When I was a seminarian awash in a sea of doubt I would occasionally pick up on hints from my professors that they had struggled with very similar doubt as I was struggling with. I talked with three of them, each time I got more and more direct as I got more comfortable with my doubt and found professors who not judgmental, but all three essentially said the same thing: they eventually reached the point where they made an existential decision to believe in spite of the evidence to the contrary. That’s right, they choose to reject evidence and reality in favor of myth and superstition. That is the absolute height of academic and intellectual dishonesty. I can think of few things worse than that.

Also, based on my own experience I don’t know how anyone can make it through to a Master of Divinity with their faith intact. Okay, I actually do know how, you keep your eyes and mind closed and reject everything that doesn’t fit with your preconceived notions or you can do as those professors had done and embrace what you know to be a lie and keep on living as if nothing had happened.

So are there any honest theologians?

I think there are, but we have a choice here, they are either ignorant of reality, refuse to acknowledge reality, or they are dishonest whether its for existential, financial, familial, or other reasons. To put it more succinctly, theologians are either ignorant, deluded, or dishonest.

So what do you call a theologian who isn’t ignorant of reality, has no trouble accepting reality, and has integrity? An atheist.

Disclaimer: This is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek play on C.S. Lewis’ ridiculous trilima that Jesus Christ must be either a liar, lunatic, or lord. I may cover that topic more later.