How My Beliefs About Belief in God Have Changed
My answer to the question “Do you believe in God?” has undergone major changes in the past view years: from “definitely yes,” to “definitely no,” to “probably” or “I think so.” While I do once again consider myself a Christian, my reason for answering with “I think so” rather than a definitive “yes” is that how I interpret the question itself has changed quite a bit during my journey from New Atheism back to Christianity.
On the surface level, the question of belief in God is often interpreted as a simple yes/no question based on whether you accept or reject the proposition that God exists. Under this framing, anything short of a definitive “yes” would make the answerer an atheist or agnostic. However, what people generally mean when they ask the question has more to do with values, practices, and traditions. For example, if someone says they are a Christian but their actions are indistinguishable from those of an atheist, can they truly be said to believe in God? You might take them at their word that they consider themselves a Christian, but you probably won’t think they’re a good one. This notion of there being more to belief than intellectually accepting the existence of God is precisely why I answer that I think I believe in God. In this essay, I’ll discuss two important thinkers who have greatly shaped both how I think about this specific issue and my broader worldview.
JORDAN PETERSON
The first thinker who has heavily influenced my ideas on this topic is Jordan Peterson. When asked about whether he believes in God, Peterson has famously responded that he doesn’t know how to answer the question or that he acts as if He exists. His reason for answering that way is that if you take the question seriously, it quickly becomes complicated: what is meant by “belief”? what is meant by “God”? You might mean a simplistic belief that an all-powerful old guy lives in the sky and is mad when you do something naughty; you might mean a dedication to virtue and truth (the divine Logos) as the fundamental pillar of being; or you might mean something different entirely. Furthermore, how do you even know what it is you or someone else believes? People say they believe things yet act differently: hypocrisy is everywhere. The only way to know what someone actually believes is to watch how they act. Therefore, believing in God means acting as if He exists.
What does it mean to act as if God exists? In Peterson’s view (link here), acting as if God exists means living according to virtue and truth, having courage, and bearing your responsibility as your cross. Further, acting as if God exists involves approaching the world with the axiomatic presupposition that the creation is good (and can be better). This benevolent love for the world is the driving force which allows you to point out what could be better and strive to make it so, thereby building the kingdom of God on earth. In contrast, choosing to act as if God doesn’t exist comes with (or is the result of) a resentment for God, a desire to shake your first at him and bitterly take what should be yours. When we consciously choose to sin, we reject the offer of walking with God, choosing to go our own way instead.
JOHN VERVAEKE
The second thinker who has influenced my views is John Vervaeke. In his series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, one of the topics Vervaeke discusses is that pre-modern people understood faith not just in terms of a belief in God’s existence, but also in terms of being faithful to the practice. According to Vervaeke, credo (the Latin verb meaning “I believe” used in the Roman Catholic creeds) carried the connotation not just of “I believe,” but also “I love” or “I am dedicated to.” This connotation goes beyond the intellectual, touching deeper parts of the human experience. While faith on its own merely involves inner subjective experience, being faithful involves action. In Vervaeke’s language, the intellectual aspect of faith is related to propositional knowledge, whereas the deeper aspects of being faithful are related to perspectival and participatory knowledge. Propositional knowledge involves facts and whether or not a statement is true. For example, the fact that the earth revolves around the sun is propositional knowledge. Perspectival knowledge involves knowing what it’s like to be you or what it’s like to have a certain role. Participatory knowledge is the knowing that comes from experiencing something and engaging with it (for example, knowing a friend involves not just knowing facts about them, but also involves a deeper layer of what it’s like to be friends with them. It involves a mutual disclosure of one’s being to each other). Propositional knowledge is given primacy in our modern scientific age, with much less attention or recognition given to the other types of knowledge. As a consequence, the modern view of belief in God has become primarily about accepting or rejecting the propositional statement that God exists, with the embodied and experiential aspects being far less emphasized.
Overlooking the perspectival and participatory aspects of belief is precisely why the New Atheism framing of whether you believe that God(s) exist misses the point. What is much more relevant, in my view, is the participatory and perspectival aspects of engaging in the religious path. This deeper view of belief also carries a developmental aspect, for as you are faithful to the practice, the way you view the world and the way the world responds dynamically interact with one another. The perspectival and participatory feed into each other. As you climb up the mountain of religious practice, the way you see the world changes which in turn changes you.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
At the beginning of this essay, I raised the question of whether or not someone should be considered a Christian if they don’t act like one. But what about the reverse? i.e., could someone be a good Christian without believing that God literally exists? I think so. For example, Jordan Peterson might not be considered a Christian by many, but he’s a good Christian in my book. He strives to live according to the Logos, in accordance with virtue and truth. He might not identify himself as a Christian in his words, but he certainly does with his actions. I’m striving to become more and more Christian in my actions, for I am now dedicated to the path of Catholicism (I planning on going through the Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults this fall). As I continue to be faithful to the practice, perhaps my propositional beliefs will change as well.
