child), are unwanted and rejected by society (still familiar), give birth in a barn or shed among the animals, but end up revered, the baby admired by "3 wise men," or "3 kings," depending on the story. Out of poverty is born greatness. That's still a story worth telling.
It's in these ways that I reconcile science with faith. All faiths have fascinating stories, designed to teach lessons or impart wisdom, or morals or guidance of one sort or another. Too bad so many people concentrate on the dogma of religion rather than on the stories, thereby losing the beauty and the real essence of spirituality within scriptures. Humans love stories and ritual, music and beauty. Faiths around the world all have these in common--it's the dogma and hate humans have inserted into religions that make them so suspect.
6
Thank you for the powerful telling of your spiritual journey.
Religion, with its dogma, doctrines and divisiveness, is certainly not for everyone, and can be used dangerously.
Still, many of us long to see that there is a deeper purpose to our existence outside of our individual lives. However anyone identifies that meaning, whether or not with a faith group, is an endeavor worth going through.
24
Spirituality is a word that was confiscated by religion. Spiritually is a feeling that has nothing to do with a deity.
We all have that feeling of a swirling cup of emotional coffee blending amazement, beauty, peace and contentment. I do not believe that it is merely a human recognition. I believe it is a commonality of all animals that have the luxury time of reflection. I have seen in in the eyes of dogs, and the purr of cats.
I hope someday to feel it in the swaying of a tree.
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@Bob Woods
Well and beautifully stated, Bob.
The spiritualism I would embrace surrounds me, it is based in things visible, real and of infinite value.
One of the truly great Americans of the 20th century explained meaningful spiritualism in these sweet words:
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces
Of the people passing by.
I see friends, shaking hands
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying
“I love you.”
—from WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
by Louis Armstrong
90
@Tom W Thank you for that comment, I found the swaying trees at the Black Butte Ranch deep in the Deschutes forest, while I drank my Coava coffee.
1
Walking itself is plenty spiritual on its own. It reminds the mind there is a body and vice-versa. Walking makes me feel like telling religion to go take a hike.
239
@Elliot Silberberg Me too. Walking is wonderful, and music, as well. Never religious, we took our children to a local Methodist Church because my mother suggested it would inoculate them against fundamentalism. It did. When we began, the church had a great pianist and a great choir director who did amazing things. I attended once on my own after they'd both gone. After an hour of hymns that had me wanting to bang my head against the pew, I got into my car to be transported by Tiny Dancer on the radio. That was it for me.
26
@Boris and Natasha--The day after my 6-year-old came home from an overnight, having been to church with his friend, I began looking for the Church of Secular Humanism. Which didn't exist. He said Matthew's mom had told him he could take God into his heart and it could be a secret between him and her. So the next Sunday, and for six or so years or Sundays afterward, we were at the local Congregational (UCC) Church. Then one day when he was in 7th grade his dad wanted us to spend Mother's Day on a bird walk at a wildlife refuge, and that was the end of that. And he was inoculated.
12
Ha!
1
I am about 70 pages into Mr. Egan's book. A full-throated atheist for many decades with a fascination at least as long with medieval architecture, saints' lives, and the monastic life, I am loving it. Wonderfully written, wonderfully observed, bringing together history, literature, doubt, belief, skepticism and seeking. This column is a bit of a spoiler, as as I have been taking his journey with him, without knowing exactly where he will end up. Nevertheless, a thoughtful, open-hearted adventure of body and spirit.
29
@MidwesternReader--Thanks for this. I love his writing and have read his books, but was going to skip this one. Maybe I'll get it from the library.
1
This is a moving article that resonates with me. I performed the Hajj – the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca - in 2002. ) I had meant to perform it earlier, but one thing or another always came up, suggesting that my intention was perhaps flawed. Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Terrorists claiming Islam as guidance struck the United States, taking 3,000 innocent lives. The attacks brought rage, resolve and a vivid sense of mortality. Life, we learned anew, was fleeting. Be grateful for what you have - health, family, freedom. Fulfill your obligations before it's too late. The events of Sept. 11 injected an urgency into my desire for pilgrimage. I had to travel to the birthplace of Islam to understand what my faith meant to me and how I, as a moderate Muslim, could help reclaim it from my radical co-religionists. Nothing less than the soul of Islam was at stake. It was a transcendent experience when I beheld the Ka’ba for the first time, a 40-foot high cubical structure of stone covered with black brocade in the center of an open courtyard inside the main mosque. For 50 years, I had oriented myself in its direction, and now it was in front of me! For 10 days, we prayed and performed the rituals, affirming the centrality of God in our lives. The pilgrimage changed me, and I know I am better for it. But I also know that spiritual renewal requires continuing effort because of inevitable human lapses.
