Atheism: A Path to God

 Ten years ago, I set out to find new ways to bridge the secular worldview with spiritual experience. At the time, I was a member of the Harvard Humanist Hub (where I first met our own Rick Heller). As much as I enjoyed finding a like-minded community of spiritually-inclined humanists, there was something missing: we met in an office space, listened to lectures, and once used Christmas lights as part of a holiday ceremony. Nice, yes. Sacred, it was not.

Since I was a teenager, I had experienced intense altered states of consciousness—experiences that were some of the most important of my life. I spent many years searching for a way to communicate these experiences with others. But it wasn’t until a friend in college recommended William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience that I found a name for what I had encountered: mystical experience.

But I felt certain, deep in my bones, that these experiences were natural—not supernatural—and that they could be accessed and shared without relying on religious or spiritual explanations.

I wanted to find ways to bridge these life-giving experiences with my secular worldview. Not finding what I was looking for at the Humanist Hub—or the secular world as a whole—I became a seeker: skeptical but curious about what I could learn from spiritual practitioners, teachers, and true believers.

My intention was to bring back to the humanist/atheist community something deeper and more in touch with the heart of life than anything that I saw on offer in our world. 

This journey brought me to New Orleans where I learned from Catholics and occultists, Buddhists and the New Age community. In 2021 I co-hosted the Open Div summit with Casey Rosengren convening over 70 speakers to explore deeper meaning in a secular world. I started a podcast called Re-Enchantment where I interviewed guests about the intersection of wisdom traditions and modern psychology. Then in 2023, I launched Stable Awakening, a spiritual coaching service where I’ve helped guide people through psycho-spiritual crises and awakenings by combining the best of modern psychology and spiritual techniques.

I’m now completing my masters degree in clinical counseling at Loyola University in New Orleans in preparation to offer therapy at the intersection of evidence-based psychology, spiritual practice, and psychedelic medicine.

Yet what’s been far more impactful than my intellectual exploration has been plunging into the depth of spiritual experience itself: from fasting in the mountains of the Mojave desert, to sitting by firelight in ayahuasca ceremonies, to descending into the oceanic depths of what Carl Jung called the “collective unconscious.” What I’ve found has transformed my understanding of who I am and the very nature of reality.

The invitation to become the executive director of The Spiritual Naturalist Society feels like an unexpected homecoming—the close of one journey, and the beginning of something new.

I’m not quite sure what to call myself today. The term “atheist” isn’t quite right anymore, and yet I haven’t abandoned my secular roots. The best expression for what I’ve found on my journey comes from the Sufi poet, Hafiz:

I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.

Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

In the spiritual world, they say that there are many paths to the mountaintop, but the view at the peak is the same. Atheism was the path I took up the slope, and what I found at the top was God. Not the counterfeit God I had rejected early in life, but rather the central truth described by the mystics of the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and indigenous traditions of the world. A God so self-evident that even the letters of that word fell away.

In my journey I’ve realized that non-belief isn’t a hindrance to spiritual realization, but an advantage.

An old Jewish story describes a man who goes to a renowned rabbi and asks: “If God allows all things, why has He allowed there to be atheists?” “Because,” replied the rabbi, “atheists seek to eliminate from God everything that is not God.”

The hidden truth of atheism—which not even most atheists seem to understand—is that non-belief is itself a spiritual path. Far from being at odds with spiritual, religious, or mystical truths, a skeptical attitude is key to realizing them. It cuts through illusion and liberates us from thousands of years of self deception and anthropocentric projections we impose on the great mystery of existence.

Spiritual naturalism has an important role to play in the evolving consciousness of the human species. If we are to thrive as a global civilization, we must find ways to integrate our many methods of meaning-making. We must all recognize that every path up the mountaintop is legitimate. 

I like to imagine that a great feast is taking place: the wisdom traditions of the world are coming together. Every dish that’s brought to the table is seasoned with centuries of culture, sorrow, and illumination—and all of them contain nourishment for body and for soul.

My hope is that spiritual naturalism will offer a common table on which to have this feast. History has shown that when people gather in this way, we tend to find it hard to hate, or harm, or scorn each other. Instead, we may leave the table with new friends—even new sisters and brothers—along with a new respect for both the sacred and the human.

I believe that when we truly learn from the wisdom of the ages, when Truth shares itself with us completely, and when Love turns all our concepts into ash, our old Gods and ideologies will fall away. I believe this is already starting to happen. And if it continues, we may finally start to understand something about the great mystery from which we’ve come and to which we will return.

All that to say, I look forward to serving as the head of this Society and to bringing spiritual naturalism to the forefront of the conversation about the future of meaning-making.

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Learn about Membership in the Spiritual Naturalist Society

The Spiritual Naturalist Society works to spread awareness of spiritual naturalism as a way of life, develop its thought and practice, and help bring together like-minded practitioners in fellowship.

SNS strives to include diverse voices within the spectrum of naturalistic spirituality. Authors will vary in their opinions, terms, and outlook. The views of no single author therefore necessarily reflect those of all Spiritual Naturalists or of SNS.
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