I know that Tony and some other readers are not so much "God people". I don't want to be exclusive to "non-god People", so I stay off the topic....
I used to be agnostic... I feel now that I was just sort of a hedger. It Occurred to me at one point, that It was just akin to Ancestor worship, and believing in fary tales. More an indicator, of my desire to feed my own "Grandeur" in the universe.. and how that was just part of being self absorbed, and that it was just obvious that God was just something I wanted to believe in.. just like we want to believe we are the center of the universe... Regardless of the fact that we are the center of our own universe...
but I digress..
I'm going through The Atheism tapes, which is a longer version of Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief.
many of them you can find on Youtube or google video.
Sorry for the break from my usual market commentary... and if god works for you... that is the best thing in the word.... Stick with what works... that is very practical.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Non Market post.
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2 comments:
My wife and I have had similar conversations. She feels that one should make a decision once and for all about godbelief and that agnosticism is a hedge. I have come to agree.
I like the narrative that somehow godbelief has been selected evolutionarily because it afforded one some protection within the community. Then over the centuries of civilization, non-believers were further selected out through murder of heretics, etc.
Every culture is replete with mutually exclusive versions of the story of the great powerful Oz.
In short, our brains are the product of natural selection to favor godbelief. We're hard wired.
I know quite a few folks who are better off since "finding Jesus" and devoting their lives to the fairy tales. Some atheist, either Daniel Dennett or Richard Dawkins, says the secret to happiness is finding something greater than yourself and devoting your life to it. What could be greater that an omnipotent, omniscient superhero?
The purpose of religion is to give one the tools to live an ethical life, and some people need to think the sky wizard is watching their every move or they do not behave properly. To them I say: if your mythology about fairies and ghouls makes you behave in society and not cornhole some little kid or steal some senior's social security, then yes, you obligated to continue to believe in your fairy tales and I will support you in that.
It's a cognitive behavioral thing, and it works for some-- if not most-- people, and psychologists figured this out about 40 years ago. As Kurt Vonnegut once said, the problem arises when their fictional god tells them to blow up an abortion clinic... and statistically that will happen a small percentage of the time.
What I like about this series, is that it's defensive about being an "Athiest".... sort of "Saying I'm Against God isn't Fair, I just don't give it any thought... just like unicorns."
Just because I don't believe in unicorns, doesn't mean I'm against them...
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