Confessions of An Athiest...

"I think one of the most popular misconceptions about atheists is that we don't believe in anything, that our lives are void of spirit, belief and or any of the other things that theists think make the world go 'round.

You know what? It's just not true.

...I do not represent any particular way of thinking, other than my own. And as an "atheist," I can tell you this:

I pray.
I have faith.
I believe in the cosmic consciousness.
I live in gratitude.
I am moved to tears by the beauty that is nature.
I feel the intensity of great love.

I have faith in exactly that. I believe in the invisible and the intangible. I have absolute faith in the universe, in nature and in the balance of energy. My faith is unshakeable. I just don't have faith in the same power "name" as you."

(Dori Hartley - The Soulful Atheist, The Huffington Post)

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"Missions then is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there. It is almost as if being a a good missionary means having really good eyesight. Or maybe it means teaching people to use their eyes to see things that have always been there; they just didn't realize it. You see God where others don't. And then you point Him out. 

Perhaps we ought to replace the word missionary with tour guide, because we cannot show people something we haven't seen. 

...I would ask them if people in China and India and Chicago are eating and laughing and enjoying things and generally being held together? Because if they are, then Jesus, in a way that is difficult to fully articulate, is already present there.

So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst."

- Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis