Common atheism relies on the intellect to ensure the moral and material progress of humanity. Common religion relies on the will of -- and faith in -- a Supreme Being to accomplish the same purpose. At a higher level, atheism seeks to expand the human consciousness into a universal state of realization. Religion at the mystic level seeks to expand the human soul into a universal state of spiritual enlightenment.
The terminology is different. But the goals are the same. The greatest example in history of this condition of the human mind is the Buddha. Gatauma Buddha in 6th century BC India, sought escape from the Hindu Vedic religion through the exercise of his mind. His ultimate intellectual illumination, or Nirvana, was no different in substance from the Hindu spiritual union with Brahman, the pure universal Spirit.
Followers of Buddha deified him, resulting in Buddhism becoming a religion, more than a philosophy. Followers of Jesus Christ did the same thing, resulting in Christianity. This is because most people want eternal life more than enlightenment.
But the old belief in bodily resurrection isn't standing up very well as history and education grind their wheels on the developing human mind. So we have embraced transcendentalism -- myself included -- positing that the soul lives on in some subatomic form. Perhaps our souls will merge into the blissful infinitude upon the death of our bodies; perhaps they will be reborn in new bodies to learn the lessons of life better the next time around. We really have no way of knowing.
Many people who believe in transcendental religion are approaching the position of a "high" atheist. That is, the realization that God, or Brahman, or Allah, etc., are cultural names for the formless true Infinite One Reality. This Supreme One has no definable characteristics, and has been vaguely described as something like: the unity of quantum reality. I have done the same myself on occasion. The result is that "God" has become an energy field, a clump of forces, a natural phenomenon that encompasses all dimensions and eternity.
Well, this is the position of the scientific atheist, or the secular humanist. Humans are part of the universe, in all its dimensions and forces at the subatomic level. We are responsible for our actions, should treat each other, the Earth, and all its creatures with respect and compassion -- and there is no bodily resurrection, no fatherly or motherly God looking over our shoulders, listening to our prayerful wish-list to solve our personal problems.
Many in the transcendental religious community would like to unite the highest spiritual and intellectual concepts of all religions into a great conceptual utopia. This would allow greater cooperation between disparate cultures for the preservation of our species and the planet. But in order to accomplish this objective, it will be necessary to ally ourselves with the atheists who heavily populate the scientific, educational, and political fields -- and who have the same goals. (I include agnostics with the atheists because, apart from a philosophical fine point, they behave and think essentially the same as the atheists.)
The future union of religions on some mutually-agreeable high spiritual plateau cannot exclude atheism. The ultimate union of the souls (or minds if you prefer) of humanity must include all humans. If, in pursuing this objective, the movement includes someone worshipping a god with an elephant's head, or another person who insists that his god is a man, then it should be willing to accept people who don't believe in God at all.
Essay copyrighted © by Stephen E. Schlarb 2-21-97