'As an atheist' I'll be honest

[walt]

Yeah, it's one of those posts.

As I guess, mostly an atheist, I will say that I'm not completely against the idea of a higher power. I've always tried to be open minded about things, and this is one of those things which I believe will always be open to interpretation. I think that because of the difference between our size, and the relative size of the universe, it is foolish to not be open minded to all possibilities. Whether that higher power is some nerd with a computer, a conglomerate of intelligent aliens, or some other-worldly force that we cannot verbally describe, I don't know. But I am open to the idea that such a power can indeed exist, and it has rattled my brain for a long time.

My counterpoint to this interpretation is, I also believe that whatever it is that may reign over the universe, humans have gotten it completely wrong. I disagree with all written interpretations of God, simply because of how many holes there are in the assumptions that they lay forth. Go ahead and read about it, I'm not really in the mood for explaining myself but there's tons of lectures by highly educated people out there.

Some of my counter beliefs also have to do with my notion that humans were not built to understand the universe, which from an evolutionary stance, they were not. Whatever the answer may be, I do not know, but it's always fun to think about.

 

[GrumpyFrog]

Hmm, sounds like you're more of an agnostic rather than atheist.

 

[walt]

Hmm, sounds like you're more of an agnostic rather than atheist.

Maybe? I think that my rejection of popular interpretations might make me more of an atheist though.

 

[symphony]

Hmm, sounds like you're more of an agnostic rather than atheist.

Atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive. Atheism = not believing, agnosticism = not knowing. You can be atheist and not agnostic ("I know there is no god"), both ("I don't know for sure but I believe there is no god"), etc.

My view is that unless a god directly revealed themselves to every human ever, it's impossible to know for sure either way where there is or is not one or more gods.

 

[Mich517]

I don't eliminate idea of higher power. I had a few incredible coincidences in my life and sometimes I have sleep dreams which can be associated with events during the same day.

 

[Sunset Limited]

Sometimes I'm agnostic, sometimes I'm religious. When I am angry at life, I am a believer and curse God. When I calm down, I become agnostic again.

 

[walt]

Atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive. Atheism = not believing, agnosticism = not knowing. You can be atheist and not agnostic ("I know there is no god"), both ("I don't know for sure but I believe there is no god"), etc.

My view is that unless a god directly revealed themselves to every human ever, it's impossible to know for sure either way where there is or is not one or more gods.

This explains it very well. Thank you!

 

[Red Scare]

As I guess, mostly an atheist, I will say that I'm not completely against the idea of a higher power.

Have you ever looked into metaphysical naturalism, or naturalistic pantheism? Personally as an atheist, that is the closest thing there is I believe to a higher power: it's nature. Nature itself, is the highest power, and I think naturalistic pantheism, is like bridging the gap between atheism and spirituality in a way that makes it palatable to atheists.

If you have studied eastern religions then it is very similar to find parallels, for instance, Brahma can become a metaphorical symbolic representation of nature as a whole, and even ancient in Egyptian religion, you find parallels. The earliest religions worshipped nature. Solar worship became a more specific form of that, and eventually christians hijacked it and made it all about Jesus, who is still just a representation of the sun.

Jehovah/Yahweh was originally a caananite god, but is closely associated with Baal, which was regarded as a storm or a sky deity, so there you see elements of nature worship even in Abraham religions. The earlier pagan religions literally worshipped nature, the moon, the stars, the sun, and planets. Hermes is the planet Mercury, Gaia is the earth, and so on.

Some of my counter beliefs also have to do with my notion that humans were not built to understand the universe, which from an evolutionary stance, they were not. Whatever the answer may be, I do not know, but it's always fun to think about.

I disagree with this, we have done a pretty good job of understanding our universe over the past 200 years or so, with the advent of physics as a reliable and credible form of science. Do we understand absolutely everything? No, but we have done a good enough job of ascertaining what kind of natural forces are exerted on the earth, and that the Big Bang happened, etc.