Holy Toledo Batman!

[botias]

I discovered recently that I am part of America's most distrusted and generally reviled minority and I did not even know it. It seems, that out of 2000 households polled, most would rather have their child marry someone who was gay, a racial minority or a recent immigrant than an atheist.

And apparently I am among only 3% of my countrymen/women/prefer not to state. Makes me wonder how I ever managed to find another such person and marry and reproduce. But yup, I is an atheist. It would be more socially acceptable to call myself agnostic, I think. And truly I don't believe that humans know or are even capable of knowing the nature of the universe; I have not supplanted a faith in God with a faith in Science. Maybe this IS just a big ant farm for some unknowable being; I don't see how anyone could possibly know one way or the other.

But I feel pretty confident as to whether there is an all-powerful deity or deities who is making a list and checking it twice, who has a great unknowable plan which just happens to render every injustice meaningful, in whose benevolent presence we will someday be with Grandma and Grandpa and Sparky again. It just seems obvious to me that deities are made by people to meet their own needs since that is the only thing they seem to have in common with one another from culture to culture and from church to church.

I've made a good faith effort to be open-minded. I read The Life of Pi. Argument: believing in deities makes the story of life more colorful and splendid. Well, alright, but I can't force myself to feel a hunger for more color and splendiferousness in my life. Further, it is not in my nature to believe something only because it makes me feel better. I'm inclined to believe that such a practice is irresponsible as it may lead me to inadvertently harm people that are not living in my personal reality. An extreme example of this being parents who have withheld life-saving medications from their children because, in their more splendid reality, their children had been cured by their deity.

I've read C.S. Lewis. Argument: there is no other explanation for the ability of humans to feel awe (he uses another word actually, which means awe+babillionty, further he fits in the splendiferousness argument as well) I can't buy that; I've seen the way golden retrievers look at their alphas, a equally likely explanation is that it's a social animal thing.

If anyone out there has better and different arguments, I'm happy to entertain them.

Comments

[bendy1.livejournal.com]

An extreme example of this being parents who have withheld life-saving medications from their children because, in their more splendid reality, their children had been cured by their deity.

Heh, my childhood religion went one further - you wouldn't be cured, but it was always better to suffer in this life than disobey the rules and not get the prize for being good. No benefits AT ALL to that one, not even a heaven.

I do wonder why people default to a standard religion in questionnaires even if they aren't church going or bible reading or anything that could possibly be called religious. Like Christianity is a culture rather than a block of religions and that it's better to side with something than be godless. I'm intrigued as to how many identified as agnostic.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Sounds cheery. :/

There are so many reasons people identify with or are drawn to a religion. I do think one of them is cultural identification. Clearly another is the need to punish oneself or others.

[db2305.livejournal.com]

*hugs fellow weirdo*

And mind you, here in the Netherlands we're like a forty to sixty percent minority/majority, depending on how you ask the question! It's your fellow Americans who're wierd!

[botias.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think the Netherlands is the place for me. It sounds like the Netherlands is a lot more sensible than my country, where far too many people believe they have been abducted by a UFO at some time or other.

[fangfaceandrea.livejournal.com]

word :D
Though I'm ind of a weird Atheis cause thanks to my Catholic upbringring I keep evoking god all the time, even if i don't believe int it.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I've tried to remove the idiom from my speech, because it doesn't mean anything to me, but might alienate others. Maybe people who would otherwise hire me or something. But is is not always easy.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

*hah* Like how I've deliberately trained myself not to use any of the commonly objectionable four-letter expletives while at work, and instead say things like "spleenweasels!" and "spackitt!"? ;)

[botias.livejournal.com]

Spleenweasels, I'll have to try and adopt that one, both of them really. :) Really, some people have given profanity a bad name.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

YOU HERETIC ATHEIST SCUM!!! IT'S BURNIN' TIMES AGAIN!!! *sets up stake*

... yah, whatever. I dunno; all I know is that most of the people I know are atheists, agnostics, half-assed paganish, or quarter-assed anything-elseists. I'm in the half-assed paganish camp myself; the other half of my ass is firmly agnostic. I don't really understand religion, so I'm probably not the best expert on the subject. ;)

[botias.livejournal.com]

At last, FLAMES in my journal! I have arrived in the new millennium now, boy howdy.

I don't know, I understand what people use religion for:

• To find a community and support system


• To comfort themselves in the face of human mortality, suffering, injustice and ignorance


• To provide an imaginary friend or lover


• To reify society and its rules and regs, that way you don't have to reinvent it every time leadership changes hands


• To bolster their position of status or authority


• To take advantage of other people


• To appeal to that part of people that sacrifices their self-interest for that of their community in order to improve the general lot of humankind


• To make oneself feel special and significant

So far I have either met these needs in other ways or don't have the need at all.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Oh, intellectually I understand what religion is "for", and there are reasons ranging all up and down the charts. To my perspective, it's kind of like watching people swim when I've never been in water deeper than my knees. Sure, it looks easy from here - but toss me in the pool, and I'd drown. .... which is a pretty junky analogy, but whatever.

And yeah, ditto in finding my needs met other ways, or not needing them within that structure. I think it's one of those things that you have to have grown up with religion, or even with a - sense of religion (being raised atheist, and taught about religion and why it's wrong or whatever, might count too), otherwise when you grow up it's - just not there. As much as I hate using the word, all I can say is that I don't "grok" religion very well. I have my own set of wacky beliefs about the world and stuff, but I'm pretty sure they don't qualify as any kind of "religion."

... yay, handwaving! :P

[mentalme85.livejournal.com]

Hi *waves* I'm with you. Since I was old enough to understand and think for myself I was agnostic then athesist. I agree we can never know for sure, but science makes more sense to me then religion. But like you I am open minded and respect others beliefs even if I don't get them.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it is important to be respectful even if it is not always easy.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Very true, it was some years before I got them straight. :)