RE: Atheism, Gnosticism & the Problem of Evil
March 5, 2021 at 7:51 am
(This post was last modified: March 5, 2021 at 8:02 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Where's the fuck all polls option? Bad form!
I get that the angry atheists thing is evergreen - but it's probably more to do with your own apprehensions than the level of anger on the boards or in atheism at-large. Not that this would matter, even to you, since you don't believe in objective whatsits to condemn angry atheists by. OFC, people can have misgivings - and what I've noticed over the years with deconversion stories and general conversation is that no atheist believes that god owes them something or is angry at a god they don't believe in. They believe that there were people who owed them something, and people that they believed in abused that trust. That god is what you would call a human evil.
Under the abrahamics view, though, there's no such thing as a genuinely natural evil (or, for that matter, a genuinely natural anything, it's all god-breathed). Natural evils are a gods human evils - identical in every respect of moral import. When we say that a man destroying someone's home with a bulldozer is evil, a god destroying someone's home with a wave is evil for the same reasons. When we say that the same man, seeing that a house was about to be destroyed and capable of stopping it does nothing - his apathy and inaction are evil - and so too would a gods apathy or inaction be, again in equal measure for the same reasons.
You might notice that there's no need to posit that the world is evil, or that there should be no conflict or suffering in the world, or to hate the world, in order to understand this relatively simple concept of moral import and agency? Were these all things that featured prominently in your deconversion or in some earlier position you held on gods, before you became an atheist or directly thereafter? Were you angry at a god you didn't believe in? Did you feel that a god you didn't believe in owed you (and owed you some specific thing or state of affairs)? Did the world seem somehow evil or unjust? Were you concerned by some particular human conflict?
Personally, I'm one of those "big deal" types. My being an atheist isn't what ultimately prevents me from being a christian, for example. I'm just not down with stringing up a jew to cover shaking my pecker one too many times when I pee.
I get that the angry atheists thing is evergreen - but it's probably more to do with your own apprehensions than the level of anger on the boards or in atheism at-large. Not that this would matter, even to you, since you don't believe in objective whatsits to condemn angry atheists by. OFC, people can have misgivings - and what I've noticed over the years with deconversion stories and general conversation is that no atheist believes that god owes them something or is angry at a god they don't believe in. They believe that there were people who owed them something, and people that they believed in abused that trust. That god is what you would call a human evil.
Under the abrahamics view, though, there's no such thing as a genuinely natural evil (or, for that matter, a genuinely natural anything, it's all god-breathed). Natural evils are a gods human evils - identical in every respect of moral import. When we say that a man destroying someone's home with a bulldozer is evil, a god destroying someone's home with a wave is evil for the same reasons. When we say that the same man, seeing that a house was about to be destroyed and capable of stopping it does nothing - his apathy and inaction are evil - and so too would a gods apathy or inaction be, again in equal measure for the same reasons.
You might notice that there's no need to posit that the world is evil, or that there should be no conflict or suffering in the world, or to hate the world, in order to understand this relatively simple concept of moral import and agency? Were these all things that featured prominently in your deconversion or in some earlier position you held on gods, before you became an atheist or directly thereafter? Were you angry at a god you didn't believe in? Did you feel that a god you didn't believe in owed you (and owed you some specific thing or state of affairs)? Did the world seem somehow evil or unjust? Were you concerned by some particular human conflict?
Personally, I'm one of those "big deal" types. My being an atheist isn't what ultimately prevents me from being a christian, for example. I'm just not down with stringing up a jew to cover shaking my pecker one too many times when I pee.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
