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Faith and Faithlessness
I responded to a post in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
atheist community from a theist who was perplexed by atheism. My reply was ignored, of course. I'm beginning to believe that I'm invisible. But what the hell, I'll post it here. If only as a record for myself.
Because we simply see no evidence that God exists. It's really that simple; you see, or rather feel something that we just don't.
I once saw the noted author and atheist Isaac Asimov giving a lecture at the University of Bridgeport (CT) many years ago. During the question and answer session, several people in the audience stood up and asked him why he didn't believe in God; he'd written a book on the Bible, so they knew that he was aware of it. So why was he chosing to burn in Hell for eternity?
He answered, quite calmly, that religion was a matter of personal emotional experience - an experience that he hadn't had. They, he assumed, had had some sort of personal religious revelation; they had in some way felt touched by God. He had not. That being the case, any profession of religious faith on his part would be not only meaningless, but hypocritical.
The questioners didn't accept that, of course, and got pretty loud about it. They became so disruptive, in fact, that campus Security was called to escort them from the room.
So basically it comes down to this: to you, evidence of God is obvious and everywhere. To us, it's not. We don't see it.
Mind you, some of us have tried to see that evidence; we've tried our best to see some sort of evidence for the existence of God. But in the end we haven't been able to avoid the conclusion that it just isn't there. And ultimately, our loyalty is to the truth. We've chosen it over social pressure and condemnation. We've given up a comforting myth to deal with the inevitability of death and nonexistence in our own individual ways.
I hope you can understand that that takes a kind of integrity and courage.
I'll also say that it's patronizing to suggest that atheists don't believe in anything we can't directly see or experience. That's certainly not the case. I've never been to Tucson, Arizona, but I'm sure that it exists. But that's because there is a huge amount of evidence that it exists, in the form of photographs, maps, references in books, people I know personally who have been there...this is all evidence which I judge to be credible.
In my own judgement, there is no more "evidence" for the existance of the supernatural - including any version of God - than there is for, say, a magical elf who lives inside the Moon and grants wishes. In other words, none. It's silly, and not credible in any way.
Perhaps I'm wrong, and someday that magical elf will toss me into the burning clothesdryer that he maintains beneath Mare Imbrium for the eternal punishment of unbelievers like myself...but I really, really don't think so, and I'm not worrying about it for a second.
Neither, I suspect, are you.
And your reasons for not believing in my magical elf are exactly the same as my reasons for not believing in God or the supernatural.
But YOU have closed your mind to the existence of the magical elf.
You see, if you believe in EVERYTHING, than you basically believe in nothing. Because "everything" includes every opposite, an infinity of possibilities. Perhaps there's a god who wants you to post in your journal. You don't know there isn't, so you can't disbelieve in him!
But maybe there's a god who DOESN'T want you to post. Again, there's no way for you to know...so you must be open to that possibility, too.
But their Commandments are mutually contradictory. And they're both completely silly and unbelievable. So you do what seems best to you; you post, or you don't post, as you choose.
Keeping an "open mind" in the way that you suggest makes knowledge, decisions, and even thinking both meaningless and impossible. And you, yourself, have clearly rejected that approach, since you have chosen ONE god, rejecting all others.
Sorry, I've gone on much too long here.
atheist community from a theist who was perplexed by atheism. My reply was ignored, of course. I'm beginning to believe that I'm invisible. But what the hell, I'll post it here. If only as a record for myself.Why is it so difficult?
Because we simply see no evidence that God exists. It's really that simple; you see, or rather feel something that we just don't.
I once saw the noted author and atheist Isaac Asimov giving a lecture at the University of Bridgeport (CT) many years ago. During the question and answer session, several people in the audience stood up and asked him why he didn't believe in God; he'd written a book on the Bible, so they knew that he was aware of it. So why was he chosing to burn in Hell for eternity?
He answered, quite calmly, that religion was a matter of personal emotional experience - an experience that he hadn't had. They, he assumed, had had some sort of personal religious revelation; they had in some way felt touched by God. He had not. That being the case, any profession of religious faith on his part would be not only meaningless, but hypocritical.
The questioners didn't accept that, of course, and got pretty loud about it. They became so disruptive, in fact, that campus Security was called to escort them from the room.
So basically it comes down to this: to you, evidence of God is obvious and everywhere. To us, it's not. We don't see it.
Mind you, some of us have tried to see that evidence; we've tried our best to see some sort of evidence for the existence of God. But in the end we haven't been able to avoid the conclusion that it just isn't there. And ultimately, our loyalty is to the truth. We've chosen it over social pressure and condemnation. We've given up a comforting myth to deal with the inevitability of death and nonexistence in our own individual ways.
I hope you can understand that that takes a kind of integrity and courage.
I'll also say that it's patronizing to suggest that atheists don't believe in anything we can't directly see or experience. That's certainly not the case. I've never been to Tucson, Arizona, but I'm sure that it exists. But that's because there is a huge amount of evidence that it exists, in the form of photographs, maps, references in books, people I know personally who have been there...this is all evidence which I judge to be credible.
In my own judgement, there is no more "evidence" for the existance of the supernatural - including any version of God - than there is for, say, a magical elf who lives inside the Moon and grants wishes. In other words, none. It's silly, and not credible in any way.
Perhaps I'm wrong, and someday that magical elf will toss me into the burning clothesdryer that he maintains beneath Mare Imbrium for the eternal punishment of unbelievers like myself...but I really, really don't think so, and I'm not worrying about it for a second.
Neither, I suspect, are you.
And your reasons for not believing in my magical elf are exactly the same as my reasons for not believing in God or the supernatural.
I just want people to open there minds to the possibility of all things.
But YOU have closed your mind to the existence of the magical elf.
You see, if you believe in EVERYTHING, than you basically believe in nothing. Because "everything" includes every opposite, an infinity of possibilities. Perhaps there's a god who wants you to post in your journal. You don't know there isn't, so you can't disbelieve in him!
But maybe there's a god who DOESN'T want you to post. Again, there's no way for you to know...so you must be open to that possibility, too.
But their Commandments are mutually contradictory. And they're both completely silly and unbelievable. So you do what seems best to you; you post, or you don't post, as you choose.
Keeping an "open mind" in the way that you suggest makes knowledge, decisions, and even thinking both meaningless and impossible. And you, yourself, have clearly rejected that approach, since you have chosen ONE god, rejecting all others.
Sorry, I've gone on much too long here.