Everybody Is Wrong about God

Everyone is wrong about God, and the error is one of the most consequential ever made by humankind.

No corner of the world has been untouched by religious violence or conflict. The problem is the very idea of theism, belief in the existence of God, and, by extension, atheism, nonbelief in the existence of God. Just as theism effectively died more than a century ago when Nietzsche declared God dead, so too is it time to declare atheism dead.

As James A. Lindsay argues, theism has been so thoroughly and utterly discredited—philosophically, sociologically, and scientifically—that it no longer warrants serious consideration. With every argument for theism long since discredited, the result is that atheism has become little more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Thus, engaging in interminable debate with religious believers about the existence of God has become exactly the wrong way for nonbelievers to try to deal with misguided—and often dangerous—belief in a higher power.

The key, Lindsay argues, is to stop that particular conversation. Demonstrating that whenever people say they believe in “God,” they are really telling us that they have certain psychological and social needs that they do not know how to meet, he directs the reader to more productive avenues of discussion and action.

Only once nonbelievers understand this simple point, and drop the very label of atheist, will they be able to change the way we all think about, talk about, and act upon the troublesome notion called “God.”