FOLLOWING on from our recent post about how unhappy numerous evangelical preachers are with their lives comes news that many pastors and ministers may be closet atheists.
In “Preachers Who Are Not Believers,” a fascinating report by Daniel C Dennett and Linda LaScola of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, there are five case studies of Christian ministers who no longer identify themselves as believers – but their churches don’t know it.
Daniel Dennett
According to this blog, they are secret atheists or agnostics who are still serving their congregations, teaching them about God and the Bible, and otherwise functioning as clergy.
Dennett is a cognitive scientist and prominent atheist. His book, Breaking the Spell, put him at the forefront of “new atheists” movement, along with Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.
Here are quotes from three of them:
Darryl is a Presbyterian who claims to follow Jesus, but:
…it is arguable whether I am also a ‘Christian.’ … I reject the virgin birth. I reject substitutionary atonement. I reject the divinity of Jesus. I reject heaven and hell in the traditional sense, and I am not alone.
But he lives as a Christian anyway.
Whether there was a God or not, I would choose to live as if there was a God. Because I didn’t like the alternative.
Darryl admits that he’s still in the ministry because it pays the bills. It’s how he makes a living. To admit his lack of beliefs would mean walking away from his only source of income.
Adam is a Church of Christ worship leader who lost his faith after reading books in which he thought atheists made better arguments than Christians. He talks about how he tried, as a reader fascinated with learning, to:
Be open and listen, and use my mind and reason.
He worries about what others would think if they knew how he’d changed.
Even if Christianity isn’t true, is it best to leave the people alone in their ignorance? …They’re happy, and they have hope in a life to come, and so it helps them through their suffering, which is a strong selling point of Christianity.
How does he handle his role as a Sunday morning worship leader?
I see it as play acting. I see myself as taking on the role of a believer in a worship service, and performing. I know how to pray publicly…I love singing. [But] I don’t believe what I’m saying anymore in some of these songs.
Jack, a Southern Baptist worship leader, fell into atheism after deciding to read through the Bible carefully as a way to get closer to his faith. It had the opposite effect.
I think most Christians have to be in a state of denial to read the Bible and believe it. Because there are so many contradicting stories.
He didn’t plan on becoming an atheist.
I didn’t even want to become an atheist. It’s just I had no choice if I’m being honest with myself.
Jack admits that he’s still in the ministry because it’s his job. It puts food on the table. But he’s planning to leave as soon as he finds another way to support his family.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 26th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
“Even if Christianity isn’t true, is it best to leave the people alone in their ignorance? …They’re happy, and they have hope in a life to come, and so it helps them through their suffering, which is a strong selling point of Christianity.”
Isn’t it called living a lie?
May 26th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
The bible, the best book to convince you to disbelieve.
May 26th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
These are the once-religious people I described as professional Christians in previous posts.
I’ve managed to identify a number of categories:
1. The people mentioned above have lost their faith and are simply keeping their jobs to pay their way. I accept that, I’d probably do the same. We all have a public and a private face, I’m sure all of us put up a front when arriving at work. Keep up the act boys.
2. The Vatican PLC. Priests are probably pious at first, then corrupted as their careers progress.
3. Televangelists, possibly the lowest form of life. Cynical business people from the outset.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Broadsword – where do the real professional wingnuts fit in – the bob huttons who stand gibbering on street corners – they ACTUALLY believe it – yet without grasping the TRUTH of religion – the power and wealth! ha ha
May 26th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Maybe it isn’t best to leave people wallowing in ignorance; we don’t know how many of them have their doubts about religion. It might help some of those to come out of their closet.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
I don’t believe so can I become a Vicar please. I’m sure I could stand up and spout garbage on cue for a decent stipend.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
@Kev
Dick Emery and Derek Nimmo did it for years.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
The “believers” are exposed as never before to critical and analytical challenges. They cannot avoid them. Once, if they dip their toe in the secular flood of writing, even out of curiosity, they are lost if they have even the semblance of an open mind and a bit of intelligence. I wonder how many atheists there are in the Vatican?
And yet the embarrassing Thought for the Day continues and the oceans of religious garbage every Sunday on BBC and for much of the week as well. The purveyors of this have careers to nurture and defend of course. I suggest this explains much.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Nothing new
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1hl2jdfIiA
May 26th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Ah yes, Broadsword, so they did. Thinking about it perhaps I would make a better Father Jack Hacket. “Feck, Drink, Knickers!”
May 26th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
“Even if Christianity isn’t true, is it best to leave the people alone in their ignorance? …They’re happy, and they have hope in a life to come, and so it helps them through their suffering, which is a strong selling point of Christianity.â€
Agreed let them live in the pretend fairy world of myth and superstition ….but do not try to introduce that philosophy into government and most definitely keep it away from children until they are old enough to understand it…..if it can be understood.
May 26th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
It was Isaac Asimov who said (paraphrased from memory),
“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”
The one thing the Soviet Union ever got right was its recognition that incurable god addicts belong in cages with padded walls where they cannot pass on their mind-AIDS to the uninfected. Where the USSR went terribly wrong was in trying to pretend that religion does not exist. If instead they had compelled all school children to study the bible/koran/etc with the same critical skills they would apply to a will signed “Howard Hughes”, there would not be a godworshipper left in today’s Russia. Instead, religion is as widespread as it was under the Czars.
