There's
an atheist chaplain at Stanford. This is good news. John Figdor has a degree
from Harvard Divinity School and he does what chaplains do. He counsels those
in need and visits the sick. And what's more, he's welcomed as part of the
Office of Religious Life. His appointment not only broadens the conversation
about "belief" and "unbelief" but also exposes the
confusion at the heart of that conversation. We are often talking at
cross-purposes. As Figdor points out, "Atheist, agnostic and humanist
students suffer the same problems as religious students - deaths or illnesses
in the family, questions about the meaning of life, etc. - and would like a
sympathetic nontheist to talk to."
Evidently
he's part of a growing number of "faith-free" chaplains at
universities. All the benefits of religion without the god bit. And here's
where the conversation, with all its risk of confusion, gets interesting. For
me, faith is all about freedom. For others, faith is a form of
closed-mindedness. The early Christians were called atheists and the tradition
in which I was trained taught me that one of the reasons to believe in God is
that it saves you from having to believe in anything else! Everyone, as Paul
Tillich taught us decades ago, owes an allegiance to some "Ultimate
Concern" and freedom relies on that concern to be incapable of being
manipulated.
Read
complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-jones/an-atheist-chapaincy-a-good-way-to-begin-the-new-year_b_2366663.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
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