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Atheism appears to be a growing fad on the Internet. Like all fads, it will reach it's zenith and then fade. The young atheist, becomes the more experienced agnostic, and finally a foolish believer.
The religion of Atheism intrigues me. In this religion the young men are wise and the old men are fools. It worships the god of probability, it's theology is evolution, and it's rewards are intellectual superiority and self-righteousness.
Still I have respect for the atheist that openly declares their belief. For in declaring, they join all other religious people in stating that they know some things but all else is faith. To say otherwise is to suggest a perfect knowledge.
For an atheist knows and experiences in some small degree how probability plays it's part in the astonishing adaptability of life. However, like any other religion, the omnipotent requirements of probability to form this universe, it's planets and all forms of life are far beyond anyone's ability to comprehend. And so it is a faith.
The atheist is left to admit to an astounding and even awesome belief in an omnipotent god of probability. Anyone with such a remarkable faith in the power of probability ought to be aware of the irony in constraining it's powers. For a power of this magnitude would look strangely at odds with itself if it suggested that probably a Being does not exist who really is Omniscient.
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12 comments:
That atheism is ironic is an understatement.
Plethora of lofty rhetoric and generalization, but zero specific examples.
"The young atheist, becomes the more experienced agnostic, and finally a foolish believer."
Are you claiming that's the natural progress ion and religious believers are (perhaps sarcastically) foolish?
Furthermore, if atheism is a religion doesn't it follow that all children are born atheists before they acquired any other belief?
"it's theology is evolution, and it's rewards are intellectual superiority and self-righteousness."
Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Evolution (like physics, chemistry, etc.) does not mention god or gods, therefore it's atheistic. Of course that statement implicitly ignores the fact that Catholic church explicitly acknowledges the validity of evolutionary theory as well as many other religious scientists of various beliefs.
"[...]omnipotent god of probability."
I take it you know little about statistical probability; as a deity it is quite powerless.
jeez, what a maroon.
I find posts like this intriguing; you really have no idea about what you are talking about…
What makes you so certain it is only a fad? Even if it is a fad it will undoubtedly leave a mark on society. I do agree that we all start out as young atheists (you included) and we are eventually introduced to the concept of God, causing some people to accept things irrationally and the rest to become agnostic. What I am waiting for is the Christian trend to fade: ignorant atheist becomes Christian; Christian begins to question and becomes agnostic which leads him to atheism.
If atheism intrigues you so much, maybe you should look it up in the dictionary. Atheism is not a religion; you can be a religious atheist (some Buddhists for example) but atheism is not a religion. Theism is not a religion, but it is a big part of many (you starting to understand?). I don’t know where you get the young=wise/old=foolish from but it might be that younger atheists tend to be more outspoken and older people (proportionally) tend to be more religious. Atheism does not worship anything or have a theology, and I can’t figure out why you would think so. (The rewards are great by the way.)
The probability of shuffling a quarter of a deck of cards (just the spades) and drawing them off the top in order from ace to king is improbable, but the probability of drawing them in any order (2A53Q4107K96J8) is the exact same. You can add a trillion full sets of cards and the possibility of drawing them in any specific order becomes nearly impossible, but to say that because one specific order is improbable that nothing can be drawn is just stupid. Some order will be drawn no matter what, and if that order is not conducive to life then nobody will be alive to say how improbable the cards that were drawn are, after that the cards might get scooped back up and re-dealt giving another chance at those winning lottery numbers (who knows how many combos are winners or even how many times the cards have already been re-dealt)
There might be an infinite number of alternate dimensions, this dimension might be alone but forever pulsating in the form of a big bang every “ghfjgka-illion” years, maybe we just got lucky at our one and only shot, or maybe God did it (but then how do we explain God… I know you would never say he was created by anything but himself and he is the only possible outcome of the cosmic playing cards because there is only one perfect)
To rebut your points...