82
@Hasan Z Rahim: Beautiful comment. As a Christian, my spiritual journey has likewise been to help reclaim my religion from radical co-religionists. Well put.
1
Thank you, Mr. Egan, for taking the time to put aside your skepticism, for taking a walk, and for telling us your story. I sit here in amazement at the clarity, beauty, and importance of your writing - all of your writing.
52
Religion, faith, god and spirituality are different things to different people. Nice that Mr. Egan can afford such trips. I might suggest another cure might start with a living wage for more people. After they have enough to eat, they can consider their souls. But I digress.
I believe we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Churches are structures to help us relate our experiences to our spirits, but each church offers different viewpoints, as well as a social structure, and no one size fits all. They are still creations of man, so are imperfect by that.
We each relate to our god in our own way. Some in groups, some alone, but each of our relationships with god is unique, as we are unique, as every thing in this universe is unique, as every second of existence is unique.
I was raised Catholic, but now identify as Unitarian, more flexible. Jesus says to "Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to god that which is god's". My relationship is with god. Every church belongs to this world, hence is "caesar's". What happens on Earth, stays on Earth. What happens in us, goes to god, including the good and bad we generated in our lives.
Have fun. Life is short.
30
@gratis Nice, and thanks. I'm Lutheran, and a retired scientist (happy based on all three of the above). Maybe, someday there will be no remaining mysteries, but I doubt it. I'm still active doing science, and I'm humbled daily (or every minute or two if the problem is hard) by the limitations of this "meatball computer" lodged between my ears. Given our accomplishments in science and philosophy, it's tempting to think that we can someday know all, or almost all. Fine, maybe... but science can only inform us on what, and how (in the context of mechanism = "how does it work?"), and also how much, how fast, etc. Science is, however, not particularly useful addressing in-the-moment questions of right and wrong, inequality, hunger, cruelty. Science has nothing to say about welcoming the stranger or helping the least of these.
17
Love is unreasonable. I like reason, but reason doesn't feed the heart. Love can't be measured. It doesn't have weight or circumference. Yet it is real, more intimately real than reason. Love can't be measured, but it should be the yardstick by which we measure religion.
69
A meaningful pilgrimage does not require religion. I've been thinking a lot lately about a pilgrimage to Concord, the land of Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne. It would be a way to celebrate the best that human beings have to offer: creativity, wisdom, and an appreciation of the earth. No need for superstition or a belief in anything other than the good that all of us can do right now, right here.
207
@Joe,
Good comment, Joe. Lately I've been thinking about what made my father's generation (the WWII "greatest generation) so attuned to honor, courage, and duty. Maybe part of it is that they studied the American 19th century romanticists like Emerson and Thoreau in depth. My elders in that generation were always quoting them, and it seemed they had a personal ballast that inspires me still,
28
@Joe
Remember that Emerson was a Transcendentalist who borrowed a lot of his philosophy from Hindu and Buddhist teachings.
A big problem we have today is the idea of a personified God, someone who looks like Zeus sitting in judgement.
Doesn't have to be that way.
I find that being an atheist makes me more, not less, appreciative of the beauty and wonder of the natural world. It’s all we have and it’s all amazing.
346
@J.G. absolutely me too!
I understand and appreciate that believing in a fairy tale gives many people a vital psychological bridge allowing them to pass over the choppier waters of life.
Ditto that religious institutions and congregations often are very important positive community resources - often the only and/or the best in particular areas and/or for particular people.
Ditto that many religious people act on their faith to do many wonderful generous things.
And I believe whatever floats your boat is good as long as it does more good than harm.
And I accept that what works for me may not for another.
But I a schooled devout RC as a young man realized things that comport with reality are much more useful and truly wondrous than fairy tales - MUCH MORE.
And also to believe in and worse promote things that do not comport with reality would make me an immoral dishonest person.
Frankly if there is a god and a judgement I believe the atheists will fair better. Not because they are better people. That is not my point.
But because any god who gave us such wonderful brains to discover and act on truth would frown on the misuse of them.
Frown on taking the easy fairy tale route.
Hey this god hides for a reason - I think not to test our faith but to test our use of the gifts of reason, curiosity, and innovation! And our intellectual honesty!
Think about that!
9
@IAmANobody You are mistaken to think that people who participate in religions or spiritual practices have accepted fairy tales. Some have, but many would agree with you that "things that comport with reality are much more useful and truly wondrous than fairy tales." For them, their spiritual search is a search for truth--one that does not discount the nonphysical or seemingly miraculous, as atheist beliefs do.
