I had been pondering whether to run this particular flag up and see whether anyone salutes but let's try it. I also wondered whether it belonged in A/A but its to theists, rather than to atheist/agnostics that I direct the question.
Some people have suggested that atheism is in fact irreligion. While irreligion is very often an important and almost inevitable subset of atheism, it is not atheism as such.
Irreligion would also seem to be an important part of the agnostic mindset - I can't be sure as I haven't taken a poll, but I would be surprised if more than 20% of avowed agnostics practiced some kind of formal religious observance.
I have often observed to agnostics that they are on the same page as atheists in this respect, although they don't always realise it - they may half- believe in a god or think a sortagod or deist- god is probable, but they have (I suggest) no more time for organized, man- made religions and their invented personal gods than atheists do. In that respect, I repeat, atheist and agnostics are on the same page.
But What about Theists? I have noticed a number of believers, some of whom sound very religious indeed but who surprised me by stating that they believed in God as everybody's loving god, God as love, feelings of peace and so on. But they did not buy into the orders and exhortations of the Holy Books, nor into organized religion, its observances and requirements.
In that respect, it appears to me, they are every bit as irreligious as the majority of agnostics and atheists.
In what respect do they differ from irreligious atheists? Are they on the same page as us or are they on the same page as the religion - observing theists?
True, they are both believers in God: theists. But I have often said to Deists -believers in a god who dunnitall but who does not intervene in human affairs - that I may not agree with their conclusions but they are someone with whom I could share a flat.
True, I would argue fiercely with them about the evidence and logic behind their belief in a sortagod or deist- god, but essentially, it would merely be an academic argument. In matters of that blasted all - pervasive organized religion, we would be on the same page.
Let me take a hypothetical scenario which, for all I know
might have occurred in real life
. A believer in God who does not buy into the Bible - claims about God and Jesus and who does not participate in organized religion says so, in the workplace or a party or even here on the boards.
An atheist might say 'Fine with that. Your beliefs are your own affair.' But a religious theist would start quoting scripture and appealing to her...sorry, to them... to please get back to religion and of course into the particular religion in which they happen to believe.
I wonder whether that person or persons might not feel that an atheist was also a person they could share a flat with but they could not be under the same roof with the religious theist.
In that respect, are not irreligious theists and agnostics/atheists all (in practical terms) on the same page?
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