Looking the World Frankly in the Face: One Skeptic’s Case for Belief

Some books you up pick up and you know – “Woops, this is going to be interesting!”

Christopher Beha, Why I Am Not An Atheist, Penguin, 2026, is such a book. I about dropped my teeth when I read what Beha writes on page 33 – so closely does he follow my own thinking.

But a reservation – I am aware of Beha’s slant and have added an immediately following correction in parenthesis.

“I have come to embrace the romantic idealist notion that we all must work through the meaning of the life into which we’ve been thrust, and my own working through has led me to the conclusion that this life is the product of a creative power far greater than myself, that I owe everything to the love of this creator, and that this creator calls me to discharge that debt by lavishing on the rest of his (or her) creation the same love he (or she) lavishes on me. I hope to make that answer to the question How am I to live? comprehensible in these pages, but I don’t aim to convince anyone that it is the only possible answer. Since my journey is not over, I could hardly recommend where I am now as a final resting place for anybody else.

If there is one point I do mean to argue, it is merely that “looking the world frankly in the face” does not require us to abandon God, that it is possible to be at once a skeptic and a believer both,” p 33.

(Just as it is possible to believe in a female/male God. Or in grace.)

Next I’d like to add for you a rather long quote near the end of Why I Am Not An Atheist. Particularly I’d like to point to Beha’s comments on community:

“constructing your own world view is incredibly isolating. Shared worldviews are one of the things that bring people together. When we each construct our own world, we each live alone. Other people exist as paper cutouts, characters in our world-making drama rather than fellow inhabitants of a shared world, and we exist for them in just the same way. An unbridgeable gap separates us, and real community across the gap is impossible. Yet most of us feel very strongly the need for community, even if it only takes the form of sitting beside another person in the dark cave, watching the same shadow show on the wall,” pp 336-7.

My thoughts, now comments, morph into a Mary Pipher quote that brings me great comfort (it’s so true in my own experience):

“. . . how is it that grace descends upon us? We can’t will it or manufacture it ourselves. Rather, it comes to us in the same way as a murmuration of starlings and as random as falling stars,” p 236.
Mary Pipher, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence, Bloomsbury, 2022.

My intuition/feeling is that while Beha’s early experience with “angels” was negative, these experiences were “Grace,” in a Christian sense. Beha was visited by “happenings” beyond himself; he could “not will it or manufacture it himself.”

Again requoting Beha:

“… we all must work through the meaning of the life into which we’ve been thrust, and my own working through has led me to the conclusion that this life is the product of a creative power far greater than myself, that I owe everything to the love of this creator, and that this creator calls me to discharge that debt by lavishing on the rest of [her/his] creation the same love [he/she] lavishes on me,” p 33.

Note: Yes, making language generic is ackward. But it sure beats being left out entirely!

Thank You for reading, JoAnn Lordahl

Reading, Writing currently consumes most of my dwindling energy. Till Next Time. . .Stay safe, stay healthy, be kind.

Dr. Jo Ann Lordahl is a lifelong author, poet, novelist, and speaker whose work explores empowerment, aging with grace, and the deep questions that define our lives. Her books and reflections — from historical fiction to meditations on creative living — encourage resilience, reflection, and positive transformation.

If this post stirs questions about moral courage, shared humanity, or the work of healing in hard times, consider exploring Dr. Lordahl’s writing — especially her essays and books on reflection and personal transformation. Her voice reminds us that even in upheaval, there is a path toward patience, insight, and compassionate action.