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CHAPTER III
UNBELIEF IN THE INDIVIDUAL
RELIGIOUS belief is normal. It is a disposition consonant
with human nature. Unbelief is a departure from the normal.
From this point of view unbelief bears the same relation to
belief as illness bears to health.
Unbelief and Its Principal Forms
Religious unbelief is psychologically a denial of value in the
realm of persons combined with a general negative attitude
towards religion and religious behaviour as such. An attitude of
this kind can reveal itself passively as religious indifference, or
in an active form as denial of religion or hostility to it. In
either form, unbelief means that the person who expresses it
betrays his own nature. His religious need is not only unrealised
but its reality and value are denied.
Unbelief takes three main forms: (1) A practical denial of
religious values, that may be expressed in many different
ways. It is a revolt against spiritual imperatives that challenge
the validity of a preferred way of living. It can therefore be
called ungodliness. (2) A theoretical denial of religious values,
described as atheism. It appears in an active and a passive
form, both arising from a repressed or suppressed religious
interest. The active form is identifiable by the fact that it
cannot leave religion alone and betrays the intensity of its interest
by aggressive behaviour. The passive form finds its expression in
unwillingness to be disturbed by religion. It is met in people
who have an ‘aversion’ complex. They want to be free from all
reminders of religion and are irritated by anything that brings
it to their attention. (3) An absence of a religious feeling of
value, manifested as agnosticism. The agnostic is of the opinion
that nothing can be known of spiritual values. He does not feel
antagonistic to religion, indeed he may accord it a certain cool,
detached approval on the understanding that for him it means
nothing. The agnostic may live on a high moral plane, but he is
irreligious in a special way. He may have considerable religious
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