No longer an atheist but what am I? A different kind of CREATIONIST..

[ignoramus]

I actually enjoyed that!
The dragon is our genetic disposition from 3 billion years of evolution guiding us.
It's not as silly as it sounds.

Anyway, a new religion is now in order...
Can I be an Autobot dragon called "flamethrower!"

[Whateverist]

Indeed you may. Flame on, brother.

[LivingNumbers6.626]

[ShaMan]

But we don't as conscious entities exist in a vacuum.

[Cato]

[Whateverist]

Leggo of my dragonos! No vanquishing required.

[Clueless Morgan]

If you don't actually photoshop this photo, I will.

*off to google appropriate images...*

I'm still waiting

[Drich]

I doubt if I'll qualify as a theist. I have no interest in the bible. It doesn't matter to me whether any deity had anything to do with putting together the cosmos, and I most certainly don't think the foundations of "what is" were laid by any being's intention. But we're not alone.

I don't know if they're 'higher' powers but there do seem to be other forces at work within each one of us which make us possible. Being unitary, I'm convinced, is an illusion. That we are heroes in our own stories is no illusion, but we accomplish nothing on our own. Our accomplishment isn't that we vanquish the dragons of our unconsciousness minds. A dead dragon does no one any good. Nope. Victory is when you enter into a relationship of mutual respect and support with the ancients.

No doubt, we exist as conscious entities with the capacity to analyze and innovate because that was advantageous over being hardwired to respond to situations instinctively. But we don't as conscious entities exist in a vacuum. All the instinctual impulses of our much older mammalian brains are still intact and what counts as satisfaction and fulfillment are not up to our conscious minds to decide. If we are free at all, we are free to choose the means to the ends of our organism's desires. We are not free to choose those desires. We have evolved to recognize how the satisfaction of some desires are mutually exclusive and to prioritize those that are dearer. But realization and actualization are not same thing. No desire dies willingly.

So I guess what I believe in are dragons. I believe there are ancient drives which must be served. I also believe that in the realm of creativity there are better sources to draw on than my conscious mind. When you serve your dragons well, they will infuse you with more insight and energy. When they go unfulfilled you can lose all affect and become despondent. We've been put in a position of great responsibility but we do better with the support of all the stakeholders of our being.

There is a sense in which the same ancient forces which produced the dragons have produced our conscious minds too. Creationism might well apply to consciousness even though it is a joke in relation to the cosmos. We've been created by ancient forces and are sustained by them still. We are neither as independent nor as barren as the modern myth of the individual would have it. Perhaps it is time to reclaim "Creationism" from those xtian yokels?

Yeah.. I saw dragons once too.

[Whateverist]

Yes pot can be the gateway to seeing the dragons alright.

I found another gateway leading to your Jesus. This has got to be a sign from gawd, don't you think?

[ignoramus]

you're a funny man!
I might print that out and put in on my dart board!