RE: Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?
November 28, 2016 at 10:15 am
Hi Balaco, from the UK.
There's something I wanted to highlight that may put a different slant on your thinking. You seem to be identifying atheists as a homogeneous group whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. You see, the label 'atheist' doesn't tell you what people believe or hold as value-systems. It only tells you that they don't hold theistic beliefs. So there are atheists that are deists, buddhists, pagans, spiritualists, supernaturalists, scientismists, empiricists, materialists, rationalists, irrationalists and more besides! As I'm sure you're seeing, even amongst the people on this forum, there are differences in approach.
For me, I think the best thing to do is examine how you approach 'truth': how do you identify it, do you value it above other concerns (e.g. comfort), what are your standards of evidence, how reliable are your sources... These are deep questions and are not entered in to lightly; a good analogy for your current search.
I hope your quest is honest and fruitful.
(November 22, 2016 at 6:44 pm)Balaco Wrote:
There's something I wanted to highlight that may put a different slant on your thinking. You seem to be identifying atheists as a homogeneous group whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. You see, the label 'atheist' doesn't tell you what people believe or hold as value-systems. It only tells you that they don't hold theistic beliefs. So there are atheists that are deists, buddhists, pagans, spiritualists, supernaturalists, scientismists, empiricists, materialists, rationalists, irrationalists and more besides! As I'm sure you're seeing, even amongst the people on this forum, there are differences in approach.
For me, I think the best thing to do is examine how you approach 'truth': how do you identify it, do you value it above other concerns (e.g. comfort), what are your standards of evidence, how reliable are your sources... These are deep questions and are not entered in to lightly; a good analogy for your current search.
I hope your quest is honest and fruitful.
Sum ergo sum