‘Do You Believe in God, Doctor?’ The Atheism of Fiction and the Fiction of Atheism

This paper is an enquiry into some commonalities between fiction and atheism. It suggests that ‘disbelief’ may be a state of mind shared by both asks how meaningful semantics might derived from the mental stance disbelief. Albert Camus’ The Plague, published in 1947 post trauma two successive world wars, key ‘existentialist’ text focuses on this dilemma. Not only work especially relevant to our current times natural, political, economic psychological distress gone ‘viral’, it also one which blunt question posed atheist hero novel, Doctor Rieux, Oran, small French Algerian town fighting terrible pandemic: ‘Do you believe God, doctor?’. Rieux’s answer telling: ‘No, but what does really mean? I’m fumbling dark, struggling make something out.’ human ‘struggle’ discern contours invisible ‘in dark’ could animate thought worlds as well seeks draw out these putative similarities through lens ‘ordinary language philosophy’ J.L, Austin John Searle’s classification basic speech-acts. considers evolutionary, affective cross-cultural appeal parallel narratives science religion. Oran’s most remarkable aspect, Camus insists, its ‘ordinariness’; yet, here ‘extraordinariness’ plague strikes. Quotidian local circumstances thus paradoxically set motion sorts ‘universal’ inquiries ‘what means human’ that, my argues, alike motivate atheism fiction.