It was only when he became a teenager and began to develop an interest in the debates around new atheism that he got swept up in the dialectic and arguments surrounding atheism.
Today, he sees himself more as a mediator. Where he once aimed to “convince people of various positions”, today he is more “agnostic about so many different things” and sees himself as a mediator for the ideas around the debate.
He says that, while he is most often asked to argue for the atheistic side of the argument, he “could just as easily debate atheists about the existence of God or the resurrection of Jesus.”
Alex describes himself as an ‘agnostic atheist’, which may present a slight paradox to some readers since an atheist refers to a person who disbelieves the existence of God while the term agnostic most commonly refers to a person who believes that nothing can be known on the existence of God.
When asked to expand on this belief system, Alex said that agnosticism refers to knowledge while atheism refers to belief. He said that while he believes that God does not exist, he does not actually know whether he exist.
“I don’t say there’s no God. I’m just... unconvinced there is one.”
Alex highlighted the importance of context here. He said that if he were asked by a group of orthodox Christians, for example, he would identify himself as an atheist because he “doesn’t believe what [they’re] selling”, in terms of their belief in Jesus as God.
If he were asked by a group of philosophers or academics, however, he would be more likely to identify himself as an agnostic.
This topic then brought him onto pantheism, the belief that God is the universe.
Alex says that he has been thinking a lot about consciousness. He questions how alongside the “dead stuff” and “atoms just bumping into each other” we can have a first-person consciousness, the human experience of the “taste of Coca Cola and the sound of a violin.”
He questions the nature of consciousness, whether it “makes sense to say that consciousness just comes out of brains when you put them in the right order”, or whether it is something more, lending into the idea of a “mind at the foundation of reality, or the universe itself being made out of mental stuff.”
This reflects a lot of the same ideas as pantheism, which is more commonly seen in Hindu traditions. However, while Hindu beliefs would account these complexities of the mind to a God, Alex said that he would simply say that he is “into the idea that the universe is kind of made out mental stuff”, but in terms of belief, he does not know if this “mental stuff” is God. In terms of belief, he says that he would still identify himself as agnostic.
Alex plans to explore concepts such as this one on his upcoming tour, where he hopes to be able to “work together with people.” He plans on taking audience questions, working with the audience in a back-and-forth manner in an attempt to “cumulatively get to some interesting position that approximates truth”, which differs from most events such as this one, where questions are often asked to be kept short so that as many questions as possible can be answered.
With discussions such as these, Alex is hoping to provide people with a “fair assessment of the current landscape of the debate” so that they can explore these questions further and feel confident that they have developed a justified world view.
Alex says that he believes that these discussions around philosophy are especially important for young people at university due to their formative life stage.
He says that “one of the most formative things that you can decide is what your worldview is”, since it shapes your world and your perception of reality.
He says that at this stage of life, it is crucial to at least investigate the big questions around the nature of reality, morality and the existence of God since the answers we decide upon will have butterfly effects upon our lives.
He says that while he cannot answer those questions for us, he hopes to inspire enthusiasm towards them.