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 Ryan Bell's "year without God" experiment has drawn a wealth of comments, from scornful to supportive.
January 14th, 2014
01:20 PM ET
Can you really 'try on' atheism for a year?By Daniel Burke, Belief Blog Co-editor (CNN) - Ryan Bell, a one-time Christian pastor, says he didn't expect his yearlong experiment with atheism to get much attention. "This wasn't intended to be an international journey that was done in public," he told CNN's Brooke Baldwin last Wednesday. But what began as Bell's personal project has now been covered by NPR, the BBC, Religion News Service, and, of course, here at CNN. READ MORE: Pastor tries atheism, loses jobs, gains $19,000 It's not just the mainstream media that are along for the ride, either. Dozens of blogs and columnists have weighed in on Bell's "Year Without God," with responses ranging from support to skepticism to scorn. Sikivu Hutchinson, a writer who has criticized the lack of racial diversity in the the atheist community, called Bell's foray into atheism "secular tourism." "Bell joins a jam-packed, largely white, mostly Christian cottage industry of religious leaders who are capitalizing off of untapped reserves of atheist dollars, adulation and publicity by jumping onto the 'maverick ex-pastor' bandwagon," Hutchinson wrote in a recent blog post. PZ Myers, an American scientist and prolific blogger on atheism, echoed Hutchinson's comments, and called Bell's experiment "simply ridiculous." "It’s not a set of superficial practices, it’s a mindset," Myers said of atheism. "What’s he going to do at the end of the year, erase his brain?" Since the responses have been so varied - and so interesting - we wanted to know what other thinkers and scholars have to say about Bell's experiment with atheism. In short, we asked a whole bunch of smart folks if it's really possible to "try" atheism for a year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we got a wide variety of answers (The old adage about "three rabbis, four opinions" seems to apply to atheists as well.) Some of these submissions have been edited for length and clarity. Catherine Dunphy, executive director of The Clergy Project It would be accurate to say that some of our members tried similar experiments, though in a much less public fashion and for a shorter period of time before leaving their faith. For myself, it was in stages. First, I decided to just stop praying and see what would happen. Then I stopped going to church, and finally I decided that the idea of God just didn't make sense. It was like learning to swim with "water wings." Eventually I realized I could float all by myself. Testing the atheism waters, is in many ways an intellectual process but it is also intrinsically linked to emotion. God is often seen as a surrogate parent, a protector, a supporter. Untangling oneself from this type of over arching narrative is never easy. Bell should be applauded for his attempt to ask the hard questions. Whether he'll be a theist or atheist on the other side of this journey, I don't know. But it is a good thing that he is wondering. Penny Edgell, sociology professor, University of Minnesota What Bell is doing makes a sense if you remember that it is through daily practice that we become the people we are. Meditation, daily prayers and devotions ... these are how people become Christian, Muslim, a believer of any kind. And it's not just religion; there are all kinds of practical, self-help guides to being a better mom, a better husband, a more passionate lover, etc., all of which focus on doing the things that a better mom, husband, or lover would do until you a) feel more momly, husbandly, loverly feelings and b) it becomes a habit to act in the appropriate role-enhancing way. So there is no reason to be skeptical about Bell's experiment. Quite the opposite - it may work, and more profoundly than he anticipates. A year is a long time, and if he really spends that year doing the things an atheist would do, he may not only act like an atheist, but feel like one, and in that union of action and feeling, find that he has become one. Paul Fidalgo, spokesman, Center for Inquiry I think there is at least potential for profound personal and political implications to the discoveries Bell may make in his experiment. Many people in times of crisis put a great deal of hope in the idea that God will come through, or execute a plan that makes sense of it all. But what happens when the mental and emotional energy that goes into prayer and wishing were put toward something more concrete? Bell’s experiment won’t settle the religion-versus-nonreligion debate by any stretch of the imagination. But he might help us to understand what powers we sacrifice when we spend less of ourselves on entreaties to an unknowable being, and direct those energies toward dealing with the real world, as it is, right now. Dale McGowan, author of "Parenting Beyond Belief" and "Atheism for Dummies" Trying atheism is not only possible, it’s a very common step out of religious belief. The comedian and author Julia Sweeney called it “putting on the No-God glasses” to see what the world looks