Matt Damon Faith [work] -

He has also been sharply critical of religious hypocrisy, particularly in the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse. In 2015, he told The Boston Globe that the scandals “destroyed something in me” and that he “can’t look at a bishop the same way.” But he distinguished between the institution and the individual believer. “I know too many good nuns, too many good priests who gave their lives to service, to throw the whole thing away.” So, what does Matt Damon believe?

That, perhaps, is the heart of Matt Damon’s faith: not a set of propositions, but a posture. A reaching. Damon’s position is made more distinct by the company he keeps. His best friend, Ben Affleck, has had a far more public and tortured relationship with religion. Affleck, who famously wore a “I’m Not Religious” pin on Real Time with Bill Maher , has vacillated between criticism of faith and a strange, defensive pride in his own Irish Catholic roots. But Affleck has also been willing to call himself an atheist. matt damon faith

And yet, he cannot fully walk away. What is fascinating about Damon’s public statements is that he retains a distinctly Catholic moral sensibility even as he rejects Catholic doctrine. He operates with a profound sense of social justice, a guilt-driven work ethic, and a belief in the inherent dignity of the poor—all hallmarks of a liberal Catholic social teaching. He has also been sharply critical of religious

Matt Damon, however, refuses to play that game. That, perhaps, is the heart of Matt Damon’s

Damon paused. Then, with the precision of a screenwriter editing a line of dialogue, he replied: “No. I’m not. I’m an agnostic. I think there’s a difference. Atheism is the belief that there is no God. I don’t have that belief. I just don’t have the evidence to know one way or the other. And I’m okay with that.” This is a remarkably mature position in an era of aggressive New Atheism (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris—all of whom Damon has read and admires as intellectuals, but not as prophets). The New Atheist position is one of triumphant certainty: God is a delusion, religion is a virus, and belief is for the weak-minded.

Damon’s faith—if we can call it that—is a faith in questions. It is a faith in the dignity of the search. He has never had a Damascus road moment. He has never been struck blind and then seen the light. Instead, he has squinted into the gray, New England fog of his own upbringing and said, “There might be something out there. I can’t prove it. But I’ll live as if there is.”