Skeptical or cynical?
“Agenticity” or confirmation bias?
I tend to doubt this kind of SCIENCE!™ because it doesn’t accurately describe my transition to atheism…which had nothing to do with my family environment…and occurred long before I left home.
Atheism…in these times…is much more complex than just a loss of faith or disbelief in gods. So yeah…more study…as long as taxpayer dollars aren’t paying it…because one has to ask oneself…the critical thinking self: What difference does it make?”
“because one has to ask oneself…the critical thinking self: What difference does it make?” ”
Thank you.
By not believing in, or, I think more importantly, not worshipping, a deity, I save myself the worry about whose god is more real; I don’t have to think about which group’s set of archaic and arbitrary rules I should follow or why somebody else’s concepts are inferior to mine. It’s very freeing. This doesn’t mean that there are no rules and no morality, just that the scope seems to me to be much larger, a scope of what’s (hopefully) best for the world rather than what one person or one group has decided that everyone should follow.
The purpose of this kind of SCIENCE!™ troubles me. It reminds me of scientific racism: that there must be something abnormal, something wrong or different about people who do not conform to parameters of “normalcy” imposed by authoritarian hierarchies. My atheism freed me from that type of bigotry.
The question of whether or not gods exist is irrelevant. The question of why some people have faith in the existence of gods and such, and others do not, is irrelevant. Those issues are divisive…exclusionary…and create more problems than solutions, especially in religion.
We all have much more serious issues to worry about.
“We all have much more serious issues to worry about.”
Right. Not IF there’s a/some god/s, or WHY people believe or don’t, but rather IF they believe, what they DO around those beliefs: kill / discriminate / rape / kidnap / steal? Or contribute / help / benefit the whole world around them (not just their cronies).
If need be, I will convert at The Pearly Gates only so we all can count clouds together.
I hope you realize that means lying to St. Peter. Keep that in mind when Righteous Thunder begins to roll. I may need a reference.
There’s plenty of reasons not to believe, I’ve always been put off the by what I view as the patriarchal, human conceit of most organized religion (who the hell do we think we are anyway?) My family was probably best described as agnostic. I don’t ever remember believing in any kind of god. When I got old enough to give it more serious thought, atheism never sat well with me because it seemed that god (small case intended) was still at it’s center, as in “I don’t believe in God”.
I believe there is no god. I could go on but Penn Gillette said it better than I ever could. He was more polite than I am. He capitalized.
“I believe there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy. You can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again.
Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word `elephant’ includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire? So anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy. But this, This I Believe thing, seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So I’m saying this I believe: I believe there is no God.
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. If seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I give joy every day.
Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good. It makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around. Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people, from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting so we can really communicate.
I don’t travel in circles where people say, `I have faith, I believe this in my heart, and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.’ That’s just a long-winded religious way to say `Shut up’ or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than `How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you could ever say or do.’ So believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong. And that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.
Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family and indeed all the suffering in the world isn’t caused by any omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future. Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O, and all the other things I can prove that makes this life the best life I will ever have.”
Do you mean the god of the “Bible?” And if so, what version? And do you mean the Old Testament, or the New Testament?
Oh, yeah, for over a thousand years there have been biblical scholars trying to figure out those questions.
Dating Jesus 
Skeptical or cynical?
“Agenticity” or confirmation bias?
I tend to doubt this kind of SCIENCE!™ because it doesn’t accurately describe my transition to atheism…which had nothing to do with my family environment…and occurred long before I left home.
Atheism…in these times…is much more complex than just a loss of faith or disbelief in gods. So yeah…more study…as long as taxpayer dollars aren’t paying it…because one has to ask oneself…the critical thinking self: What difference does it make?”
“because one has to ask oneself…the critical thinking self: What difference does it make?” ”
Thank you.
By not believing in, or, I think more importantly, not worshipping, a deity, I save myself the worry about whose god is more real; I don’t have to think about which group’s set of archaic and arbitrary rules I should follow or why somebody else’s concepts are inferior to mine. It’s very freeing. This doesn’t mean that there are no rules and no morality, just that the scope seems to me to be much larger, a scope of what’s (hopefully) best for the world rather than what one person or one group has decided that everyone should follow.
The purpose of this kind of SCIENCE!™ troubles me. It reminds me of scientific racism: that there must be something abnormal, something wrong or different about people who do not conform to parameters of “normalcy” imposed by authoritarian hierarchies. My atheism freed me from that type of bigotry.
The question of whether or not gods exist is irrelevant. The question of why some people have faith in the existence of gods and such, and others do not, is irrelevant. Those issues are divisive…exclusionary…and create more problems than solutions, especially in religion.
We all have much more serious issues to worry about.
“We all have much more serious issues to worry about.”
Right. Not IF there’s a/some god/s, or WHY people believe or don’t, but rather IF they believe, what they DO around those beliefs: kill / discriminate / rape / kidnap / steal? Or contribute / help / benefit the whole world around them (not just their cronies).
I haven’t weighed in because, well, I keep trying to convert you two infidels and after six years, I have failed miserably.
Just kidding.
If need be, I will convert at The Pearly Gates only so we all can count clouds together.
I hope you realize that means lying to St. Peter. Keep that in mind when Righteous Thunder begins to roll. I may need a reference.
You’ve got it. And counting clouds sounds wonderful. It won’t be heaven without you.
Aww…thank you.
But hey…you know…if there’s going to anybody who knows all the good shit to do in heaven, it’s gonna be Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist.
Which is why I’m going to request a seat next to yours.
I think Jesus would back you up on that.
There’s plenty of reasons not to believe, I’ve always been put off the by what I view as the patriarchal, human conceit of most organized religion (who the hell do we think we are anyway?) My family was probably best described as agnostic. I don’t ever remember believing in any kind of god. When I got old enough to give it more serious thought, atheism never sat well with me because it seemed that god (small case intended) was still at it’s center, as in “I don’t believe in God”.
I believe there is no god. I could go on but Penn Gillette said it better than I ever could. He was more polite than I am. He capitalized.
“I believe there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy. You can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again.
Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word `elephant’ includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire? So anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy. But this, This I Believe thing, seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So I’m saying this I believe: I believe there is no God.
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. If seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I give joy every day.
Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good. It makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around. Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people, from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting so we can really communicate.
I don’t travel in circles where people say, `I have faith, I believe this in my heart, and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.’ That’s just a long-winded religious way to say `Shut up’ or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than `How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you could ever say or do.’ So believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong. And that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.
Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family and indeed all the suffering in the world isn’t caused by any omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future. Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O, and all the other things I can prove that makes this life the best life I will ever have.”
Sorry for the long post but I figured I wouldn’t send you chasing after a link. However if your interested:
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=5015557
What do you mean when you say “God?”
Do you mean the god of the “Bible?” And if so, what version? And do you mean the Old Testament, or the New Testament?
Oh, yeah, for over a thousand years there have been biblical scholars trying to figure out those questions.
“Oh, yeah, for over a thousand years there have been biblical scholars trying to figure out those questions.”
…and interpreters of those questions trying to convince everybody else that the interpreters’ analyses are The Only True Answers and Beliefs.