What Americans believe

[Ulrike Reinhard]

73% of American atheists don’t believe in God. Yes, that’s how devout Americans are. Even quite some atheists believe in God.

[Olaf Krassnitzky]

Hi Jenny,

Since being an atheist and believing in God belong to two distinct modes of human cognition, which coexist in most people, this not surprising (this is according to Olaf, as I am not too sure where cognitive science stands on this these days - reason, emotion and morals are still highly muddled and mangled terms). Still, it would be interesting to know what kind of thinking leads you to consider yourself an atheist, and what kind of cognition (rather than 'thinking') leads you to believe in God.
BTW, Richard Dawkins, one of he more prominent atheists, found that Michael Persinger (Laurentian University, Sudbury) could not induce a religious/spiritual kind of experience in him in his lab - almost as expected. Religious experiences have been linked to variations in EEG recordings.

[Jenny Nielsen]

That's pretty hilarious.
But actually I'm an atheist (no particular THEISM) and I believe in God. How's that?!

[Olaf Krassnitzky]

There does not seem to be much of a consensus as to what spirituality is. Prsonally. I believe it is an altered state of consciousness, the result of a wide variety of conditions, which not everybody may have access to. I have some doubts that it can be helpful in solving humankind's current problems.

[Street]

Kauffman mentioned that he thought his insights were new. Progressive theologians have pursued this line of questioning publicly since the 1970s. See Andre' Comte-Sponville's Little Book of Atheist Spirituality, George E. Vaillant's Spiritual Evolution, Karen Armstrong's myriad books since the 1960s, the Westar Institute's Jesus Seminar, books by former Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Stephen J. Patterson, and many others.