like when you stop assuming a god is running things. A lot depends on how serious and honest someone is in the experiment. There’s a tendency to scramble back to old explanations at the first snap of a twig or the first feeling of wonder. But those whose will to know is stronger than the will to believe usually find their way out. And when they do, the most common emotion they describe isn’t the anguish and despair they were told to expect — it’s freedom and relief. Dave Muscato, spokesman, American Atheists I think what Ryan Bell is doing is a great thing. It's important to try to see other points of view so that you can have a better understanding of why other people don't believe the same things that you do. I don't think it's quite possible to try on the absence of belief the way he's intending to, though. If Bell has made the choice to drop faith in superstition in favor of what the evidence shows, then he can understand the atheist experience. If he is holding on, he's not doing what an atheist does. He's simply not practicing his religion. I would say that a better name for this would be a lapsed Christian, not an atheist. An atheist is an active role, not a passive one. We don't simply stop reading the Bible and stop praying and stop going to church. We love the process of learning and exploring answers. Instead of resorting to "God did it," atheists are comfortable saying "I don't know, but I'm going to find out." That's where the fun starts; it means we're on the right path to finding the real answers to our questions. David Myers, professor of psychology, Hope College In my book, "A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists," I quote the Christian author C. S. Lewis: "Believe in God and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that this material world is the only reality; disbelieve in Him and you must face hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is not all. No conviction, religious or irreligious, will, of itself, end once and for all [these doubts] in the soul. Only the practice of Faith resulting in the habit of Faith will gradually do that.” Indeed, psychological science confirms that attitudes and beliefs tend to follow behavior. Act as if you believe—or don’t—and in time your beliefs may shift toward your actions. Mitchell Stephens, author, "Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World" I admit to being uncomfortable with the notion of “trying” atheism. Can you try to have a conviction? And atheism, unlike religion, is not something that is simply accepted on faith. It presumes to be the result of reasoning and investigation. Limiting the experiment to a year also seems a bit artificial: that reasoning and investigation should never end. Perhaps by “trying,” however, Bell means allowing yourself to be open to arguments that challenge your convictions. That certainly is noble. And the reading list of atheists and some of the West’s great questioners Bell has assigned himself is impressive. I would hope that nonbelievers would be as eager to confront the ideas of Kierkegaard or Dostoevsky. Doubt, too, is noble. Surely, there is enough of it recorded in the gospels. Bell deserves credit for exploring rather than suppressing his doubts. He seems a thoughtful and courageous man. It is easy to imagine this being a rich and rewarding year – or lifetime. It is a shame that some of Bell’s co-religionists are not better able to tolerate this exercise in openness and doubt. Perhaps that is one of the limitations of resting convictions upon faith rather than reasoning and investigation. Merold Westphal, philosophy professor, Fordham University I think it is possible to "try" either atheistic unbelief or theistic belief to see if it "fits" in the sense of doing the practices that go with the position - praying or not praying, going to church or not going to church, reading the Bible or not reading the Bible, etc. But I very much doubt that it is possible to suspend belief in the sense Bell suggested. We do get caught up in the world of a movie and feel, for example, real anxiety. But then someone coughs or talks and we remember that what we are watching and hearing is fiction and the real world is the one where I'm sitting in a theater. We haven't ceased to believe, and the sense in which we have temporarily suspended belief (for an hour or two, not for a year) depends on powerful external aids. I'm not sure ceasing the practices of faith can have the same result, especially over so long a time. Lauren Anderson Youngblood, spokesperson, Secular Coalition for America I'm not exactly sure how you would "try" it, because atheism is not a religion with rituals and obligations (attending church, fasting, not eating pork, etc). Either you believe or don't believe. If you're on the fence, I would say you're an agnostic, not "trying" atheism.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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This is absurd. How do you "try out" atheism ? As a non-believer there is no way I could try out believing in god any more than I could Santa Claus. For me, belief in god simply isn't there and never has been.
