Character, Not Faith, is What Matters
Today’s message was submitted by Kim Peterson, one of the subscribers to this newsletter. Kim is an extremely talented writer and a student of world religion and spirituality.
Character, Not Faith, is What Matters
My husband is an atheist.
A fair number of people have spent time nudging him in the direction of spirituality. He’s been offered the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and been invited to more than a few religious events.
I personally have a long-held fascination with all matters spiritual, and though I can see the beauty in many of the world’s religions, I call myself a Buddhist. Like others in his life, I have shared with him endless information about the lives and events that shaped religious history (never with the intent of persuading him toward any particular doctrine, mind you). Still, after 15 years together, he has never joined me in meditation or prayer, and he greeted me with a blank stare as I recounted for him my visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit last year.
Overall, he has been kind and accommodating when it comes to my spiritual explorations. He’s done the reading, asked the relevant questions, and discussed it all at length with me and with several others.
He wasn’t overjoyed when I came home one day and announced that I had enrolled in the Religious Studies Program at Arizona State, but he didn’t argue the matter with me either. Nevertheless, his point of view has never been swayed. The idea of a Higher Power simply is not rational to him.
So, what kind of a man is he, this non-believer? Good. Fair. Kind. Forgiving. Loyal to everyone he has ever loved. He is even-tempered, rational, and unemotional. (I am all emotion and gut instinct with rollercoaster responses, so I find these traits at once admirable and infuriating.)
He is a good father, husband, and friend. He is occasionally stubborn and sometimes even selfish. In short, he is human. He possesses all of the values, morals, and characteristics called for by the world’s religions, with a little human failing sprinkled in.
He simply doesn’t believe in or require a faith-based doctrine to mandate his actions or his treatment of others. He doesn’t need the threat of eternal damnation or the promise of eternal life to direct his responses.
His goodness lies within, an innate part of his being. Some might argue that this is proof in and of itself that a Greater Power guides him. But he wouldn’t buy that argument. And in the end, it wouldn’t make him a better man than he is already.
Kim Peterson lives in the Kansas City area with her husband and their two sons. She teaches yoga and meditation and occasionally writes articles for the ‘Faith’ section of the Kansas City Star.
(c) 2008