Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[Excited Penguin]

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For me, I just can't make sense of there being anything supernatural.  If God existed, that would be natural.  If miracles were a thing, they too would be natural but of a variety not understood by ourselves .. possibly they'd even be beyond our comprehension owing to our limitations.  But that wouldn't make them something other than natural.  We just have to realize that our perceptual/cognitive array is not the gold standard of what is natural.  Everything out there is real and natural.

What I really believe in is the real world, including love and dreams and inspiration and wonder and all the other subjective states arising in our very real and natural brains.  What offends me about the concept of the supernatural is the idea that the real world is only an idea in the divine mind.  As though the real world about which we've learned so much were a facade brought into being on the whim of God.  The idea of miracles as just the setting aside of the real-world divine idea when He finds it less convenient frankly offends me.



I don't reject the idea of gods.  In fact I take them very seriously.  I think they've played a big role in our becoming what we are.  They are definitely part of the real world I am so passionate about.  But I don't think they are entities in their own right.  They live where they have always been, in our psyches.  I have no doubt that consciousness is not simply the conscious mind along with a bunch of noise in the system.  Consciousness need not be and most often is not unitary.  I believe the mind is still fully capable of producing gods right there on board where believers encounter them - and no, I don't think they are just fooling themselves.  In some ways the contributions of the other facets of consciousness create the ground of being which make our conscious lives possible.  In that sense you can call them our creators.  But no gods ever had a hand in creating the physical world.  That sort of literalism should be avoided.

But that said, why become an atheist?  I don't see any reason for it at all.  If you have been raised in a culture that has brought you into a relationship with a God whose presence and company you enjoy, why give that up?  I'd encourage you to avoid literalism in such things but I'm just one more adult in the world same as you.  Do as you like.

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I don't mind your pet theories about consciousness, stupid as they sound, but do try to make a little more sense, please.

Hardly the point, since you won't answer, but do clarify, do you mean to say human consciousness isn't situated only in the brain, but somewhere else at well?


How do you reconcile God with the nature of consciousness: where do you find "God" in the mind? 

Do elaborate on your description of what you think consciousness consists of, and tell us your reasons for believing so, other than introspection coupled with a general education about the brain, if that.