A Message To Atheists

In a friendly spirit of debate, I've provided a few points for your consideration. I'm not so much interested in changing your mind, or "converting" you, as I am in making esoteric religion (as opposed to popular religion) understood. My feeling is that an atheist may be as close to "God" as anyone, and that the fundamental disagreement is perhaps semantic. The question is: Does anything deserve to be called holy; does anything deserve the name of "God", and do we have a right, or a reason, to make that judgement?

First, please understand when I say that, if we wish to know the truth about religion, the last person to ask is an atheist (just as we wouldn't think to ask a vegan how to broil a chicken), but, then, neither should we ask just any man on the street calling himself religious (or claiming to have the best recipe for broiling a chicken). Both methods would be equally ineffective. If possible, we must hear from someone with a depth of experience, someone who "speaks with authority", as the Gospel says of Jesus; in other words, a genuine mystic.

"If you want to know about the bamboo, go to the bamboo.
If you want to know about the pine, go to the pine." (~Basho)

The mystics tell us that mystical experiences, to be had at will, can only be achieved after many years of yogic meditation, or some other form of ascetic devotional practice; that mystical awareness is not cheaply had. So, by their own account, it is no wonder if the majority of us cast a casual eye around the place and say, "Where's God? I don't see God." But close your eyes. Look deeply within yourself. Be still, and you WILL be deeply stirred.

Religion is a symbolic expression of universal principles. Symbols can be profoundly meaningful, as they carry emotional content, and help us to tap into the kind of reverence which might lead a poet to call the world "magical", and for a mystic to call it "the work of God". Poetic license is only a more casual, less devotional, form of religious license. The inspiration of poets is fleeting, but the inspiration of mystics is without reservation. If this is true, then God is the ultimate affirmation; both in the sense of affirming its existence and in the sense of affirming its value.

With respect to the affirmation of existence, Marcel Proust, an agnostic, writes: "The atheist forgets that what he is affirming is, precisely, a negation." The affirmation of the atheist is to say that something does not exist, when all that can be argued is there is no evidence (or "negative evidence") for its existence. Of course, even this depends on having an appropriate definition of God, so that what is being negated is in fact God, and not merely a mistaken notion of God. But, if we define God as that which we affirm -- as that which, not only has existence, but has an even greater share of reality than all other things, -- then it would make no sense at all to say that we negate God. It would be a pure absurdity.

Now, with respect to the affirmation of value, one can only ask, "Is nothing in the universe so sublime as to be worthy of the name 'Holy'? Is nothing worthy of that affirmation? And is there nothing in the heart or the history of man capable of arousing a spirit of reverence in you? Can you not understand why anyone would give the name of 'God' to what is unnamable; unnamably perfect, good, universal, essential, primary and profound? Or why uniting these various things under a single head, and using that as a focal point, might be beneficial for the tuning of the moral compass; the 'soul'? Or how a person could feel and see themselves united, through their love for all creation, to all creation; and, therefore, in some sense, immortal?"

Those who have ears to hear this, will hear it, and those who do not will have a different path to walk. I do not wish to judge anyone, but I cannot help wondering is an atheistic inclination, perhaps, says more about one's own lack of "religious feeling", than about the lack of sanctity in life.

For mystics, it is an attitude; an inner truth; the highest affirmation of life. The fact that it is subjective is not an argument against its deeper reality, but a testament to the unquantifiable nature of direct experience.

"God is and is not." (~Upanishads)