Meditations Session 7: Overcoming “Functional Atheism”
We have been devoted to a quest to achieve something ever fleeting—controlling the world so that we feel happy.
This week, we are considering Notebooks 8 and 9. Beginning 3/16, we will cover Notebook 10.
“The belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us” is what Parker Palmer called “functional atheism.” In his book Let Your Life Speak, Palmer exposes functional atheism as “the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it happen—a conviction held even by people who talk a good game about God.”
Functional atheism has dysfunctional consequences. Palmer argues it “is pathology on every level of our lives.” Undetected, it “leads us to impose our will on others, stressing our relationships, sometimes to the point of breaking. It often eventuates in burnout, depression, and despair as we learn that the world will not bend to our will and we become embittered about that fact.”
Blind to functional atheism, we can be a pain to ourselves and everyone. In short, our mantra becomes, “If we are not making noise… nothing good is happening.” We need not express the noise to others, but we still suffer as the disjointed narrative playing in our heads pounds away like a brass band.
Functional atheism can hinder us from leading the life we want to lead. Practicing the timeless truths in Meditations can help us remove that barrier.
As a Roman emperor, Marcus had power in the world. But he recognized “functional atheism” and knew he needed to guard his mind to avoid it. He had learned that attempts to bend the world to one’s will are at odds with Nature. He did not want to “talk a good game about Nature;” he wanted to be aligned with Nature.
What have we yet to learn from Marcus that can help us guard against functional atheism?