Why wasn't Ralph Waldo Emerson an atheist?

Question

The idea of Christianity and religion was everything he preached AGAINST. So I'm wondering, why was he still faithful in his Christian beliefs?

Answer 1

To know God, which he might have had an inkling about or pehaps even experienced, you have to get rid of religion and beliefs because God is something that is alive in the present and not a preconception or even the word, "God." Thought or images blocks out the present and is an impediment to knowing Reality or God.

Answer 2

Some times greatness is only seen by a few. It is common to brand others who do not fit the mold we wish to judge by. Free thinkers do not always think freely.

Answer 3

It wasn't a question for him whether or not God existed, but more a questioning and challenging of the assumptions of religion.

He was a Transcendentalist, struggling to understand and define religion/spirituality in light of new understandings made available in their age. He believed that God gave the gifts of intuition and insight - they ought to use them. They also mixed the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism .. believing that a loving God would not lead them astray through false scriptures, and thus there must be truth in these too.

He simply rejected the narrow, orthodox Christian concept of God and instead accepted a broader view of a Creator.

Answer 4

Because he still believed that God existed and in the moral teachings of Christianity. Yes, there were things he disagreed with. But that doesn't mean he didn't believe a deity existed, and it didn't mean he didn't think that the basic teachings of Christ were still valid in his life. Love your neighbor as yourself? Do good to those that harm you? Judge not, or you will be judged? The meek will inherit the earth? Yep. Sounds like Emerson to me!