Atheism & The Inner Life: Part 2
Can an atheist have an inner life? That begs the question what is an inner life? More to the point what did the question asker who sent me off on this tangent mean by “inner life?” Talking about an inner life is a lot like trying to determine whether or not there is such a thing as “atheist spirituality.” There isn’t. The question was framed in the language of religion, specifically the Christian religion. Spirituality is a word from religion’s lexicon. It describes the animating breath of god and such. An atheist does not have a spiritual inner life, which we would be inclined to see as pure fantasy at best - delusion at its worst. So for an atheist we must look at the question without the vocabulary of religion because it is not part of our experience and is meaningless to us.
Inner life assumes that we are taking about the psychological processes of the mind, most notably those related to conscious thinking and imagination. To contemplate the questions of life and to think deeply about them is part of the inner life that many religionists are so certain that atheists don’t have. So yes, atheists have an inner life. Contemplating issues of ethics is also part of that inner life. And our inner life is far richer than that.
Everyone has an inner life regardless of whether they are a believer in god or spiritual matters. What you believe or don’t believe has nothing to do with the depth or quality of that inner life.
The problem is that when people talk about having a rich inner life they are talking about this fantasy called god. Writers and artists all have rich imaginations and that too is a part of an inner life. Imagination is good. It has often helped solve problems. Our experience of life would less rich and fulfilling were we not capable of imagination. The intuitive leap that is part of these processes and so often mistook for something more than it is derived from our psyches.
The other problem is the matter of our subconscious. The process of our so-called subconscious mind is extremely subjective. There may be value in experimenting or going deep enough to touch these processes, but the danger here is turning its murky symbolism and jumbled fragments into something that it might not be. I fear that many people who get this deep often wander about in a state of functional delusion.
Schizophrenics and psychotics have inner lives, but they do little to serve them. I practice a type of Buddhist meditation often referred to as mindfulness meditation. This does not make me a Buddhist nor would I label myself one. Regardless the process has been very helpful in many ways. I often think of it as weeding the garden of my mind.
Next: Delusion and Fantasy: Religious Imagination and the Inner Life