When you say atheism is a fad, you ignore that fact that you could pretty much say that about any belief system. It also ignores the thrust and weight of history. There were several polytheistic cultures who's gods were worshiped for thousands of years. Look at Egypt, Greece/Rome or the Hindus. The fact that Judaism and its decedents have taken primacy for the last thousand or so years means little. Christianity, Islam, they have not stood the test of time. The fact that monotheism is replacing polytheism could indicate that humanity is moving towards fewer and fewer gods. Looking at that as a progression, atheism seems to be just the next in line.
You show your fundamental misunderstanding of atheism when you call it a religion and capitalize the word. That implies an organized belief system. There is no atheist religion. No one get's ordained. There is definitely no reward.
You are correct that atheists do have faith. By declaring there is no G/god(s), they are asserting something that they have no way of knowing for sure.
While it is an act of faith to declare with certainty that there is no god, one could argue that atheists actually have more to back their assertion. There is no verifiable way to even solidly imply there is a higher intelligence out there.
In your final paragraph, you fall back into trying to define a dogmatic belief structure for atheists that just isn't there. Probability is a mathematical construct. Therefore, fundamentally a human creation. You are trying to somehow anthropomorphize it into some sort of higher power.
At the end of the day, your argument fails because your definition of the opposition does not reflect the reality.
Just a quibble point sellmeyoursoul- many (if not most) atheists do not posit that there is no god, but that there is no proof of a god and choose not to assume there is one.
So much wrong in so little space...where to start?
Atheism is most certainly not a religion and agnosticism is not a step to/from religion from/to atheism (Note: neither is capitalised). Because atheists have no belief in gods (see below), there is nothing to worship. Because there is nothing to worship, there is no theology and the only rewards are a full and satisfying life.
If you want a discussion about cosmology, evolution and methodological materialism, you'll have to get more specific. But, consider, you are here by the confluence of some remarkable low-probability events, starting with the fertilisation of your mother's specific ovum with your father's specific sperm.
Theism/atheism are statements of god belief: I have a belief in (a) god(s)/I have no belief in any god. Gnosticism/agnosticism are statements of knowledge: I know about X/I don't (can't?) know about X.
Thus, when it comes to Odin, I am a gnostic atheist: I know my lack of belief is justified. Same with every version of the god of Christians described to me thus far. But for the deist and panentheist gods, I am an agnostic atheist: I have no belief in them but I do not know of their non-existence.
And your probability argument is nothing more than the strong anthropic principal at work. Before you reconsider it, you might want to investigate the puddle's argument. Also recognise that, to a high degree of accuracy, 100% of the universe is inimical to life...which, if humans are its teleological raison d'etre, doesn't that make the universe a vast waste of space (and time)? And then, find out *why* this talk of variable fundamental constants is now the rage with theologians (nothing to do with observation, but rather our incomplete descriptions of the physical world).
Also, it's probably wise not to assign attributes to entities (omniscience, omnipotence &c.) until you can provide some observations that support such assertions.
Good luck with that!
--
Martin
Incidentally, is your blog named after a 90s movie by same name?
"A woman's ex-husband, who is the son of an Arab chieftain, kidnaps their teenage son and brings him back to Morocco, where the boy is to be made the leader of the tribe. The child's mother hires a mercenary to get her son and bring him back to her" IMDB
And one more point of inquiry, what are you referring to by putting "utopiosis" in the URL of your blog?
"The religion of Atheism intrigues me."As someone once said, "Atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair color." Atheism is literally a-theism--that is, a lack of theistic belief--nothing more. To call atheism a religion is to exhibit an appalling ignorance of the subject that undermines and invalidates your entire argument.
In one short piece you've used the expression 'it's' no less than six times as the form of the possessive of 'it'. This is as bad as the greengrocer's apostrophe [apple's and orange's]. The possessive of it, 'its', has no apostrophe. The apostrophe is only used for the contraction of 'it is'. Got it? NOW DON'T EVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN, IT'S EXTREMELY ANNOYING. As for your piece, it's total garbage.
"However, like any other religion, the omnipotent requirements of probability to form this universe, it's planets and all forms of life are far beyond anyone's ability to comprehend."
Speak for yourself. Scientists are quite able to comprehend it.
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