RE: Atheists, what are your thoughts on us Agnostics?
June 23, 2017 at 4:04 pm
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2017 at 4:06 pm by Whateverist.)
Gad! Why is it everything having to do with religion is so difficult to speak about clearly? Oh, maybe it's because these 'god' critters are so poorly defined. Anyhow, I do accept both the agnostic and the atheist labels as applying to myself.
To the degree that gods are particular characters like the DC or Marvel superheroes I am thoroughly an atheist. I believe they are all works of fiction with no location in the world beyond. So if Superman is not real, neither is Jehovah or Odin.
But there is the rub. What the hell is a god anyhow? If you think of god as something intra-psychic, as an often occurring feature of some peoples psychology, then sure those are probably as real as "id" and "ego". I don't necessarily think that people who feel they commune with god in prayer are lying. If the 'god' they are communing with counts, then yeah I suppose gods can exist. But I don't know if they do because I can't look inside them and see if what they describe is actually going on. So I'm agnostic about the existence of 'personal' gods on a case by case basis.
But presumably when the question of god belief comes up, most often it is a mega/omni, creator being that is being asked about. I have no doubt that that sort of rubbish is just silly. No doubts whatsoever. But if you want to understand what role -if any- god belief has had in shaping our species then it really isn't any such literal funny stuff like that. Gods as a topic is only interesting at all as a psychic artifact, not a literal one.
To the degree that gods are particular characters like the DC or Marvel superheroes I am thoroughly an atheist. I believe they are all works of fiction with no location in the world beyond. So if Superman is not real, neither is Jehovah or Odin.
But there is the rub. What the hell is a god anyhow? If you think of god as something intra-psychic, as an often occurring feature of some peoples psychology, then sure those are probably as real as "id" and "ego". I don't necessarily think that people who feel they commune with god in prayer are lying. If the 'god' they are communing with counts, then yeah I suppose gods can exist. But I don't know if they do because I can't look inside them and see if what they describe is actually going on. So I'm agnostic about the existence of 'personal' gods on a case by case basis.
But presumably when the question of god belief comes up, most often it is a mega/omni, creator being that is being asked about. I have no doubt that that sort of rubbish is just silly. No doubts whatsoever. But if you want to understand what role -if any- god belief has had in shaping our species then it really isn't any such literal funny stuff like that. Gods as a topic is only interesting at all as a psychic artifact, not a literal one.