If there really is a just god running the universe, only atheists will get into heaven.
Much truth, beauty and wisdom will come to those who believe the world we live in is a real thing
Yep! Reality matters.. to everyone except die hard religious nuts.
Yup. To the USA religious, this beautiful world isn't good enough for them. But they don't want to sacrifice their all to make it better for everyone, fix the many man-made problems, or just keep it up.
They expect they can leave all the garbage behind, becaase some some god or other will just take them onto something clean, warm and perfect, for the rest of eternity, just for living here and worshipping instead for around 70 years
Tony,
Furthermore, they can, and do, point to the Bible for justification of their horrible environmental stances and practices. Here's one example below, and he's not alone. You can find other congressmen saying similar things. The Bible enables people to ignore hard scientific findings in favor of delusions that just happen to dovetail nicely with the interests of oil companies. What's ironic, is that the very oil they want to drill for disproves the very noah/flood myths they are citing as evidence that it's good with God to do this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7h08RDYA5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7h08RDYA5E
Religion is taught, not something that just appears .....like God? I am an atheist who in my formative years was made to go church every Sunday. I hated it. I know I wasn't alone in my thinking. I stopped going to church when I was 17 and moved out of my parents house. If I was to stay there I had to abide by their rules ....meaning attending church. Okay if I'm not paying rent , that's fair enough ( i don't have to believe ). After I moved out I was scorned for not going to church. I told my parents that I was an atheist, and for that they would not speak or have anything to do with me, how sad I thought. I told them I loved them, and that I did not need god to so. I just loved them. I told them that I thought they raised me to think for myself. Apparently not. The moral of the story is does religion give you morals? If you don't believe in god then your an outcast ..this is the hypocrisy of religion.
That is all.
so is faith/hhari/bethany, etc
it seems that most contributors in the posting of the comments in this blog are Americans,since this is a U.S. based C N N produced blog,correct me if I am wrong,my observations that maybe because of the culture of freedom and enterprising character of the people and the opulence ,abundance of opportunities,you feel free to express your displeasure of the growing irrelevance of religious influenced conscience that rely on mythical or non scientific belief in the doctrines or teachings of the church that dated back to biblical times.This I think is the atheist perspective.But we Asians ,especially here in the Phillipines,where 90 percent are christians,we pin our hopes in God,Wether we will be heading towards social and economic and political failure in the future is my personal concern,so I found solace that there exist an educationsl and informational source of wisdom here.
You are so right.
Atheism is stupid if you want to give the impression of "superior goodness" to your neighbors by being seen just regularly attending a church
Atheism is not stupid. Atheism is reserved for pragmatic realists. Believing is a ancient fabrication pseudo-science/government is stupid.
Your comment shows how simple-minded you are. Saved people are the biggest hypocrites
Stupid depends on your goal. If the goal is a sense of security and not feeling alone, is it stupid to belive a baseless myth that offers these?
Certainly a goal can be a dead end. I am not so laissez faire about what people think and do that I'm willing to see people dope themselves into feeling safe and secure when they are not, and when there are people who depend on them. I will criticise them.
the merging or fusion of all intellectual discoures is needed now in our times ,aided by the internet,information is free,This phenomena is just at its infancy stage so we the netizens born in this historical time is task to initiate this process.I am just suggestimg that we should not forget our responsibility to think of solutions to the perenial problems of humanity.Discussions on atheism and religion is only part of the solution in finding the future faith that will provide us the kind of conscience that will shift us to humanism,We shall find the middle ground of atheism and theism because that is the only natural and logical way of progress.
How can there ever be a middle ground between believing in a god and not believing in a god?
My goodness. How is hos old parish going to manage without a year's worth of collectionofferrings from him?
Will the pastor take a cut in income?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApUAO2XdYGg
I don't know if atheism is something you do to "try" it. I think when I first was at that point I may have "thought" I was trying something but the reality is I just hit a philosophical wall and couldn't find any more ways that I could prove there was anything. That being said I don't consider myself an atheist I consider myself an agnostic/skeptic.
In the Gospel according to Mary Magdelaine ...you know one of the gospels that the CHURCH LEADERS left out when they were deciding what books to include in the bible she describes "HELL" as told to her directly by Jesus after his ascension into hell. Jesus says to her that Hell is NOT a place of eternal damnation and not full of pain etc. Jesus tells her that HELL is a place of 'SLEEP" and upon my return everyone in HELL would be forgiven and lifted up. Jesus then tells her this is not common knowledge and that if everyone knew this they would have no incentive to be good. Church Leaders at the time seized upon this and EXCLUDED this gospel because this revealation would not serve the "controlling" interests of the church and state at the time. ......THESE ARE FACTS.....go and read for yourself...and BTW...do your own research!!!!
Perhaps fact that is what her god spell said...but what is in it, is not fact.
Yes.......what I was eluding to was that she is purportedly an "author" of one of the gospels but because she was a woman and because of its claims it struck fear into the hearts of the biblical committee that approved each book and left hers out as well as several others. What is in each and EVERY bible author's book is seriously subject to scrutiny.....much fiction bretheren!
*alluding
This is the mystery of our faith:
1. YHWH loves us all as Himself with all His Life just as I am just the way I am no matter what!
2. I love my neighbor as myself no matter what!
3. My neighbor loves me as himself or herself no matter what!
4. We all love one another as ourselves no matter what because YHWH loves us all as Himself with all His life just as we are just the way we are no matter what!
blah, blah, fvcking blah
No. God is the most sadistic torturer ever imagined. Hell proves it so.
Odd that your god's name uses a letter that wasn't even a letter until the 1400's.
If you trace back to the actuality, your god is YHVH...most closely pronounced yea-vah.
#2 and #3 Were taught be the Buddha, your god stole it.
Atheist, me?
The mystery of your faith – a corner in a round room ?
his word is truth. perfect in every way. the new testament is the most reliable books ever written along with the o.t.
reliable? in what way?
sam
it is realiable in the fact that it is making my table not wobbly....fits right under the leg.
ah. now it is clear
what do u think?
I am convinced he was never a Christian in the real sense of the word. He "tried on" a pastor's robe, nothing more, but his life and his heart were never changed. If he ever knew God, he would not want to go one hour without Him!
And he wasn't a true Scotsman either!
Wrong, I was a Christian until I learned how the bible was cobbled together by politicians.
I have learned to control my depression by following the Bible's teachings! Pray tell me which political party was responsible for the Bible. I'll vote for them any day!
Anda
To become truly spiritual requires you to lose religiosity become an Atheist and then become spiritual. The trouble with most radical Atheists is they stop growing once they hit rock bottom!
If you have not experienced the depth of religion which is Atheism you cannot soar to the height of spirituality.
I had to go through the if there was God phase myself. I came out learning that God loves me as Himself with all His Life no matter what and how much I believe this is faith. Religion told me oh just say this prayer and u r off to Heaven!
Lots of people claim the same thing you do about their obsession, hobby, or addiction. Why can't you put forth a logical reason to believe as you do?
y don't u?
If Ryan Bell is really trying atheism for a year, he should be posting atheist supportive remarks here. To show he really means it.
Or at least replying.
Only a very small percentage of atheists get involved in online religious discussions.
u cannot prove that
There are at least 9 million Americans who define themselves as atheists. Does it really seem to you that there are millions of atheists posting in places like this?
u proved u lie. get lost. get a job.
Why does existence exist?
Why are there such things as numbers?
Can you go on counting for ever?
existence exist because of the formula E=MC2,meaning energy and matter are equivalent,either God is in the form of energy or if He wills to be matter ,it is His choice.In our universe He willed 13.7 billion years ago to become matter,then He willed us humans to become a reality 200,000 years ago,then we humans created religions since about 20,000 years ago ,then animism,polytheisim and one of the latest was monotheism about 3000 years ago,today the derivatives of this religions is our present faiths,History showed that it evolved,Now the time for the next change or evoultion is due.Panthrotheism is next.
