RE: Can you persuade me from Agnostic to Atheist?
May 25, 2016 at 1:04 pm
(This post was last modified: May 25, 2016 at 1:05 pm by Whateverist.)
(May 25, 2016 at 12:20 pm)wiploc Wrote: If you told me that animists worship gods that are little piles of rocks, and that little piles of rocks exist, I'd say that a little pile of rocks isn't what I mean by "god." When I say I don't believe in gods, I don't mean that I disbelieve in everything anyone could possibly call a god. I have a friend who wonders whether hydrogen is god. I definitely believe in hydrogen. Some people think the entire universe is god, and I believe in the universe.
I just don't believe those are gods.
I think it is most appropriate to allow that whatever it was that gave rise to god belief is what gods actually are, as opposed to the institutional versions religions turn out. On that basis I think God/gods is a capacity of the mind. Your mind gives rise to your conscious sense of personhood. It also gives rise to dreams, fantasies and hallucinations. Somewhere in there it also gives rise to what are called gods and for millennia people have found it worthwhile to take them into account.
So if you can acknowledge that the god you believe in is an aspect of your own consciousness, I have no beef with that. My mind doesn't seem to be running any god subroutine. But if it decides to kick in I don't see why I couldn't deal with that without projecting 'god' out there into the world. If anyone enjoys the experience of god belief and can maintain enough perspective to acknowledge that this entity they feel in connection with is just a mystery about which they know nothing at all .. I'll buy them a drink.
