Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: August 22, 2025, 9:39 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Atheism and the Paranormal
#39
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal
Okay, I'm going to try to stay on topic and NOT think about naked high school girls.

It seems to me that there are 3 underlying issues here:

1. The distinction between religion and magic.
I'm very taken by the analysis of Levi-Strauss on this one (see The Savage Mind). According to Levi-Strauss, Religion is the projection of human qualities on to the non-human universe. A clear-cut case is the belief in divinely-ordained morality. Morals are human constructions that exist only because of human beliefs, desires and social conventions, but the religious mindset projects these human constructions on to the inanimate and meaningless universe. Magic is in a sense the reverse of religion- the projection of natural categories on to people and human institutions. A good example is Totemism, in which the differences between human tribes are understood as being the same as the differences between types of animal- so the Eagle tribe is to the Bear tribe as Eagles are to Bears. A more familiar example is Astrology.

It follows from this that there is nothing contradictory about viewing the world in mainly magical terms, while eschewing religion- they're actually 2 distinct ways of looking at things.

2. The Consequences of Materialist Philosophy
If you're a physicalist (materialist monist) then pretty clearly you don't believe in anything supernatural- religion and magic seem equally wrong. However, being a physicalist involves the denial of any sort of meaning or purpose in the universe beyond that which we, as conscious agents, create. Now personally, I'm very happy with this position, but IME mine is very much a minority view. Most people want the inanimate universe to have meaning, and they want to believe in something 'higher' than themselves.

Equally, many people can't handle the fact that when you die, you simply cease to exist. They believe that there must be something more to it than that.

Thus there are a large number of folk who are atheists (for whatever reason), but are psychologically unable to make the final step to an outright materialist metaphysics. They need some sort of 'comfort blanket' of spiritual/ supernatural beliefs.

3. Poor Understanding of Science
Another issue is that the general level of scientific literacy is shockingly low. Thus many people find it very difficult to distinguish science from pseudo-science. Homeopathy, crystal healing, and the widespread belief in ESP are imo largely the product of general scientific illiteracy.

Finished. Now I can think about naked high school girls again.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
Atheism and the Paranormal - by Cyborger - April 20, 2010 at 9:34 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Tiberius - April 20, 2010 at 9:40 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by D.S.M. - April 20, 2010 at 12:49 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by TheMultiverseTheory - April 20, 2010 at 4:06 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by fr0d0 - April 20, 2010 at 4:14 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by binny - April 20, 2010 at 4:38 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by leo-rcc - April 20, 2010 at 4:53 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by The_Flying_Skeptic - April 20, 2010 at 5:49 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - April 21, 2010 at 12:50 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 21, 2010 at 7:32 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Cyborger - April 21, 2010 at 8:12 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 21, 2010 at 6:14 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Paul the Human - April 21, 2010 at 10:18 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by EggSpurt - April 21, 2010 at 11:52 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by downbeatplumb - April 21, 2010 at 1:14 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by SleepingDemon - April 21, 2010 at 10:48 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by KichigaiNeko - April 22, 2010 at 3:49 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 22, 2010 at 7:31 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 22, 2010 at 8:23 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 22, 2010 at 9:06 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by KichigaiNeko - April 23, 2010 at 6:22 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 24, 2010 at 8:34 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 23, 2010 at 7:31 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by KichigaiNeko - April 24, 2010 at 6:51 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 24, 2010 at 7:14 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - April 24, 2010 at 9:08 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 24, 2010 at 12:05 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by downbeatplumb - April 26, 2010 at 2:31 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - April 24, 2010 at 8:59 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 24, 2010 at 10:03 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by KichigaiNeko - April 25, 2010 at 2:59 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 25, 2010 at 7:06 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Violet - April 25, 2010 at 7:08 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by KichigaiNeko - April 25, 2010 at 7:29 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - April 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Xyster - April 25, 2010 at 8:22 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Eilonnwy - April 26, 2010 at 9:04 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 27, 2010 at 1:51 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Caecilian - April 27, 2010 at 11:03 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 29, 2010 at 9:08 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - April 29, 2010 at 11:35 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Tiberius - May 1, 2010 at 9:24 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - April 30, 2010 at 9:26 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - May 1, 2010 at 2:44 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Eilonnwy - April 30, 2010 at 10:17 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - May 1, 2010 at 7:17 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Eilonnwy - May 1, 2010 at 1:49 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - May 1, 2010 at 9:01 pm
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Watson - May 2, 2010 at 12:58 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by padraic - May 2, 2010 at 2:07 am
RE: Atheism and the Paranormal - by Pippy - May 2, 2010 at 7:37 am

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Christian and Atheism Worldwide Demographics: Current Realities and Future Trends. Nishant Xavier 55 7350 July 9, 2023 at 6:07 am
Last Post: no one
  Atheism VS Christian Atheism? IanHulett 80 33320 June 13, 2017 at 11:09 am
Last Post: vorlon13
  Two Undeniable Truths Why Theism is True and Atheism and Agnosticism are Not True HiYou 49 15281 July 21, 2015 at 6:59 am
Last Post: KUSA
  Atheism, Scientific Atheism and Antitheism tantric 33 15737 January 18, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Last Post: helyott
  Strong/Gnostic Atheism and Weak/Agnostic Atheism Dystopia 26 14357 August 30, 2014 at 1:34 pm
Last Post: Dawsonite
  Debate share, young earth? atheism coverup? atheism gain? xr34p3rx 13 11927 March 16, 2014 at 11:30 am
Last Post: fr0d0
  Religion, Atheism, and Deism -and the middle ground. Mystic 6 3965 March 9, 2014 at 2:41 am
Last Post: rsb
  How we won the James Randi $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge deltoidmachine 24 9920 August 22, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Last Post: gall
  What proof and evidence is there for "atheism" to be accurate and correct? SavedByChrist94 42 25162 January 12, 2013 at 7:27 pm
Last Post: Aegrus
  A different definition of atheism. Atheism isn't simply lack of belief in god/s fr0d0 14 13366 August 1, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Last Post: Mister Agenda



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)