Word salad.
Actually what IS illogical is to give credence to looking up into the heavens in the Stoneage and attributing it's existence to a "god" of sorts. It is logical of every generation AFTER this to then attribute everything else to a god that they did not understand and that is exactly ho we have the "evolution" of "god as it exists in its many forms and in many different religions. They all have the same thing in common from christianty to Hinduism to any religion you want to name. A logical evolution from an Illogical original identification. This is what scientists are discovering through the discovery. testing and peer reviews process. None of these takes place within the realm of religion.
In Santa we trust
There is no evidence of a personal god; pre-big bang a god is one of a myriad of possibilities. We have inherited the tendency to attribute unknowns to the acts of a god.
prove it
the structure of the human brain is not the same to all humans,there are those whose neuronic circuitry and complexity is more than the ordinary,thats why they are called geniouses,but there really a few who are more sensitive than others in sensing the presence of supernatural phenomenas.Faith healers,prophets ,phsychics and many other people with special powers and attributes had those with innate capacity to feel or conceived what others can never understand though they are highly intelligent with extra ordinary IQs.Just because they are super intelligent does not mean they know evrything because the true reality exists in many dimensions beyond comprehension of highly ,educated human being.That is why religion and other supernatural faiths is understood only to Gods choosen one.If they abandon their faith rather than evolved to higher level of religious cosciousness mean they are not choosen.Panthrotheism is the next level,being labeled presumptous is correct adjective.
Bwhahaha. Utter nonsense.
everything that the critics of religions in the past was just to claim it was nonsense,but when The Roman emperor was impressed by The doctrines of Christianity ,he decreed that immediately it will be the empires religion,and the rest was history,The roman empire in what is now Europe and the Middle East prospered and became the center of the worlds civilization then.Science and knowledge grew leap and bounds that almost all of of the modern scientists were born there,the industrial revolution started their,in short ,it was the inspiration of the belief of God that inspired humanity that leads to prosperity,then how about those who turned their backs on Him amd called him nonsense ,they never had contributed anything to humanity and left this reality with no legacy and life lost to oblivion.
What evidence would convince you of the existence of God?
Just any ol' god, or your God?
in panthrotheism,all Gods from the beggining of time until infinity is one with with us ,
the proof of our creation was proven last year in the most expensive amd colloboratve science laboratory in Cern ,Switzerland where the best minds of science converge througout the world to confirm the God particle ,the origin and creation process of all in the universe where we humans came from 13,7 billion years,ago,Granting that this discovery is only 90 percent right,no other claims got nearer to this result.This scientific consequences resulted in the awarding of the Nobel Prize award to Dr.Higgs and the confirmation of the works of Dr, Stephen Hawkings of England
Higgs ,and also confirmed the theories of the famous Dr. Stephen Hawkings of England
It's called the god particle as a joke. It has nothing to do with there being a god or not.
No wonder religion flourishes among the most stupid.
its called God particle not because it is a joke,the scientist called it that way because thats the Higgs boson,its presence results in the formation of matter after the singularity source of energy interacts with this particle,This describes real tangible creation and not magic as primitive and contemporay religions were proposing.If you ask the older theologians ,they will claim creation through Gods will by magic,because they cannot explain the process,today its the formula E =MC2, if you wont believe that,its like not believing in our sun,stars and not be afraid of the nuclear or atomic bombs.If you call the creator a different name and not God,its still ok,provided you meant the creation process.
nclaw441
"What evidence would convince you of the existence of God?"
"God" only knows...!
what convince me of the presence is myself,of course knowledege is the basis of all belief,To a dog or cat no matter how many thousands of books you will open the pages to them will have no result on their actuations ,because they never understand anything,similarly our limited human intellect no matter how many proven mathematical equations you present as proof ,its still nothing if he cant even solve a single algebraic equation with one unknown.Sorry if I overdo my illustration.