On 1/10/2013 6:20 AM, Platonist Guitar Cowboy wrote:
I have never understood what it means to be atheist. Sometimes it appears to mean
existentialist "not Christian god", another appearance is "not organized religion",
which both appear reasonable.
Intuitively however, I've always asked myself: "what are they talking about?" as we're
all invested in beliefs or working hypothesis (whatever you wanna call these structures
primitively) of one sort or another. Physical, scientific, mystical, mathematical,
computational, financial, political, biological, creative, group solidarity +
individualism spectrum, and yes also beer, drugs, shopping attitudes etc. are all areas
where you limit or enable mucking about with core assumptions, either skeptically
distant or suspending disbelief, to avoid hell or approach some utopia in mind.
Implied by every thought operation, every action, we at a certain point take a leap of
faith, we bet on some belief, deity, working hypothesis.
I don't see how an agent can act or decide without this, which is why I can't understand
the proposition that entity exists without belief in something that transcends them,
that they want or wish to avoid. Ok, you can blame me for not differentiating between
absolutely static belief and work-in-progress working hypothesis, fine. But the result
still is that some force of propositions have convinced or forced us to invest in them.
I should maybe speak to more atheists to get it perhaps, or maybe somebody here can
point me towards a flaw to get what people mean with "atheist". Oddly, I often find the
same "this I take for granted attitude, that anything else makes me smile
condescendingly", that even keeps me from bringing it up.
Do you know what "theist" means?
Brent
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