What is post-theism?

Response

Post-theism is a term used by philosophers to depict a society that no longer believes in God. Post-theism regards belief in God as a phase of human development. However, as humanity progresses to a point where religious belief is no longer necessary, we can and should discard theism and adopt post-theism. In a post-theistic society, the God of the Bible would be considered akin to the ancient mythological gods.

Post-theists see theism as outdated, much like how most individuals perceive the flat-earth theory. Even in enlightened societies, there are still a few individuals who opt to believe in a flat earth, but we relegate such individuals to the periphery. When a society treats its theists in a similar manner to how we treat our flat-earthers, then it has embraced post-theism.

The term post-theism has been in use for a century now, and many have asserted that society is currently post-theistic—or at least aspired for it to be soon. In recent years, some pastors have confessed to being atheists, yet they maintain their roles in church leadership, discussing and writing about what they perceive as the “post-theistic church”—an apparent contradiction.

Certain countries exhibit more atheistic tendencies than others due to governmental decree, but there is likely no society that can be truly deemed post-theistic. Even in nations with state-sponsored atheism like North Korea and Vietnam, Christian activities (both overt and covert) are on the rise. Wherever there are people, God will find a way to reach them.

In fact, Christianity often flourishes amidst persecution. Unfortunately, the opposite is also frequently true. Christianity tends to lose vitality in times of freedom. Therefore, in countries like Canada, America, and various European nations, we are progressing towards post-theism, although this does not guarantee that we will ultimately reach that point.

Why introduce the term post-theism when we already have designations such as atheism, nontheism, and antitheism?M? Those terms don’t quite do the job. Each fails by being only half a thought—they are halves of binary concepts.

Take the term atheism, for example. The word theism must exist first before the word atheism can make any sense. Only then can we add the prefix a- to turn it into its logical opposite. So, theism (the belief in God) cannot become atheism (the lack of belief in God) except where we already have the notion of a god to negate. It works the same way with the terms nontheism and antitheism.

People use words such as atheism to speak against God, but they cannot do so without proving that the idea of God came first and that it is ubiquitous. The term post-theism dodges that problem because it stands alone both as a word and a concept. Using post-theism, people can talk about a world where people don’t believe in God—without giving God a semantic nod. Post-theism relegates God to history without giving Him etymological currency.

There is a difference between choosing not to believe in God (atheism vs. theism) and shrugging off the very concept of God as antiquated and superfluous. The latter is the hope of many nontheists: to create a post-theistic world where God is not even in the discussion.

Post-theism is the pipe dream of “elite thinkers” like Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche. Attempts to force people into post-theism by government decree have failed. If true post-theism ever saturates a society, it will come by way of attrition, not by government strong-arming or philosophical opining.