What does it mean to be Non-Theist?
I’ve watched thousands navigate this terrain while inside the older religious structures. Behind closed doors the questions echo off the walls and long hallways of doubt and suspicion. It’s perhaps the most unspoken secret in organized religion. From Bishops to local pastors, the questions sit quietly under the breath of the platitudes and rituals. I’ve sat with hundreds of leaders and around the tables at the highest level, the questions are real, the questions are human. It’s what lets me know they are human and trustworthy. The leaders who deny the uncertainties and double down on “company line” are the ones you should keep at a distance.
Questioning the concepts of religion and belief is baked into human history. How each person finds their answers is what makes them unique. For me, perhaps you, and countless others, it’s your decision to make and no one else can do it for you.
My place is non-theism. It came at the end of years of searching, questioning, and working to understand the words in my soul that I couldn’t put on my lips. I don’t subscribe to any notion of god or divine control agent, it’s not in me and I couldn’t put it there no matter how hard I tried. I also don’t shame or shun anyone who chooses to find that divine control for themselves. Neither do I attack or criticize the very structures that perpetuate a divine belief. It serves no purpose except to signal my own trouble.
In my search for how I was feeling and what I was trying to share with others who asked, “where are you, now?” as it relates a faith or belief. This is a fair question since I had dedicated my entire life to expanding the mission of the christian church. Serving at the very top table in a global denomination in charge of significant mission impact. Speaking and preaching on platforms across the USA and authoring one of the most successful christian based apps for adult ministry, people have a deep curiosity about how someone at such a height can make such a dramatic pivot.
I couldn’t agree on “Atheism” as it focuses too heavily on the existence question, “Do gods exist?” For me, that wasn’t enough. Agnosticism focuses on the knowability question, “Can we know if gods exist?” and settles on the answer of “we cannot, know so we can’t make a claim.” This is far too noncommittal for me to embrace. These are useless pursuits in my life. I choose to exist now and honor the breath I have.
The non-theist approach is a much broader umbrella. There is no question of whether or not a divine god exists, there is no internal debate of whether or not it can be known. I couldn’t be against something I’m certain isn’t there and I can’t commit my mind to debating a concept that has no sides to argue. All of these are framed by the very systems of religious beliefs. Without religion, none of these ideas exist. That’s where I am… beyond the reach of the argument. To be constrained and required to “pick a side” is to be drawn into an argument for the sake of argument. These concepts have no matter or influence over how I live. This is why I’m non-theist.
When you step outside the architecture of religious belief, you don’t step into a void. You step into something surprisingly solid. Non-theism is presence without the scaffolding of divine oversight or cosmic transactional thinking. What emerges is a coherent way of being that rests on pillars that don’t require faith to hold weight.
I have discovered a simple set of core truths that exist in this non-theist life. While these truths aren’t exhaustive or prescriptive, they can serve as words to name that elusive idea or feeling:
Integrity — to live in true alignment with self, nature, and others.
Hope — to build light in the world we have, not wait for one beyond it.
Love — to feel deeply, connect without condition to self and others.
Belonging — to stand together in honesty and acceptance of self and others.
Integrity as Your True North
Without commandments carved in stone or handed down from authority, you need a different kind of compass. Integrity becomes that instrument. It’s about aligning your internal truth with the natural world and the people around you.
This alignment is where morality actually lives. When your choices match your voice and your actions reflect both, you’re living with integrity. You’re facing the same direction as your community with a connected and shared existence. The desire to honor yourself breeds an internal respect to honor others, thus a social contract of morality emerges.
Hope as Something You Build
Hope becomes the thing you construct right here with your own hands. It rises from practicing gratitude when you’re tired, extending compassion when it’s inconvenient, and putting in effort even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.
This kind of hope generates humility because you see how small your control actually is. It breeds duty because you recognize what you’re responsible for. It creates art because you have to make meaning.
This is honesty that echoes through nature itself. The universe doesn’t lie about how things work. Non-theism doesn’t either. Healing the echoes in your mind and soul from past harms lies inside this natural hope.
Love Without Permission
Love in this framework starts with you, generated from within, and then extends outward. You don’t need divine authorization or religious rules to love yourself and others. The strange physics of this kind of love is that giving it away doesn’t deplete the source. The more freely you offer it, the more you discover you have. This is the participation that creates fullness. You become the well yourself.
The echo of compassion can be seen in the tree that sacrifices its leaf. The sun that gives its light, the bee who shares its pollen. At its core, love lives in compassion which is a foundational truth to the existence of the universe. The sacrifice of self is older than humanity. It’s the law of evolution and adaptation. To suggest there is no love without a divine guidance is to say humanity is merely a programmed creature for no purpose – defying the very nature of things without a soul.
Belonging That Doesn’t Require Belief
Community becomes a mosaic. Each person brings their own shape, color, and texture. What binds us together is shared awareness, curiosity, and recognition of common humanity.
There’s no membership test and no hierarchy determining who’s closer to truth. Just people showing up honestly, building resonance through that honesty. Real leadership here looks different. It’s starting the march and then falling back to walk alongside everyone else. It’s modeling without demanding conformity.
Belonging doesn’t draw lines to create “insiders and outsiders”. It has struck me odd that the first rule of “divine control agents” is to create walls, it’s written in every book and shared at every gathering. Why?
The Framework That Holds
These four tenets create a structure that stands on its own:
Integrity gives you alignment with reality.
Hope gives you something to build.
Love gives you connection that flows freely.
Belonging gives you community built on acceptance.
This is what non-theism actually looks like when you live it. An affirmation that stands on its own. It’s how you move through the world when you’ve stopped asking permission and started taking responsibility.
The world you’re building requires you to show up honest and stay aligned with what’s real. There is a finite number of days in your life, live them now for yourself and you’ll become an asset to the world. Not because you have to, but because you deeply want to contribute.
At Jet Fuel Soul, we’re creating space for people navigating this shift. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you start living this way, you realize how much more room you have to breathe.
To get more conversation about this idea and the many tentacles, check out the Jet Fuel Soul Podcast.
