Antoni P. Martín Lluís
Barcelona, Spain
DO WE REALLY BELIEVE IN GOD?
Nothing. Nothing. That is my terror. Infinite nothingness. I don’t handle it well.
Spirituality is something that has to be born from within yourself. It’s in people. It’s in people’s generosity, in their kindness. Christianity says, “Faith—you have faith—it is given to you by the grace of God.” And I say, well, what a load of crap because the day they were handing it out, I wasn’t there. I would be happier if I thought there was something, right? Because my question, many times, is do we really believe, let’s say, in God? Or does that belief come from the need to attain eternal life? I don’t know. It’s all very complex. There comes a point where I’m simply incapable of understanding. So the Christians ask, “You're a non-practicing Christian, right?” and I tell them, “I’m a non-practicing agnostic,” meaning I don’t proselytize.
It doesn’t matter to me if you think completely differently from me, because if we’re capable of talking, I’m sure we’ll both be enriched by it. That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about what you’re doing. And it even makes me a little envious.
I’m incapable. What I have observed in life, though, is that if you do good, good comes back to you. If you do bad, bad comes back to you. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what it is. Then there’s my philosophy of life: I don’t know whether there’s something or if there’s nothing. I don’t know. But I don’t need to know in order to be the best person I can be.
Daniel’s Reflection
I was excited to meet Antoni P. Martin Lluis in Barcelona when I heard he was an atheist eager to participate in the Portraits in Faith project. By the end of the interview, he shared that he had shifted from being an atheist to being an agnostic! Like Antoni, I have had many conceptions of a Higher Power, and even my own times of atheism and agnosticism. I am not bothered by it in the least. When I was in grade school I learned the concept that an empty set is a subset of all sets. Judaism encourages me to doubt and to question. I have come to see atheists and agnostics as an important part of the body of faith. We are all ultimately connected to each other in a way that defies human understanding, so who am I to demand everyone believe as I do or to even expect that my conception of a Higher Power is always the same? I am just happy to be in dialogue and in relationship with all of humanity, truly with all of creation.
Explore the portraits by theme
- happiness
- grief
- addiction
- sexuality
- sobriety
- transgender
- alcoholism
- suicide
- homelessness
- death
- aggression
- cancer
- health
- discipline
- abortion
- homosexuality
- recovery
- connection
- enlightenment
- indigenous
- depression
- meditation
- therapy
- anger
- forgiveness
- Doubt
- interfaith
- worship
- salvation
- healing
- luminaries