Is atheism a belief?

[Shell B]

I appreciate that! I'm a little passionate about the public perception of Tourette's Syndrome. It's hugely misunderstood. Word salad it is not.

[fredd bear]

I appreciate that! I'm a little passionate about the public perception of Tourette's Syndrome. It's hugely misunderstood. Word salad it is not.

 Yeah. have only seen it once in real life. A friend's son. Very disconcerting initially. I think it's a terrible affliction, takes a lot of understanding from those around., and I imagine, a lot of self acceptance  on the part of the sufferer. Sadly, understanding is often lacking in the wider community

[bennyboy]

One of my best students ever got a really nasty tic starting around age 10. He was a very handsome and smart boy, very popular. When he started twitching and making the sounds, he was so ashamed that he had to stop coming to the class. His friends ranged from understanding to supportive, but the sounds did disturb the class flow someitmes-- and I think the more we tried to make him feel okay about it, the more humiliated he felt at being "that guy."

Not to trivialize him or anyone else, but the existence of conditions like that is one of the primary reasons that I cannot believe in anything like an omni-3 god. Hearing that a kid like that is being "tested" makes me wish that God was real and that I could light the fucker on fire. I'll reserve comment on how it makes me feel about the people who want to use a disorder as evidence of God's fucking love.

[Shell B]

It can be quite terrible. I've seen a young boy who would become immobile with one of his tics. He would just drop to the floor and be unable to move. Tics range from complex full-body tics like that to simple blinking.

[bennyboy]

It can be quite terrible. I've seen a young boy who would become immobile with one of his tics. He would just drop to the floor and be unable to move. Tics range from complex full-body tics like that to simple blinking.

No doubt.  I was epileptic as a child.  I was drugged for most of my childhood, and while I was in a pretty comfortable stupor at that time, looking back later on how my classmates treated me filled me with shame.  I "grew out" of it, but I'm pretty sure that my brain still functions differently than that of other people.  Things which seem sure to other people seem pretty unsure to me-- even down to sense of individual identity, confidence about physical reality and so on.  

___

To shamelessly use this aside about brain function/dysfunction to swing back around to the OP, I could say that this may contribute to differences in my philosophical outlook.  Some might say "Aha!  You are probably brain damaged, and so you cannot understand what I'm saying."  But to me, certain truths are self-evident in the experience of them: the existence of mind being one, and uncertainty about the nature of reality being another.  From my perspective, it looks like most people were born with a blue pill in their mouths, and I'm Buridan's ass, looking back and forth between red and blue but never really being able to choose.

To some degree, I'd say that atheism might not be a belief, but it is very often (I'd venture to say usually) is accompanied by a belief in the observations of the senses, in the capacity of the mind to infer truth from those observations, and in science and only science to comprehend ultimate reality.

I wouldn't say that soft atheism can be said to be a belief, but I'd say that some particular atheists' world views are nearly as dogmatic, for the same reasons and much in the same way, as those of religious folk.  Things like, "Well. . . we can't directly observe the human mind. . . yet.  But we will!" is much more a statement of faith in Science, the god of Truth™, than it is an accurate assessment of the interaction between the scientific process and philosophical truth. And when people say goofy stuff like "There's no mind, because we can't observe mind!" then this is very much a secular expression of "I am a jealous God, and thou shalt take no other Gods before me!"

[Abaddon_ire]

I appreciate that! I'm a little passionate about the public perception of Tourette's Syndrome. It's hugely misunderstood. Word salad it is not.

Right then. 

Around these here parts there is a semi-regular guest on talk radio who is a Tourettes sufferer. When one first hears it, one feels guilt at how funny such interviews are right up to the point when one comes to know the nature of the person and how she is fully aware of how it sounds.

If one pays attention, one learns that she simply cannot help it at all, but she is so self aware about it, and realises that it is funny as hell, that she is fondly held as one of the best interviewees ever. Somehow, she transcends predjudice by means of humour. It is a thing to behold. 

Once one got over the random inserted expletives, she was a peach with a wicked sense of humour and a hatload of self awareness.

Brave woman.

[tackattack]

Or one could not ever have found it funny and have empathy from the get go, typically because someone with a disability exist in their personal world.

[bennyboy]

"There but for the grace of God go I."

I wish there was a secular way of really catching that sentiment, but I can't think of one.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Jeez, 93 pages for a thread that should have ended with a one word reply in the second post.

[bennyboy]

Jeez, 93 pages for a thread that should have ended with a one word reply in the second post.

Yes!