RE: Books regarding atheism
November 19, 2019 at 1:23 pm
(This post was last modified: November 19, 2019 at 1:34 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
I'm pretty sure that I realized I was an atheist, as some concrete thing in opposition to some other, sometime between beginning "The Golden Dawn" by Isreal Regardie, and finishing it.
It's a users manual on 19/20th century ceremonial magic and it's underlying mechanics/mythological constructs. The rituals were elaborate, and very well thought out to produce effects. I found myself highly amused by that, my personal observation being that as competent as the engineers of the system were, the rituals would ultimately fail, as the movement failed, because there were no gods to hear their pleas.
Just them, all dressed up with painted walls, humming to themselves, wishing the world were otherwise in so many ways.
I'd known for years that I didn't believe in the stories, but I didn't realize how deeply others might or how that differentiated us and the way we viewed the world as it is, or how it could be. My first reaction as a cognizant atheist, to other peoples beliefs..was something like "really?....I'd assumed that this was stuff people just said, not that you believed it as you say it...?". That's still there, obviously, lol.
That's why I suggest other peoples magic books. There's only one way to learn about atheism, itself, and that;s first hand experience..since it's nothing more or other than the first hand experience of a state of belief. You learn about it, even if you still believe in some god, by noticing your experience of other gods that you don't. You can read about other positions in the periphery of atheism, so often mistaken -for- atheism by theists and atheists alike - but atheism...well, lived experience is pretty much the beginning and the end of that one. There's nothing else to know about it. It has no tenets, no dogma, no collection of holy writ, no specific history or authorities..even.
It's a users manual on 19/20th century ceremonial magic and it's underlying mechanics/mythological constructs. The rituals were elaborate, and very well thought out to produce effects. I found myself highly amused by that, my personal observation being that as competent as the engineers of the system were, the rituals would ultimately fail, as the movement failed, because there were no gods to hear their pleas.
Just them, all dressed up with painted walls, humming to themselves, wishing the world were otherwise in so many ways.
I'd known for years that I didn't believe in the stories, but I didn't realize how deeply others might or how that differentiated us and the way we viewed the world as it is, or how it could be. My first reaction as a cognizant atheist, to other peoples beliefs..was something like "really?....I'd assumed that this was stuff people just said, not that you believed it as you say it...?". That's still there, obviously, lol.
That's why I suggest other peoples magic books. There's only one way to learn about atheism, itself, and that;s first hand experience..since it's nothing more or other than the first hand experience of a state of belief. You learn about it, even if you still believe in some god, by noticing your experience of other gods that you don't. You can read about other positions in the periphery of atheism, so often mistaken -for- atheism by theists and atheists alike - but atheism...well, lived experience is pretty much the beginning and the end of that one. There's nothing else to know about it. It has no tenets, no dogma, no collection of holy writ, no specific history or authorities..even.
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