Ask an Atheïst

[Ektor]

[Medusa]

[Roknrol]

Rok, you told me to ask something from a pagan perspective. So, being a pantheist in basis, I believe everything is a deity, every living day is a proof of its existance cause my highest deity is reality itself. I believe in other deities, but I have a basic tenet that is "I cannot prove this, I can only say those things because I have felt them, and in no way I claim this to be truth, it is but my experience".
There are also atheistic/agnostic religions like Buddhism.

When you say you feel no evidence of an all-powerful, all loving God is because there is not necessarily any of them, mostly deities could be explained as our own subjective needs made into archetypes we can experience because we induce those experiences in ourselves through rituals, and I'm fully aware of this, I just chose to believe them anyway.

The point of this is that "atheism" sometimes comes off to me as "anti-christianity"; it seems like it builds in complete opposition, and to me I can't really distinguish from the way Christian speech de-legitimizes other religions from the way this more popular Atheist movement does, and it irks me. It upsets me because it departs from a basic view of pluralism and feels like the Christian "No other religion is correct" adapted to "No religion is correct". It's a totalizing point of view, and I fear anything that claims to be ultimate truth.

I'm not saying this is personally what you believe, I'm saying those things because of the experience I've had with atheists, feel free to correct me.

Contrary to how many Atheists feel, Atheism does not automagically make a person intelligent or well-reasoned. Oftentime Atheists act like rabid Christians because they used to act like rabid Christians...their faith changed, not their approach.

Of course, when an Atheist is raised to believe that there is only one "real" religion, and they believe in that religion, when they decide to start questioning their beliefs, they are going to question those beliefs first. Just like most true believers, they're going to stop looking as soon as they think they've found what is "right"

Personally? I think that when people "feel deities", they are feeling what they want (maybe need?) to feel and calling it "God". Don't get me wrong - I get crazy vibes sometimes, weird things happen, sometimes coincidental and sometimes a little more difficult to believe is coincidental. But the outcome is exactly the same: I still have no proof, no evidence, and absolutely no indication that there is anything behind the scenes.

I can't answer for other Atheists any more than you can answer for other Shaman

- - - Updated - - -

Being mean weeds out the idiots from me. It's a form of protection for the dumb.

I've started doing this occasionally, but I definitely pick my time and place. Mostly I'm rude to salesmen - especially ones that are wasting my time.

[eternal sovernity]

[Denarius]

Does an atheist believe in cooking their own meals from scratch?

No more or less than the next guy. I like cooking my own meals, because I am very particular about my food and self improvement is a good plus.

[Roknrol]

[dgirl1986]

[Quetzal]

what do you think of Tarot?

Cards created in Europe and used for card games such as tarocchi. Picked up their occult reputation much later.
I don't put much stock in the occult uses of tarot, but the major arcana do look pretty. I like the symbolism, but that's as far as it goes for me.

[ThorsSon]

I havent read all of the content so I apologize if this has been covered, but...

I am an Atheist also and I am trying to find my spot spiritually and am currently going through testing different things. One thing I wonder is what do you think of Tarot?

Quetzal gave a pretty good answer.

But I would like to expand: personally (and this doesn't apply to ALL atheists, see Buddhists (and yourself, clearly) for counter examples), I do not subscribe to any belief in anything supernatural.

God(s), magic, precognition, prayer, karma, luck, fairies, genies etc are all hokum, as far as I can tell.

[Denarius]

One thing I wonder is what do you think of Tarot?

Cool symbolism, but I don't put much stock in divination. Even if I did, I generally like to figure things out on my own and experience the future as it comes.

[Roknrol]

I havent read all of the content so I apologize if this has been covered, but...

I am an Atheist also and I am trying to find my spot spiritually and am currently going through testing different things. One thing I wonder is what do you think of Tarot?

Um...kay...I'm not sure we have the same definition of "Atheist"

I used to "read" Tarot when I was still a Pagan. I was apparently fairly convincing too - had quite a reputation for awhile. But then I started doing research on how we learn and how we perceive our surroundings. How we interact without even realizing it. And how very very very VERY good our brain is at allowing us to lie to ourselves. I think between confirmation bias and "loose" interpretation I can't really say anything scientifically about it, other than it's an interesting parlor trick. Since I do not believe in...well...magick, or energy, or spirit or soul or...well...any of that, I do not believe that there is anything mystical about Tarot.

- - - Updated - - -

Quetzal gave a pretty good answer.

But I would like to expand: personally (and this doesn't apply to ALL atheists, see Buddhists (and yourself, clearly) for counter examples), I do not subscribe to any belief in anything supernatural.

God(s), magic, precognition, prayer, karma, luck, fairies, genies etc are all hokum, as far as I can tell.

