Ask an Atheïst

[Dumuzi]

I would agree with Medusa.

The "higher power" would be me.

Or maybe somebody pointing a gun at my head (the atheist's version of The Threat of Hell).

I'm not an atheist, but wouldn't an atheist answer that question with "no one"?

[B. de Corbin]

I'm not an atheist, but wouldn't an atheist answer that question with "no one"?

Possibly.

The point is, though, that, unless it is "me," it would be no one. There is no "higher power" for an atheist - there is only the self giving direction.

Whether that makes the "self" a higher power or not is debatable, or maybe it's just a personal choice to call it that or not.

[westwoden]

[Jembru]

what if you can't trust yourself though, let's say if you were dysfunctional in some way?

Who can you look to then?

Parents, friends, wikipedia.. Those places are more likely to give an instant, clear and decisive answer anyway. I'm religious but I don't get all my guidance (or even the bulk of it for that matter) from a higher power.

More to the point, religions themselves, never mind their followers, can most certainly be dysfunctional too. Very, very much so!

[Medusa]

what if you can't trust yourself though, let's say if you were dysfunctional in some way?

Who can you look to then?

If you cannot trust yourself you are f'd. No one in this world is responsible for you except you. The world doesn't care of your dysfunction. Function or die.

[Bjorn]

what if you can't trust yourself though, let's say if you were dysfunctional in some way?

Who can you look to then?

Yourself. You always have to be the one to pick yourself up, to do research and know your dysfunction, to learn about remedies that may alleviate the struggle, to call a therapist and work out the issue...

You can say you're looking to god(s)/divinity/whatever but the real work always comes from within, not from some intangible thing that had no part in your creation.

If you cannot trust yourself you are f'd. No one in this world is responsible for you except you. The world doesn't care of your dysfunction. Function or die.

For real.

[ThorsSon]

[Poetics13]

who do atheists look up to as their 'Higher Power'?

Camus, Sartre, Nietzsche... The Existential theme of personal responsibility over all decisions and events in our lives has been critical to my "spiritual" development.

Even good 'ol So-crates... Thoreau, Emerson... Hell, Pearl S. Buck. Twain. Definitely Shakespeare! (or is it Edward de Veer, the Earl of Oxford??) Sun Tzu... Dostoevsky is a personal favorite... (no one can write crazy like Dostoevsky)

*Not* Kant.

There are hundreds more, but you get the idea.

(For the record, I am currently revising my atheistic tendencies; the reasons of which will most likely make it into this thread, just not when I'm on the clock )

-Poetics


(Would someone be so kind as to include in their response how many posts are needed to include links? I have not been able to locate that information... the "Sexy Women" thread is calling me.)

[Bjorn]

I agree with what Bjorn and Medusa have said... but would like to add, asking an atheist who they look to for "a higher power", is a meaningless question.

I wonder if perhaps they meant something more along the lines of, "do you draw inspiration from anything that some other people attribute to a higher power?" For example, nature (pantheism), observation of the cosmos, coincidence, "healing miracles," etc.

[Medusa]

I wonder if perhaps they meant something more along the lines of, "do you draw inspiration from anything that some other people attribute to a higher power?" For example, nature (pantheism), observation of the cosmos, coincidence, "healing miracles," etc.

I do. But I also correctly do not add significance past their true nature. Nature isn't a deity to me. This poet I follow is not a god to me. That eerie feeling I got when walking in the dark isn't my ghost boyfriend. You get the drift?

[Bjorn]

I do. But I also correctly do not add significance past their true nature. Nature isn't a deity to me. This poet I follow is not a god to me. That eerie feeling I got when walking in the dark isn't my ghost boyfriend. You get the drift?

OH yeah. Mos def.

[MaskedOne]

Camus, Sartre, Nietzsche... The Existential theme of personal responsibility over all decisions and events in our lives has been critical to my "spiritual" development.

Even good 'ol So-crates... Thoreau, Emerson... Hell, Pearl S. Buck. Twain. Definitely Shakespeare! (or is it Edward de Veer, the Earl of Oxford??) Sun Tzu... Dostoevsky is a personal favorite... (no one can write crazy like Dostoevsky)

*Not* Kant.

There are hundreds more, but you get the idea.

(For the record, I am currently revising my atheistic tendencies; the reasons of which will most likely make it into this thread, just not when I'm on the clock )

-Poetics


(Would someone be so kind as to include in their response how many posts are needed to include links? I have not been able to locate that information... the "Sexy Women" thread is calling me.)

15, posts in introductions or the lols, quizzes and games sections don't count. They won't show up in post count either so pretty much once your post count says 15.

[Poetics13]

Revere : to show devoted deferential honor to : regard as worthy of great honor <revere the aged> <revere tradition>

Reverence is the word I have been searching for to describe how I view what others would describe as worship. I have whole heartedly delved into the world and ethos of paganism, as I recently had an experience that I was unable to see any rational way to explain its happening. I am still unable to say that I believe in deities, the divine, or an otherworldly being of any nature; but I am also less apt to disregard the possibility of such.

I have been a staunch, self-described atheist for about eight years now. During that time I was constantly open to being convinced otherwise, but no single event had been able to sway my "belief." I enjoyed pondering the existence of such a force, and still do. As a poet I have a deep regard for anything that causes Awe, be it the most mundane (often the most awe-inspiring), or watching something happen on a scale that is beyond our true comprehension (i.e. a lunar eclipse, which we know, and understand, but is difficult to truly comprehend, just as is the number 1,000,000,000).

