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You can certainly try to believe.
By which I mean, behave as if God's existence is more probable than you currently think it is. Try praying, in earnest (or as earnestly as you can when you think it is very unlikely anyone is listening). Try reading scripture with an openness to the possibility that there is something valuable and true there to learn. Try going to a church: don't pretend you already believe, but be open to the possibility that your mind could be changed.
If there are particular logical issues that prevent you from being open to the possibility of God's existence, then take time to research them. There are a great many very intelligent and well educated Christians out there: is it really the case that you know something they never realized? It's more likely that there is an answer to whatever objection you have. Be open to the possibility that the answer may be right.
If God doesn't exist, then all this will cost you is some of your time and energy. If He does exist then you may gain all the worldly good you were searching for (family, happiness, meaning, community) and the far greater good of salvation from your sins and hope for eternal life.
I can understand an atheist who has no desire to be religious deciding not to go through all that effort, but if you're an atheist who does desire to be religious then the cost-benefit ratio seems pretty good.
Pardon the question, and I hope it doesn't come across as too provocatory, but -- if there were evidence that believing every statement made by modern Progressivism made your life easier, and on the balance made you happier -- would you then go through this process in order to become a sincere Progressivist?
My advice is given to someone who has expressed a desire to believe, but does not. I have no desire to be a "Progressivist".
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Can't speak for him, but I certainly would. But since the evidence is that it causes gin-soaked tears and ulcers as you struggle to win the battle over yourself and Try To Be Less White, I won't.
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You can, but it won't work if you have any intellectual honesty about your own beliefs.
What about atheists who have been through all that effort?
I've seen this kind of advice before: "Believe hard enough and you will." It sounds like clapping your hands for Tinkerbell, or the New Agey "manifest your desires (by wishing real hard)."
I can see how "Give it a try, maybe it will suit you" might work for someone agnostic who's never really thought about religion before, but it's not going to work for someone who has, in fact, spent time trying it and concluded there was nothing there. And advice that amounts to "pretend you're a believer so you can score a trad wife" seems pretty unethical to me.
I'm someone who probably wouldn't have trouble living a Mormon or Catholic or Muslim lifestyle. But there is no way I could go through life pretending to actually believe what they believe.
I do not, and never have, advised anyone to pretend that they believe something they don't. That would be dishonest, and dishonesty is a vice.
I don't see how the advice I gave "wouldn't work" if you have intellectual honesty about your own beliefs. You do not need to believe in God to attempt a prayer, or to attend a church, or to read the Bible with an open mind.
Sure, but what if one has already done those things? Your advice to atheists seems to assume that most atheists have never been in a church before. Granted a lot of people do grow up secular nowadays and may truly have had no exposure to religion, but a lot of atheists either did grow up with some religious education and/or devotion or have at least tried it out. IMO, "Give it a shot and try to believe" would only work with someone who's truly agnostic.
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I mean I'm literally reading Ratzinger right now, so there is probably something to this advice. Can't say where it'll lead me though, despite the clear necessity of religion, I have a hard time overcoming the silliness of ritual. I may or may not remain the cynical perennialist I've landed at for now, time will tell.
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My exact political alignment is a bit complicated, but yes I'm very much one of those people who cares more about freedom than hurting people and will say "live free or die" with total sincerity.
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If you want a meditation of the importance of ritual from a non-Christian standpoint, I would suggest Xunzi.
I have a lot of sympathy for Confucianism, I just think it might be too culturally alien to me to be worth much in practice rather than study since I'm a westerner at the end of the day.
But study I certainly will.
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Highly recommend Fr Alexander Schmemann, excellent writer and especially liturgical scholar.
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