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UNBELIEF IN THE INDIVIDUAL
knowledge of a theoretical kind and can be very dogmatic in
discussion about religion. On the other hand, there is a type of
agnostic that loves to display intellectual brilliance and finds
satisfaction in his power to shock others by describing his
own immunity from spiritual incentives and convictions.
The basis of agnosticism is a personal lack: the absence of
religious sensitivity.
The History of Unbelief in Individuals
A denial of value, expressed in any of the ways we have
described, must have its historical background. The individual
in a state of unbelief is denying something in himself that
demands acknowledgment. The denial converts this
potentially constructive something into a positively destructive
force alien to human nature and injurious to the
individual.
The history of unbelief and the inner history of the individual
coincide. The psycho-physical structure of an individual is of
great though not decisive importance to his personal destiny.
If one must speak of causality in this connection, the term must
be restricted to individual causality. In the realm of personality
there is no mechanical causality.
We cannot always explain why a person says yes or no
to spiritual values. In the ivory castle of our being there is a
drawbridge that we lower or raise according to whether an
approaching value is recognised as a guest to be welcomed or as
an enemy to be feared. This bridge is not controlled by an
automatic mechanism outside the personality. Our whole
being—in its unconscious as well as its conscious aspects—
affirms or denies, through its actions. We do not always know
why. We cannot always describe how. Unbelief is not a question
of a temporary reaction to external pressures in the form of
physical or psychic illness or hostile circumstances. It is the
manifestation of an attitude which has become habitual and
characteristic. In the establishment of this attitude, our personal
structure, experiences and milieu all contribute. No single
factor can provide the explanation. Subjective factors, of
course, include our physical structure and the nature of our
constitutional disposition to form complexes. Nevertheless, the
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