There are not many philosophical atheists in the world. There are not many unbelievers who have thought things out as clearly as Russell or Sartre. But there are many practical atheists in the world, that is, people who simply ignore the question of God and live their lives, in practice, as if he did not exist.
Why are people alienated from God in this way? Why are they strangers to their own Creator? It is not always easy to say why, but there are probably three main reasons why people neglect God: it is because they have never come to know him, or it is because they have come to know him wrongly, or it is because they do not want to know him.
The first class, those who have never come to know God, are to be found especially in communist countries. They are people who have been educated without God, who have been deprived of all knowledge of him, and who have never come into contact with anyone who believed in him. But even in the most atheistic surroundings, many people find God in their own hearts and come to know and love him.
The second class, those who have come to know God wrongly, includes all those who have an inadequate or distorted idea of God. Juan Arias had these people in mind when he wrote his book, The God I Don't Believe In.
I shall always remember the blunt statement of Cardinal Maximos IV, the eighty-year-old Eastern Patriarch who looked so much like one of the apostles, when he said, "The God the atheists don't believe in is a God I don't believe in either". This made me understand better why so many times during my life as a priest when I met people who introduced themselves as atheists, I felt in closer harmony with them in religious thought that with other people who were "super-Catholics", religious professional who insisted that believing in God was as easy as buying a washing machine.The Second Vatican Council said that "believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism". They can turn people away from God by presenting a wrong image of him, an image that is difficult to believe in. They can also turn them away by not living up to the ideals of their religion. Because of the faults and failings of Christians, many people come to reject the Church; and because they reject the Church, they reject God.Modern man is becoming, for all practical purpose, an atheist, but perhaps this is because he is carrying to the grave with him the same idea of God that has been hindering us, a God who is beginning to be more feared than loved, a God of souls and not of complete men, a kind of a magician who is capable of explaining away the mysteries of science and human psychology, who is a very simplistic answer to the great problem of pain, a justification for our being lazy because we hope that all problems will be solved in the great beyond which is itself the only true reality.
The third class of people is those who reject God because they do not want to know him. Belief brings obligations. People realize that if they accept God, they will be called to live a more loving and unselfish life and they shrink from this. They do not realize that God gives strength and joy to those who know him and that the way of life he offers us brings more happiness and fulfillment than any other. So they decide not to get involved with God. They don't know because they don't want to know.
The eminent art historian, Lord Clark, writes in his autobiography:
I had a religious experience. It took place in the church of San Lorenzo, but it did not seem to be connected with the harmonious beauty of the architecture. I can only say that for a few minutes my whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy, far more intense than anything I had known before. This state of mind lasted for several months, and, wonderful though it was, it posed an awkward question in terms of action. My life was far from blameless. I would have to reform. My family would think I was going mad, and perhaps after all it was a delusion, for I was in no way worthy of such a flood of grace. Gradually the effect wore off and I made no effort to retain it. I think I was right; I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course. But that I had "felt the finger of God" I am quite sure, and although the memory of this experience has faded, it still helps me to understand the joys of the saints.It is not for us to judge others. People who appear to be atheists often live lives of great generosity and selflessness. Even if they do not acknowledge God by name, they can be very close to him in reality.
We are asked only to judge ourselves. Those who are believers must examine the meaning of their faith and live in accordance with it, so that they may help rather than hinder others on their way to God. It is only by searching for the truth and responding to it freely and wholeheartedly that we can lead fully human lives.
Summary
Only in recent times has atheism become widespread throughout the world. It is official policy in communist countries, in accordance with Marx's teaching that religion is the opium of the people, Communists expected that religion would die away as soon as capitalism was overthrown but this has not happened.
Attempts have been made to provide atheism with a philosophy. Atheistic philosophers have attacked the proofs for the existence of God and have said that we should not ask who brought the universe into being; the universe exists, and that is all that can be said about it.
Most atheists do not reject God for philosophical reasons: they just ignore him in practice. This may be because they have never had a chance to know about him or because their idea of God is a false and misleading one; or it may be that they deliberately close their ears to his voice because they are afraid of the demands he may make upon them.