(August 16, 2014 at 2:22 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: At first thought, that may appear to be a paradoxical question; like asking, "Do you doubt your disbelief in X?" With certain propositions, however, that is not a meaningless, nor fruitless inquiry to initiate. I have grown increasingly convinced that God, as an idea in its purest form, the free, unconditionally necessary, infinite source of our existence in this particular Universe, is one of those propositions. I am reluctant to use the term Being as this seems an unfortunate presumption, but that this state of affairs--which has historically and in measured respect been the God of true religion--in fair terms, a necessary mechanism on which all rational and empirical experience depends upon, seems to have a mounting case, no longer merely the crowning achievement of philosophy, but apparently also the crown that physical science so desperately seeks: A theory of everything.
But ah, I digress. I could go on but the point is, in atheism, what I am willing to call God, may be a middle ground where two polar opposites can meet, fully aware that in no way does this Ideal of Reason alter any of the functions of our Universe, but instead serves as the systematic unity by which we can perceive reality for what it is, the source of which makes that unity in consciousness we understand as the Self or the Ego possible. At what point of understanding does true religion earn the respect that its name is supposed to represent?
I doubt it daily, based on the fact that I can't account for consciousness through naturalism. But I guess that means I've been pushed to the view that perhaps this universe isn't all that there is, and after death we 'naturally' proceed to the next stage of consciousness, whatever or however that might be. This isn't to say it makes me wonder if "GOD" is real, because adopting that view would be to take a step backwards, philosophically speaking.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle