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RE: Does atheism inspire people?
May 31, 2012 at 9:25 am
(This post was last modified: May 31, 2012 at 9:26 am by Whateverist.)
I think the question makes sense when you talk about something in particular, like religion. Clearly it has inspired lots of art and much of it well thought of for a long time.
To ask if atheism has done the same is obtuse for all the reasons already given.
Perhaps you meant to ask, are atheists inspired to make artwork inspite of their lack of belief. The answer to that is emphatically yes. My wife is an artist and has work in major collections and museums all over the world. She was raised without religion and is still religion free but it seems to have been no impediment to her creativity or success.
Of course she hasn't been inspired by atheism because that merely describes what she is not, a theist. Like everyone else, she is inspired by what she is and is interested in .. at the moment that would be science. She is speaking today at the Renwick in D.C. about collaborative work she has been doing with neuro-scientists using brain imagery.
Have you ever been inspired to make art by coin collecting, mass transit or climatology? If not the reason probably has more to do with your lack of interest or involvement with those things than it does with their intrinsic inability to inspire art.
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RE: Does atheism inspire people?
May 31, 2012 at 9:56 am
God has implanted knowledge of himself within every person, each individual has this knowledge, becoming aware of it is what differs from each individual. Some people deny it but are still aware of it. Some people don't relate it to what they understand from the term "God" this is because the term itself is misunderstood. But that awareness of something transcendent and numinous exists in all of us and is self evident to anyone who seeks it.