The psychology of atheism

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11.08.2018 10:32PM

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@keithprosser

I don't really talk about atheism but from what I have read, it can be sort of like describing all the known characteristics of the machine without actually acknowledging that there might be a machine. That is specifically for something like science worship on the Internet though. I wouldn't say pupose in the universe coincides with predisposition to theology.

#32

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11.08.2018 10:38PM

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@EtrnlVw

@keithprosser

It is simply a matter of accepting that The Ultimate Reality refers to exactly what the meaning of those words refer to. What makes it difficult is taking it to mean anything but that. The problem has nothing to do with my inability to explain it, it has everything to do with not accepting what it means.

There is only one Ultimate Reality, it is Reality in the truest sense of the word. A theory of everything would at best be an image of this. A theory is a created thing, it is an understanding. God is not an understanding, God is The Supreme Being. The Truth.

#33

EtrnlVw

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EtrnlVw

11.08.2018 11:44PM

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@Mopac

It is simply a matter of accepting that The Ultimate Reality refers to exactly what the meaning of those words refer to. What makes it difficult is taking it to mean anything but that. The problem has nothing to do with my inability to explain it, it has everything to do with not accepting what it means.

Try again. Those who accept what it means have accepted first the reality of it, not the definition of ultimate reality. That has to do with the reasoning behind the acceptance, for why they would even consider it. I know what the ultimate reality means because I have already accepted the logic behind it, or the evidence of there being a Creator. Ultimate reality means nothing to anyone but Theists.

#34

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11.09.2018 12:35AM

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@EtrnlVw

Ultimate reality means a great deal to atheists until they make the connection between this and God, because after that, theophobia takes hold and they have to fight it on principle. After that, they tend to play stupid. Unless they are honest, and in that case they repent.

Believe me, if an atheist thought they could use ultimate reality as an argument against God, they would.

Rather than defend people for using straw men, why don't you correct them? If you are really trying to help, why are you arguing with me in front of them instead of PMing me?

The atheist professes the position that they don't believe in truth. If they are offended at this reality, it is because even they know this is stupid, and they should abandon this superstitious identity.

There is at least One God we should all be able to agree on. The Truth. If you can't accept this God, you condemn yourself.

#35

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11.09.2018 02:30AM

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@keithprosser

Do you know of any other isms that denote a lack of belief? I give zero $#@% about race except as other people's beliefs effect those around them in the world I was born into so I guess that makes me aracist. I used to lack belief but now I think I have disbelief I might act upon. I think it's less confusing to say, you don't believe in something if that's genuinely the case than provide a dualistic definition. Atheism should either denote belief contrary to the root or disbelief for it to have any philosophical utility. One would imagine it was originally coined to express denial.

#36

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11.09.2018 03:23AM

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@Mopac

The truth is that men create gods, all gods (case not sensitive)

#37

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11.09.2018 03:36AM

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@Mopac

You can't explain it's meaning and I'm wrong for not understanding what you don't understand, you must get very, very dizzy.

BTW you're the only person I've ever met who accepts the holy merriam webster as the word of god. Billions of people believe in a god and all of those gods are different, absolutely everyone of them.

#38

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11.09.2018 03:42AM

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@Plisken

Rejection not denial. Some man claims some god exists and has absolutely nothing to support that claim so the intelligent among us reject his unsupportable claim. Voila atheism.

#39

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11.09.2018 03:44AM

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@disgusted

Thank you, I was thinking about changing that last sentence myself.

#40

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11.09.2018 03:44AM

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@Mopac

All Gods (case not sensitive) are the creations of men.

#41

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11.09.2018 03:47AM

@ET

Actually ultimate reality is meaningless to everyone but especially those like you and Mop who reject reality.

#42

3RU7AL

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3RU7AL

11.09.2018 07:19PM

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@keithprosser

Oh, behold, as the ancient teleological fallacy beast swims from the depths and pokes its nose once more at the surface.

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#43

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11.10.2018 03:48AM

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@Plisken

Atheists believe that the universe operates on materialist principles such as causality alone. Their world view does inlcude a god and it is that feature of their worldview that provided the label 'athest'.

8 days later

#44

Castin

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Castin

11.18.2018 09:57AM

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@keithprosser

Imagine a vast, clockwork machine.   It has millions of finely detailed cogs and levers pulling and pushing on each other.   I want you to imagine it is as beautiful and complicated as you can.

If we watch the machine we see the cogs turning and the levers pushing, but it doesn't have any purpose. It runs and ticks, the wheels and cogs spin and turn and the levers push and pull in complicated ways but all without purpose. It will continue to tick pointlessly until the day it breaks and stops forever, having done nothing except spin its cogs and push its levers.   As far as we can tell the machine came from nowhere and having done so ticks in futile purposelessness to an end, all for nothing.

That is only an initial at a metaphor of the universe - no doubt it can be criticised and improved! The point it that I can imagine there are people who can and cannot accept it as a metaphor of the universe.    If you can then you are probably an atheist - I suggest typical theists cannot accept that the universe is a pointless mechanism that runs for no reason with no purpose, no meaning nor goal to it.

It's almost as if the brain punishes us for seeing the world as it is, and rewards us for seeing the world as it isn't.

Not right, of course. It's more like the brain rewards us for thinking anything that's conducive to our survival. Despair and pointlessness are demoralizing and the mind must protect itself from them somehow. There's a reason humanity has been reaching for religion since the dawn of higher consciousness.

#45

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11.18.2018 03:10PM

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@Castin

There's a reason humanity has been reaching for religion since the dawn of higher consciousness.

Has it? And is that why they've invented so many gods?

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#46

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https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/

11.18.2018 04:06PM

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@disgusted

There's a reason humanity has been reaching for religion since the dawn of higher consciousness.

I'd hope Cas was using 'religion' in a very broad sense. i don't think religions have to involve gods, but i am not sure what makes something a religion! In one way a religion is no more than a set of principles one lives by, often without a strictly logical basis.
Sometimes i call myself a 'humanist' because my personal values are a close match to those of otherpeople who call themselves humanists.

I wish they hadn't called it a 'manifesto' - it makes it sound like they want to take over the world! It's more a like a 'creed', but not binding. The point of linking to it is 'is humanism a religion?'. my view isthat humanism is what it is - whether you call it a religion or not is immaterial unless you are writing a dictionary!

#47

BrutalTruth

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BrutalTruth

11.21.2018 04:08AM

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@janesix

Don't listen to Mopac. He thinks "God is truth." Meaning truth itself. What he doesn't seem to comprehend is that "truth" is an intellectual idea, not an entity. An intellectual idea has no ability to affect any physical thing(such as the ability to create). His entire belief system is based off of a logical fallacy(a semantic argument stating that the definition of "truth" fits the description of "God" given in scripture, therefore to deny "God" exists is to deny "truth" exists, or "reality" exists. He's an idiot).

#48