Holy crap, when did you turn to the Dark Side?

In addition to TS' list:
Elves, orcs, hobbits, talking horses, giant bunnies that deliver eggs on the anniversary of Christ's rebirth (oh don't fucking ask ME what makes sense about that), giant fat men delivering gifts by way of narrow chimneys and flying reindeer, and Russel's Teapot. I also don't believe in honest politicians and honestly my faith in humanity in general is pretty crappy.

[dgirl1986]

Um...kay...I'm not sure we have the same definition of "Atheist"

Atheist = No belief in a god or gods

[Roknrol]

Atheist = No belief in a god or gods

Ahh, ok - that explains the difference then My particular...I guess brand of Atheism is as minimalist in the "belief" department as it's humanly possible to be. I.e, no proof, no pudding. As a convert once before, I already had a long series of questions that I needed to answer from a new perspective, and every piece of fiction (referring specifically to works of fiction like movies and books, I'm not trying to belittle religions here) that touches on religion or faith just basically gets lumped into the "fantasy" category. I guess for me, when I realized that "Truth" could never include anything spiritual/supernatural/subnatural/whatever while being honest to the definition of "Truth", I started questioning everything with that idea in mind.

I do still have some weird superstitious habits...knocking on wood and the like, but I think that's more out of habit or comfort than any real belief. I know I feel goofy when I do it (but then again, I've been prone to "crossing myself" for effect as well, so maybe it's just a touch of that)

[dgirl1986]

Ahh, ok - that explains the difference then My particular...I guess brand of Atheism is as minimalist in the "belief" department as it's humanly possible to be. I.e, no proof, no pudding. As a convert once before, I already had a long series of questions that I needed to answer from a new perspective, and every piece of fiction (referring specifically to works of fiction like movies and books, I'm not trying to belittle religions here) that touches on religion or faith just basically gets lumped into the "fantasy" category. I guess for me, when I realized that "Truth" could never include anything spiritual/supernatural/subnatural/whatever while being honest to the definition of "Truth", I started questioning everything with that idea in mind.

I do still have some weird superstitious habits...knocking on wood and the like, but I think that's more out of habit or comfort than any real belief. I know I feel goofy when I do it (but then again, I've been prone to "crossing myself" for effect as well, so maybe it's just a touch of that)

I tend to lean towards No proof = Explore it, investigate it, test it. Which is what I am currently doing and I'm blogging it. If science speaks on something then I take it pretty seriously. But science doesnt know everything...yet

[ThorsSon]

But science doesnt know everything...yet

Science doesn't know everything. Science will never know everything.

Everything that we know is only to a degree.
We continue to fine tune that degree.
But there is, and always will be, fine-tuning.

The first example that pops to mind is pi. Pi is an irrational number. There are mathematical proofs that demonstrate that pi IS, in fact, an irrational number (meaning that it cannot be represented by a fraction of whole numbers... meaning that the digits to the right-hand side of the decimal point go on forever, with no pattern or repitition)... tau, e, 2^-1, and an infinite number of other numbers all fall in this category... which means that, no matter how precisely we calculate them, there is, and always will be, things that we don't know.

Then, we can get weird with -1^-1...

There are, and always will be, an infinite number of things that we don't know... and that's OK.

There is no such thing as absolute/complete knowledge.

As a result, it is scientifically IMPOSSIBLE to prove a negative.

I (nor anyone) can prove that god(s) do(es) not exist.

That is why the burden of proof is on the claimant, not the skeptic.

I could claim that there is an invisible pink unicorn in my garage. It would not be your burden to prove me wrong, it would be my burden to prove my claim.

On the other hand, if we look at the evidence for god(s), it keeps diminishing.

Once upon a time, god(s) explained volcanoes and earthquakes... now plate tectonics does nicely.
Once upon a time, god(s) explained lightning... now meteorology and static electricity do nicely.
Once upon a time, god(s) explained the origin of the universe... now astronomy does nicely.
Once upon a time, god(s) explained the origin of homo-sapiens... now evolutionary biology does nicely.
etc...

The things that "god(s)" do(es) keep(s) getting explained away by science... at what point do we throw up our hands and say, "I give up! there is/are no god(s)."?

I have passed that point... the evidence is trending in a specific direction... away from god(s).

Derivative Calculus would state, "The limit of the possibility of god(s), as evidence approaches infinity, is 0 (zero)."

- - - Updated - - -

where I said "^-1", I meant "^0.5"

what I meant was square root.

the square root of 2 is irrational.

the square root of -1 is FREAKING WEIRD!!!!

sadly there is no easy way to type to square root symbol, and thus, I was forced to publicize my failure at converting roots to exponents.