williamlobdell.com

Author of “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace”

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What am I?

May 13th, 2009 · 1 Comment

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Journalists (and regular people) love labels. I know I do. It puts people neatly in a category without all those annoying shades of gray. One of the first questions I’m asked on my book tour is: What are you?

My quick answer: A reluctant atheist.

My deeper answer: I know one thing, I don’t believe in a God who intervenes in our lives. That seems to me to be the real dividing line: do you believe in a personal God or not? Deitism and atheism are on the other side of belief in a personal God. That’s where I am.

Though it varies by the day, I estimate that I’m 70% sure I’m a reluctant atheist and 30% positive that I’m deist (deist meaning that a creator kicked off this whole world but has a hands-off approach).

The larger point being: I’m 99.99% sure that there’s not a god who intervenes in the lives of humankind.

Questions?

Tags: Faith and Doubt

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Jumper2 // May 14, 2009 at 2:25 am

    Sure!

    Why are you sure that there is not a personal God?

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