About
Fergus McGinley
I’m an Adelaide writer, teacher, lay preacher, father, grandfather – well and truly old enough to know better! My background is in science, philosophy, education and theology. I have had a long career in teaching and educational leadership, but these days I work for a not-for-profit Church organization, circle round various churches as a casual preacher and, mostly, write.
Subscribe to my website to receive the latest news, read my essays and reflections, share your responses, collaborate with me even. You can read about my new book The God Who Doesn’t Exist – great title, don’t you think?! – on the Books page.
Eek! Anti-Theology – what in the world is that?
Well, it’s anti- as in anticlockwise, not anti-social! Anti-Theology is simply conventional theology in reverse: instead of starting by assuming God exists, then trying to work out from that what God might be like, AT starts by accepting the obvious fact of God’s non-existence, then goes looking for evidence that, nevertheless, there is a real God who does exist – a different one to the one who doesn’t exist, obviously! Sound confusing? – yes, it definitely is, but it’s fun, and very rewarding …
Who created who?
That’s the sort of wacky question ATP asks. There’s no doubt that historical religion has fabricated many versions of God or gods, all more or less in our own imagined, perfected image—a perfection of human wisdom, power, love perhaps.
ATP is the search for a different God, one who fabricated us rather than vice-versa, created us in their own image. It’s an eclectic mishmash of philosophy, theoretical physics, psychology, evolutionary theory, educational theory, political theory, comparative religion, biblical exegesis, you name it – the one thing you most definitely have to assume from the outset is that God doesn’t exist, because if you assume they do, you’ve already assumed too much!
God in an evolutionary world
The key to it all is to adopt an evolutionary approach: no longer are we humans the self-centred centres of our own universe, special creations apart from all other life, rather we are one with all life, evolving interdependently – that’s where we’ll find our true significance, and, I’d hazard, where we might have the best chance of finding a God who really exists.