Religion, Spirituality, and Atheism

As a religious studies major in Denmark, one of the most atheist countries, I get a lot of questions such as: “why would you study religion?”

“What do you want to do with a degree in religion?” “Are you religious?”

“Why are there so many religious wars?”

“Does it bother you that no one here is religious?”

“Why would you want to come here to study religion?”

Those from the States ask basically the same questions but typically also tell me their religious background and then want me to tell them what I think of it. My theory is that so many people I run into want to talk about religion because our cultures don’t often give us the space to confess our religious questions and, maybe because I study religion, I create that space. I really have no idea, but talking about religion is something I really enjoy and I do hope the questions don’t stop.

Recently I was assigned to write a short entry on religion, spirituality, and atheism. Basically I had to create my own definitions for these words and say how they relate. Because I get so many questions about my ideas on religion, I figured I should just share them with all of you. So, this is really more about my take on the philosophies and etymology of religious words than my take on religion itself. Hope you enjoy!

In my experience, one of the hardest things to do in a religion course is to make sure everyone has the same working understandings of key words. My SRA and I were talking about religion the other day and the conversation was going nowhere until I asked him how he defined religion. For him, a religion was a superficial belief. Because I see religion in a very different way the two of us were unable to have a conversation until we pinpointed our differences in understanding and agreed on a way to better talk about what we were trying to articulate earlier.

For me, a religion is a ritualistic expression of beliefs, values, or experiences that, through play, reworks the laws of one’s reality and alters one’s conscious state. Religion, through the use of rituals, creates a play sphere in which the unarticulative conundrums of our human experiences are brought to life through art, music, myth, communities, symbols, teachings, and language. Religion is a life giving force that allows communities to witness their spiritualties on display.

Spirituality differs from religion in that it is the receptive force of the unarticulative conundrums, rather than the broadcasting force. It is often an inner struggle between the questioning and acceptance of the Mysteries and the experience one has with them. The spiritual person has experiences with non-understandables while the religious person expresses such experiences.

Through these definitions, a god does not need to be present or believed in order for religion or spirituality to take place. I am in full agreement with Dworkin when he said, “the value part [of orthodox godly religion] does not depend - cannot depend - on any god’s existence or history.” Atheism is the belief that there is no god and an identity that says very little about one’s religion or spirituality. Some atheists may use the word “god” as a metaphor for what God has come to symbolize in culture without actually believing in one. Atheists may be just as religious or spiritual as believers. It is a small differentiation that separates them.

I have never known much about another’s religion or spirituality based on their belief or non-belief of a god. This is mainly because when a believer or non-believer says “god”, I usually have no idea what they are talking about. God can mean many things to many different people. The confined image of an old man in the sky is a dying representation for many of the theists and atheists I have spoke to, I may add.

I think Dworkin nicely articulates this point on the irrelativity of a god in his closing statement, “What divides godly and godless religion - the science of godly religion - is not as important as the faith in value that unites them.”