I agree that Atheism should be bottom up. I think the problem is that we often misidentify the bottom. There is certainly a historical precedent for it. There was a point when people assumed the world was flat, because why wouldn't they. It appears we may have done this again with the human mind. The idea that we obviously have free will because we appear to choose things. That our consciousness separates us from inanimate objects.
I agree that we can give things meaning and purpose. And we are limited only by our ability to not think about it too hard. But to me, I see little difference in creating a make believe God to get some perks that'd come along with such an idea, to believing 7 billion humans are all on one big team together, because we happened to be the same species.
Why don't you like to see suffering? I'd guess it's a combination of evolution and societal brainwashing? The thing with evolution, is that it is not an intelligent design. We know it's resulted in a bunch of stupid on top of not getting rid of other stupid stuff that is irrelevant from millions of years ago.
And this is where I'm curious to get other people's take on my thinking.
Take the dark. We are, by design, afraid of the dark because we don't see well which makes us prone to predators. Or thunder. Thunder warns of lightning and storms. Or heights. Because falling results in death. All these things, I think, are the default programming.
But we can look at those things objectively, recognize they are irrational, and easily overcome them. heights make me uncomfortable, but I don't let it keep me off roller coasters. I don't sleep with a night light. And if I'm inside, I don't worry about thunder.
So what happens when we start applying that thinking to stuff like empathy. I see a homeless guy suffering, and I feel bad. But what if I know I feel bad, because we were a pack animal back in the day, and it was just a way for us to protect the group so we could survive and propagate? Now that I know my future is no longer tied to that homeless guy's well-being, isn't caring about his suffering the same as being afraid of the dark?
I agree that we can give things meaning and purpose. And we are limited only by our ability to not think about it too hard. But to me, I see little difference in creating a make believe God to get some perks that'd come along with such an idea, to believing 7 billion humans are all on one big team together, because we happened to be the same species.
Why don't you like to see suffering? I'd guess it's a combination of evolution and societal brainwashing? The thing with evolution, is that it is not an intelligent design. We know it's resulted in a bunch of stupid on top of not getting rid of other stupid stuff that is irrelevant from millions of years ago.
And this is where I'm curious to get other people's take on my thinking.
Take the dark. We are, by design, afraid of the dark because we don't see well which makes us prone to predators. Or thunder. Thunder warns of lightning and storms. Or heights. Because falling results in death. All these things, I think, are the default programming.
But we can look at those things objectively, recognize they are irrational, and easily overcome them. heights make me uncomfortable, but I don't let it keep me off roller coasters. I don't sleep with a night light. And if I'm inside, I don't worry about thunder.
So what happens when we start applying that thinking to stuff like empathy. I see a homeless guy suffering, and I feel bad. But what if I know I feel bad, because we were a pack animal back in the day, and it was just a way for us to protect the group so we could survive and propagate? Now that I know my future is no longer tied to that homeless guy's well-being, isn't caring about his suffering the same as being afraid of the dark?
