Selective Functional Atheism

Photo by David Straight on Unsplash

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

-1 Corinthians 6:9-10

The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body....Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

-1 Corinthians 6:13b, 18-20

Most of us are familiar with the willfulness of a child, who has just begun to walk. Filled with the power of independent locomotion, the toddler suddenly loses all fear and any need for obedience. "No, Daddy'" becomes the favorite phrase and "Me do," is a close second. The sudden increase in self-esteem and immaturity blinds the child to the associated risks and responsibilities. Likewise, the child doesn't stop to consider what all led up to and is involved with walking. No, the child becomes a bull in a china shop and doesn't care.

Atheists and agnostics come across the same way to me. We human beings are very powerful, intelligent and creative. Rightly, atheists and agnostics celebrate human beings and their countless achievements throughout time in every field of endeavor. Like the toddler, however, the length, breadth, and depth of human achievement blinds them to anything beyond the physically tangible. Like the toddler believes his legs are all that propel him, atheists and agnostics can't fathom their dependance on something greater.

For both the toddler and the atheist, it seems that any acknowledgement of that dependance on something greater requires them to admit to their own limitations. That is the great lie from Eden: "...you will be like God..." (Genesis 3:5). Filled with the pride of Satan, atheists and agnostics believe, either they are gods or, given enough evolution, will become gods. Perceiving human power to be limitless in potential, if not in actuality, they so broadly define freedom that it devolves into license. Admitting to a dependance on God destroys the lure of license and requires a submission to God's moral authority. Atheists and agnostics "grant to the individual conscience the prerogative of independently determining the criteria of good and evil and then acting accordingly" (Veritatis Splendor, 32).

The Church sets us on guard against such situational morality for these very reasons, namely the corrupt understanding of freedom, which leads to a situational morality. Because, "circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act 'subjectively' good or defensible as a choice," (Veritatis Splendor, 81), situational morality is always wrong. But I have cozied up to it more often than not.

Perhaps, our problem with atheists and agnostics isn't the situational ethics they picked up from us, but their courage in chucking the pretense of religion to which we continue to cling as we hedge our bets on the afterlife. That's what we're doing, isn't it? We remain Catholic on the off chance there is a God and a Heaven. We really don't have time for that morality now. Once we've made our fortune or grasped our fame and we have nothing else to do, we'll pray a few rosaries and go to Mass on Wednesday mornings, when we don't have a tee time. Right now, though, a consistent moral ethic founded in Jesus Christ only gets in the way of doing what's necessary. I'm doing me now.

For so many years, I never really let the faith I knew so well to affect the way in which I lived my life. Drawing on my pride, this selective functional atheism helped me to justify and rationalize so much of what I did. All the while, though, I was pridefully identifying myself as a Catholic. Ah! Selective and Atheist and Catholic, when and where I decided to do exactly as I wanted to do. Could there be anything better?

That's how I lived my life for quite awhile. I hurt a lot of people living that way, too. But it's so easy to forget God and morality. Like the toddler, whose anger is triggered by his parents' concern for his welfare, my immaturity interpreted God's morality as the Grand Dictator keeping me from what I wanted. And, yes, I did know better than God what I needed. Also, what I needed was good for those from whom I was taking everything. I wasn't leaving them empty. They got quite a lot in the deal. It all seemed fair and made perfect sense to me.

One day in grad school, I was waiting between classes with my girlfriend at the time. Out of the blue, she asked, "How do you reconcile your faith with what we do?" After failing to devise a flippant reply, I told her the truth: "I can't."

I still can't and I've stopped trying. I've broken too much china. I don't want to be a bull anymore. I've decided to live my Catholic faith.

Thank you, Shelli.