3
Beautiful and reflective column. I don’t think westerners have necessarily turned away from spirituality. I believe the spiritual message of all traditions must be reinterpreted to become intelligible once again to the changes of culture that evolve as the centuries pass. In Catholic Christianity it’s happening before our eyes as Francis reinterprets the essence Christian spirituality after centuries of rigid adherence to mere “rules.” Jesus fought against the empty rule book of Judaism in his own life. He distilled it down to Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
54
My wife and I are amateur genealogists. She is of French Canadian descent on both sides. On our last visit to France we were able to visit 40 churches throughout France. Brittany, Normandy, Charente-Maritime, and Maine-et-Loire.
It was in Saumur, the church of Notre Dame-Nantilly where we met Brigitte, she took us on a tour and while showing us around she asked why we were there. My wife explained our reason for the visit. Brigitte replied, oh, your on a pilgrimage. Never thought of it that way but nice to hear.
We have visited 87 churches, from Paris to little villages like Chapelle-Baton. There are baptism fonts in many, and they date back 100's of years and were likely where many of my wife's ancestor were baptized.
Thank you Timothy for the article.
20
"Atheism has trouble telling a story." I disagree. Starting with Darwin, and up through all the scientists and nature writers who find in the extant world both mystery and beauty.
374
@AKS - I was just about to write this very comment myself (words to the effect of)! There are few stories more beautiful than the story of evolution.
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@AKS Absolutely. I have long wondered if people who come to some sort of god belief later in life *must* have been raised with it as children. When I've had believers ask me why I am atheist, I tell them the truth, I was always so and just came to understand what it was called.
And I am with those who find solace and meaning in the natural world and animals and for me, in the better behavior or people. The not-ego. Beauty and courage.
Yeah, we don't have any beautiful buildings for those things but we believe all the same.
Egan's writing is really beautiful here. It doesn't speak to me in meaning but in beauty and longing.
Someone once told me I'd make a good monk. I thought it was because I want to live in not-ego and respect and stuff. But what she meant was, I keep adopting senior dogs and could make that my spiritual practice. But no, I just like having these dogs.
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@AKS
You do realize that the perception of beauty and mystery is not a scientifically based discovery.
It's irrelevant who the person is - there's absolutely no reason why a scientist, based on his training (I speak here as someone with scientific training) has any greater capacity for the perception of beauty and mystery than a non-scientist.
Given that the perception of beauty is at potentially odds with a purely quantitative analysis unless the qualitative is perceived, it might be said that - at least for some - the quantitative training could potentially represent an obstacle to aesthetic awareness and wonder.
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Like you, I was raised a Roman Catholic. I value what Jesus stood for in his life - love and non-violence and non-judgment. I'm not sure he rose from the dead. But I can accept him as a great teacher.
I left Roman Catholicism behind when I realized that as a woman I wasn't as valued as my brothers, that the image of God that Roman Catholicism presented and propped up was solely a male one. That if I were to give money to the church, I'd be supporting this patriarchy. That by sitting in mass, my being, my soul was being damaged.
Unless the Catholic Church changes its essential view of what a god is, unless it changes its laws to include women as priests, then I can never go back. It makes me a little sad sometimes.
But I'm amazed every day when I look at the stars or at my compost heap. And I don't need religion for that.
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@Kerry Girl
As a fellow cradle Catholic, I respect your views and agree that the gender views of our shared faith are archaic and unacceptable. I have a dear friend who studied many years to become a priest 35 years ago, but left the seminary one year before ordination due to the church's refusal to ordain women as priests. He simply could not reconcile that idea with his personal beliefs. He later became an Episcopalian priest.
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@Kerry Girl
I’ve spent the majority of my Career working at large Catholic Hospitals, mostly by chance/location. I’ve always thought that I would fit in very well with the Faith. EXCEPT: the treatment of Women, in most all aspects. I admire The Nuns, I’ve watched their work for decades and been impressed. Men Talk, Women DO.
Seriously.
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@Kerry Girl
If one reads the New Testament fully, it's undeniable that mixed in among Jesus' purported positive sayings (i.e. "Let him among you who is without sin cast the first stone" and "Love thy neighbor") are myriad acts and words of dubious moral value. Only those unfamiliar with the Bible, or those who have been trained to ignore the evidence in the text itself, can claim that Jesus, as presented there, is some kind of moral exemplar.
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I found this essay quite wonderful. Scientists and monks alike can marvel at the wonder and mysteries alive in nature-- one has only to look up at the night sky and proclaim, "Divine..."
I too find the pilgrim's road enticing. What is it that makes some adherents such true believers-- whether you are a Buddhist making a pilgrimage to the holy mountains of Tibet or to a sacred site in Mongolia.
But these sacred journeys-- searching for the divine-- does not mean the divine can be found in the organized religion of men.
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