There is no doubt in my mind that televangelists like Oral Roberts were/are atheists. No one who actually believes that using religion to fleece believers would send him to the underworld Auschwitz would be able to perpetrate such a fraud.
May 26th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Quoting the threadhead,
“Jack, a Southern Baptist worship leader, fell into atheism after deciding to read through the Bible carefully as a way to get closer to his faith. It had the opposite effect.”
That is EXACTLY what happened to me. Doubt kept thrusting me into rebellion, but, the brainwash kept dragging me back. So, I decided to study the bible cover to cover in order to break the cycle. And it did. I read about the unspeakable attrocities of “Jehovah of Armies”, then I read about the loving forgiving father figure that Jesus was selling. It occurred to me, “this doesn’t make any fucking sense.” But, then I became a hedonist which was a mistake as well. By the time I found my balance, my youth was spent. Life is something at which you get only one shot. Religion stole my best years.
NeoWolfe
May 26th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Harwood said:
“Where the USSR went terribly wrong was in trying to pretend that religion does not exist.”
While I share your latent admiration for both the Russians and the Chinese to stand up to the deeply entrenched organized religions and tell them their “glory days are over”, here’s a piece of history that shows where the Russians really went wrong:
“After Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church[29] to intensify patriotic support for the war effort. On September 4, 1943, Metropolitans Sergius, Alexy and Nikolay had a meeting with Stalin and received a permission to convene a council on September 8, 1943, which elected Sergius Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. This is considered by some violation of the XXX Apostolic canon, as no church hierarch could be consecrated by secular authorities.[25] A new patriarch was elected, theological schools were opened, and thousands of churches began to function. The Moscow Theological Academy Seminary, which had been closed since 1918, was re-opened.
Between 1945 and 1959 the official organization of the church was greatly expanded, although individual members of the clergy were occasionally arrested and exiled. The number of open churches reached 25,000. By 1957 about 22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.....dox_Church
They traded their resolve to hedge their bets.
NeoWolfe
May 26th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I over-generalized. Given the space limitations, I tend to do that. Mr Wolfe’s clarification is appreciated.
May 26th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
@Graham Martin-Royle
Its not the first time i’ve heard of someone loosing their faith after they’ve read the bible usually it’s not just the contradictions that puts them off ,its the killing spree’s aswell.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Most people seem to be ‘wired’ to believe,despite the lack of evidence for the supernatural,so we might as well let them wallow as long as they don’t force us into the swamp with them.
Daniel Dennet is a philosopher not a scientist.He,in fact,reported a rather disdainful question by Prof Richard Dawkins in reference to philosophy-”What use is it?”-or words to that effect.
May 27th, 2010 at 12:13 am
@ Broadsword – While I understand performing menial work to pay the bills (at one time, I participated in that particularly filthy job of telemarketing, check your soul at the door kind of stuff), I would make an addendum that they refrain from the anti-gay, anti-women, full of hatred kind of preaching. Which of course begs the question, what is left to talk about?
May 27th, 2010 at 12:54 am
@Janstince
It’s easy to be black and white as we view from a distance but you’ve got to keep earning. If that is what you do, keep on doing it.
The Russian military didn’t quit en masse when the iron curtain fell.
I was in financial trouble about 16 years ago when one of my businesses failed. I worked at the remaining one Monday to Friday and spent my weekends flogging home and motor insurance on the phones for the AA. I did that for two years. I never mis-sold anything but as you know, even if you’re not the cheapest, always ask for the sale. What’s the alternative? Bankruptcy?
May 27th, 2010 at 1:39 am
Broadsword – I know, plugging coupon memberships at high rates to people with credit problems isn’t the highest calling, but I still didn’t deliver hatred I didn’t even believe in. At some point, a man must be held responsible for his actions, whether to pay the bills or not. It is not
merely the fact that they continue in this vein, but that they seem to refuse to acknowledge the debt incurred by their actions toward those they have wronged without even the cause of legitimate stupidity that particularly arouses my ire.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:04 pm
For a christian with a supernatural experience to become an athiest, he would have to deny the truth in “His/Her” own life. I didn’t become a christian through science and logic, and an Athiest won’t become a christian through those things. Religion and science/logic are separate…..until you believe, then you see the beauties of nature in a completely different light.(Not to take away the beauty I’m sure Athiest see) The problem today is that we are deceived into thinking that the bible says anything about logic or reason. It’s more about human nature. You know those people in the bible that did all those wicked things ?? Most of the time(99.9%), they were men and women, not God. I greatly appreciate honest, logical people, but I have a problem when you deny my own miracle/supernatural moments, when they are only as delusional as your own denial of them.(Did you get that ?) Let’s all stop trying to tell each other what their world really looks like. EVERYBODY, RELIGIOUS AND NON-RELIGIOUS, QUIT BEING KNOW-IT-ALLS !! I freely admit I don’t have all the answers, but neither do you. Thank You.