Positionality Statement - Sam Nix

Religious/spiritual beliefs are very important to my identity, as I grew up secular in a Mississippi town with a rich and ever-present Southern Baptist culture. I have always been “out” about my identity as someone who is not Christian, but I have struggled for years to truly define myself. While I fit many characteristics of a Humanist, I most often state that I am Agnostic. I am unable to define myself as a “hard” or “soft” Agnostic, because I actually don’t believe that the question of a God is important. For me, religious misunderstandings and arguments are actually less about the concept of a God, and more about spiritual experience, purpose, and ethics. It is from this space that my biases related to Atheists emerge. I feel an automatic sense of belonging with Atheists that I meet, because I know that we share many of the same experiences. However, my readings about—and friendships with—less-reflective Atheists have taught me that their beliefs can be as religiously intolerant as fundamentalists of any other religion. In addition, I find myself frustrated with Atheists who refuse to admit that their behavior and attitudes can resemble those of people with a mainstream religion. Yet, I still ultimately feel automatic affiliation with Atheists, and I know that I can often consider their perspectives simply more logical than those with a religion. This will be something that I need to consistently consider as we have class discussions. Unlike some of the students who voted to study this population because they knew it would challenge them, I intentionally did not vote for this population because I was afraid that I would over-identify with them.