Jean Paul Van Bendegem: “I want to die knowing that thinking has been done”

VUB philosopher honored as Atheist of the Year

On November 15, philosopher and former VUB professor Jean Paul Van Bendegem will receive the title Atheist of the Year, a label he accepts with both a wink and a healthy dose of nuance. “I’m not a church-basher,” he says, “just someone who reflects on what it means to live without gods.” He speaks from his home in Ghent, surrounded by towering bookshelves and under the watchful eye of his elderly cat, Bonnie Prince Charlie.

For Van Bendegem, atheism is not a rejection, but a meaningful way of life. “It’s not just about saying ‘none of that,’ but about asking what it means to live as an atheist. It demands reflection, responsibility, and awareness.” His humanist outlook developed gradually, shaped by his Protestant upbringing, a pastor in crisis of faith, and later the philosophy of Etienne Vermeersch. “He said that all questions about God are nonsensical. Problem solved.”

Although he identifies as a freethinker, Van Bendegem admits to a fondness for rituals from Freemasonry to his daily aperitif with his wife. “Rituals provide structure. Even in a secular world, people still need symbols and meaning.”

He speaks about death with the same wry clarity that defines his work. “I have no image of the 13.7 billion years I didn’t exist, so why would I try to imagine what comes next? Dying doesn’t bother me, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

His wish for the future is as modest as it is ambitious: to keep inspiring others. “If someone tells me after a lecture, ‘I’ve never looked at it that way before,’ then my day is made.” And how does he hope to be remembered? “As a contrarian thinker. We need dissenters, they’re the ones who keep society moving.”

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