I see spirituality on the individual level as a potent force that sees its execution as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we believe in the possibility of X, and focus our energy on respecting, or revering X, and feel that in doing so X gives us the ability to follow through on a personal goal, then for all practical purposes, X exists. The example that most readily comes to mind is the association of AA with Christianity. Their belief that X is looking out for them gives them the strength. If this is the case for anyone, in any situation, then more power to them! (Unless its mean, in which case: you suck and please stop.) I wish I had the outright faith to verbally confirm my beliefs in such a power. To date, even with my questionable experience, I am still unable to claim such a faith.

What I have determined though, is that I can be a stronger, healthier person if I make an effort to outwardly *revere* the things, persons, ideas that give me strength and comfort. As such, I am searching the pantheons for deities that embody the ideals that I have strived to make part of my life. I desire to honor these things with ritual and meditation, and in doing so, open myself to creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that will help me grow as an individual and will inspire me to not be complacent in my life, but to engage it and further any knowledge, understanding, and comprehension to whatever end that I can.

My life has seen me fall prey to many a self-fulfilling prophecy, the vast majority of which were extremely unhealthy and nearly ended my life a time or two. I respect the power of giving reverence to thought or action. Many of my poems speak on this topic, and through more of them than I would like to admit I created the prophecies that would ultimately lead to months of my not-very-long-life being wasted in severe depression and ideation of the most heinous sort.

There is exactly one person I have encountered in my life that has challenged this paradigm of thought. Six years ago we dated for about a year, and a year and seven months ago I allowed myself to be open to her influence again. We have now been engaged for a year and six months ( ).

To me (to "us" is all that matters), our love is the divine. The love we create in our life together is the pinnacle of [my] human potential, the peak of [our] evolutionary possibility. When we open ourselves to each other, eyes closed, generally foreheads touching, we can experience a shared conversation of energies, a back and forth of extreme emotion flowing from one body to the other. It is consistently the most overwhelming experience of my life, and the catalyst for my renewed search for understanding the divine potential in everything that surrounds our existences.

So now, while still unable to say I believe, I have upped my self-described spiritual affiliation to Heathen, with the possibility of much more. I will revere those things which I find suitable of reverence through ritual. I will explore how they can influence my life for the better. And I will open myself to allowing these experiences to help craft me into a Man that I a can be content in being.

As its been stated in so many threads in here. We are all different, atheist to atheist, re-constructionist to re-constructionist, and it goes without saying, eclectic to eclectic. There is nothing more divine that knowing who *you* are, so to that end, I'm back to hitting the books. If you read all of this, I sincerely hope it didn't come off an a grandiose thesis on me... its meant as a modest explanation that the connotations and semantics of our souls are as varied as the lines on the pads of our thumbs. What is an atheist? It doesn't matter what I think an atheist is... only one person can answer a question like that...

Best, Blessed Be, and Keep Your Powder Dry,

-Poetics

[Roknrol]

I wonder if perhaps they meant something more along the lines of, "do you draw inspiration from anything that some other people attribute to a higher power?" For example, nature (pantheism), observation of the cosmos, coincidence, "healing miracles," etc.

I draw inspiration from nature and from those that have come before me. I'm also inspired by the ideas that drove those people, and by the science behind Evolution.

I firmly believe that the human body is an amazing machine, and while Science has enabled us to survive longer and easier, I think that there has been a disservice to the species by making us weaker as a whole (not that I think this is a "real" problem...when Nature is ready to get rid of us, we will be gotten rid of).

I do have an example that I can relay here, I'll try to be brief

I tried LSD for the first time. It was long after I had converted to Atheism, and I was certain that I was in a "good place" when I tried it, since I've heard so many horror stories about bad trips.

Three things: 1) It was f-ing awesome. 2) It's NOT a recreational drug (as in, something that you can do regularly...it's pretty exhausting) and 3) I finally understood what everyone else says about things like Faith, Love, Belief, etc. For the first time in my life I felt what other people SAY that they feel. Do they really feel that way? Eh...I'm inclined to think "no"...hyperbole is pretty common in music and art, but for once, for about a 5 hour period, I "understood" on a fundamental level what they wanted to be feeling. All I could think about was how much differently I would perceive the experience if I were not an Atheist. It would have been very VERY easy for me to think that I had "met" God (or whatever, I'm not prone to focusing on that very much anymore), had I done so as a believer.

ALL of that being said, Medusa really nailed it above: People are people, nature is nature, and religion was constructed for one reason: control. While it (like other social constructs) has evolved and has become a far more personal means of exploration, I still think that the root of any religion is control and resist it almost as a reflex anymore. I'm always looking for the "why", and I usually find the "why" tends toward the more bigoted aspects of humanity - something that thoroughly discusts me.

I *do* believe that some people can find value in religious belief. There are plenty of folks that have quit their drug(s) of choice by relying on their higher power, and it's certainly not my place to tell them they're wrong (especially if it's working for them). Am I one of those people? I used to think so...but I've found that the more Atheist I get, the happier I am (so far), so it must be working for me

[Hekla]

http://youtu.be/_6iss-xq2-E?t=2m57s
It bugs me because it makes them come across as heavily influenced by the Abrahamic religions.

So my question, now become two, is:
1. What do you think of people who make this kind of statement?
2. Why do you think, according to atheists who put forth such a stance, there must be one true god/pantheon?