Good post as far as the 'belief in belief' thing goes at least. Dan Dennett has said a similar or pretty much the same thing. The huge majority of people don't believe in God. No one really does these days anymore apart from a few exceptions.
Most 'believers' these days, don't 'believe in God' they 'believe in thebelief in God'. They think the belief is a good thing, they believe in the belief ITSELF. Not in God.
And I guess you are right to say that even atheists have delusions. Some would have bigger than others. I'd say most atheists who have delusions, either have really minor ones, or some superstitious thinking like 'don't break a mirror or walk under a ladder' thing. Or they believe in pseudo-sciences like homeopathy and astrology. What I'm wondering is if you didn't actually believe in those superstitions as an atheist. What possible benefit would you get by believing in them? To socialize with astrology groups or people who believe in astrology for example? Why would you be interested in doing that? Is there a benefit? So I'm interested to hear you perhaps answer these questions in your post about atheist superstition that you mentioned you'll explain in future.
Adrian, I know that of course there are many diversities of religious belief. But don't the bible and koran for instance explicitly say you should do and believe certain things? So if you take your religion seriously and literally. You'd have to be fundamentalist about it and actually DO what the scripture says. So if you don't how can you actually really believe in God?
Although I think perhaps the answer to this, is this: Some people think that God is guiding them to interpret the scripture how he wants them to. Basically a justification for their cherry-picking as if it actually makes sense. A big cop-out to actually reading it properly. Could that be so? What do you think?
Most 'believers' these days, don't 'believe in God' they 'believe in thebelief in God'. They think the belief is a good thing, they believe in the belief ITSELF. Not in God.
And I guess you are right to say that even atheists have delusions. Some would have bigger than others. I'd say most atheists who have delusions, either have really minor ones, or some superstitious thinking like 'don't break a mirror or walk under a ladder' thing. Or they believe in pseudo-sciences like homeopathy and astrology. What I'm wondering is if you didn't actually believe in those superstitions as an atheist. What possible benefit would you get by believing in them? To socialize with astrology groups or people who believe in astrology for example? Why would you be interested in doing that? Is there a benefit? So I'm interested to hear you perhaps answer these questions in your post about atheist superstition that you mentioned you'll explain in future.
Adrian, I know that of course there are many diversities of religious belief. But don't the bible and koran for instance explicitly say you should do and believe certain things? So if you take your religion seriously and literally. You'd have to be fundamentalist about it and actually DO what the scripture says. So if you don't how can you actually really believe in God?
Although I think perhaps the answer to this, is this: Some people think that God is guiding them to interpret the scripture how he wants them to. Basically a justification for their cherry-picking as if it actually makes sense. A big cop-out to actually reading it properly. Could that be so? What do you think?
