Tell Me About the God You Don't Believe in...

Yeah, I know, I said I would stop, but someone pushed one of my hot buttons, so what the hell?
It has become "in", of late, to claim to be atheist. Understand, I am not talking about the increasing number of unchurched, "spiritual" people  who repeat endlessly, "Yeah, I believe, but I don't to go to church or anything like that; I'm spiritual but not religious."
No, I'm talking about the can't-tell-the-difference-between-atheist-and-agnostic person who was turned off by some of the horrors of the Church, whether fundamentalist, Roman Catholic, charismatic or other variety of authoritarian, closed-minded Christianity. (Why just Christianity? Surely there are some born-again atheists from Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu backgrounds. Come to think of it, I know one!)
The trouble here is that such are not really atheists per se. Their vehement and evangelistic style for promoting their non-belief (pause here for necessary reflection on irony involved) seems to consist more of anti-theism. They are so focused on what they are rejecting that they become rather unclear as to what they do, in fact, believe.
No one can go through life without a place to stand, a set of values, some understanding of right and wrong. Well, ya could, but you'd end up in jail or dead or in a mental hospital. A sense of right and wrong can't grow just from human logic or common sense, any more than an infant can become a complete human being without guidance and learning.
A person without any recognition of Something Greater, whether we call that God or a Higher Power or some dream to follow, is a very sad person indeed. As the old Zen saying goes, if you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else. That doesn't mean being rigid about life, or insisting that everyone else do what you're doing. It means knowing what is important to you, and following that.
When I was in college, my closest friend was an avowed atheist (even though I was even then preparing to go to theological school.) But our endless debates would end in stalemate when I asked him, "Tell me about this God you don't believe in." Not the God that others taught, but what exactly was he rejecting? Too often he would bog down when he would repeat some conservative doctrine that I didn't believe in either. Even today, he can't really answer that question because he is so fixed on what he doesn't believe that he has no notion of what he does.
Yes, it is easy to attack the straw man of certain forms of established religion, to lift up the flaws and atrocities done in the name of a given faith. But can this group proclaim something that they believe that separates them from most believers? Science? Logic? Who do you think kept them alive during the centuries? Recognizing the value of people? Hello, this is a faith teaching unconditional love. The arts? Medicine? Religion.
So tell me, my atheist friend, tell me about this God you don't believe in.



This is for Jon.