(09-27-2015 02:03 PM)Caveman Wrote: Two major false dichotomies (and consequent pigeonholing) I see creeping on this forum:
- Atheism vs. religionism. The short story goes something like: Religion used to constrain the worse female behaviors, but with the abandonment of the blind adherence to it all hell has broken loose in the dating market, therefore it's atheism's fault and we must return to the religious wisdom of the ancients.
- Democratic vs. Republican party: Most of the leftists and SJW lunatics tend to be democratic, therefore the Republican party must be a GOOD party and Donald Trump would be a great president.
How about just use some common sense and stop worshiping the enemy of your enemy, cause he has shown countless times that he ain't your friend either.
Gee, I wonder why many are starting to think this way.
Let's use a recent example from even this illuminated forum.
Here we have typical stylings of "enlightened" atheist conversation on religion. This one is pronouncedly aimed at the Christian God though only alluded to. It's ironic that the thread starter obviously lacks first hand knowledge on facts of the religious texts he made bold conclusions about. It seems as if he's new or read only few books on Christianity and Indo-European religions, hell, possibly even one. It's more amusing to note the unawareness of "natural order/law" being a Christian concept. Yet, we have a sense of the writer intellectually positioning himself above those that follow theism of any/most brands.
Quote:It seems to me the idea of god that monotheistic religions have is somewhat flawed and I wanted to open a discussion on it. Along with pre-Christian Indo-European religions I believe the idea of Natural Order (or even something like 'Fate') supersedes the idea of a God.
For example, if God made some law or ruling, he will then be obliged to stand by that law and apply it fairly and consistently to all humans. This means that God himself is constrained by certain laws. I dont think even God can overcome Karma. I mean he is just a powerful 'being' right?
The early Indo-Europeans had something akin to Natural Order or Fate that was more powerful than any god. The early concept of God was quite different to what people think of today. Originally I think a god was a type of 'Divine Force' something that poets sang about. This could be the Sky (Zeus Pater), Earth (Prthvi, Gaia) or Thunder ( Thor, Indra) and more abstract concepts such as Mitra and Aryaman and Dionysus.
It seems that as these small Indo-Europeans groups spread out their Gods became more human-like and prominent, while the backdrop of Fate or Natural Order faded out. Hence we have Zeus more a King of Gods than a deification of the Sky.
Sometime in Central Asia, Zoroaster, a priest, reformed his local Indo-European pagan religion and created a Monotheistic faith centred on one Ahura Mazda, "Lord Wisdom". To cut a long story short, I believe this, combined with some rather semitic influencs resulted in the Abrahamic faiths. Due to the pervasiveness of these faiths, there seems to be an assumption on most peoples part that this concept of God is somehow natural. Hence, most people here are either Atheist or Christian. Either belief in God or not.
However, Atheism seems to be a position defined by it's opposition or negation of what seems to be a largely Abrahamic assertion of 'God'. But what is this Abrahamic God exactly, I know what he has apparently done, but what exactly is he? or It? or She? I know they dont have an answer to this. God we are told, is a being who exists and who created the Universe. For me this is too vague an idea to talk about meaningfully, hence I consider the idea of God null and void. Atheism, being in opposition to something undefined, is unecessary.
So from being well-defined actors in early indo-european religious poetry, secondary to the ideas of Truth or Natural Order, these, now abstract and vague divinities have become the centre of many major religions, the definition of truth and independent of any system (Karma, Fate, Cause-Consequence etc).
I think for any discussion or understanding of religion to be worthwhile, we really need to re-visit the idea of 'God', where it came from, and whether it can remain such a central concept.
One of our resident Christianity and western traditionalism contrarians who shall remain unnamed. Bolding added to quoted piece.
Quote:I was raised without religion, to me it seems like a strange relic from before science.
I think atheism is a term defined in terms of religion from when belief is gods was more common, I feel more like I'm simply "not religious," sort outside an irrelevant debate.
Maybe earlier in history when animal sacrifices were common there was a term for those who did not sacrifice.
Such a term is so irrelevant now no one uses it. Among the highly educated discussions or religion are increasingly rare, and thus the term "atheism" is too falling out of use except for those who engage in an increasingly irrelevant debate.
Now, unfortunately the people who talk the most publicly about religion are nuts like ISIS.
Another reputable member who makes a presentation of what I consider the real, primary, false-dichotomy in religious discussions. The idea to be considered is bolded by me.
Quote:I think it probably just comes down to two things: people clutch at straws when they don't have answers (hence the saying "where science ends religion begins"), and people attempt to dominate each other with words and ideas. Religion is an intersection of those two aspects of human nature.
We shouldn't participate in debates about "whether god is real", because participating in that debate is actually itself submission to these people. Since they are demanding we accept the existence of something for which there is no evidence, the debate should end there, and a new debate should be opened about what the nature of people who use religion is.
I suspect it is merely a pure form of intellectual domination, and one of the ways by which the human species selects for intelligence. It is kind of like a pure debate (i.e. a debate without a topic), where the winners rise socially by dominating each other in these debates, and thereby have more successful reproduction etc (lifelong celebacy is more of a quirk of Christianity specifically, and it's disallowed in Islam).
It can be interesting to have debates with the more skillful religious, as long as you pay attention to how they are debating versus naively framing the debate as being about a real thing. It seems to be about escalating levels of abstraction, something that is mentally taxing. Men with bigger brains are able to defeat men with smaller brains in these intellectual jousts, because of the difficulty of rapidly responding to these increasing layers of abstraction, and coherently responding with equal or higher layers, without getting confused or jamming up.
TL;DR; Religion is likely about sexual selection, indirectly, through increasing social status via verbal domination. It isn't about a real thing, it is merely a phenomenon resulting from how the large-brained human species works.
Again, an example of fundamental misunderstanding and equalizing of all Abrahamic religions (possibly all religions since it's not clearly mentioned) yet wide, bold claims are made. Also; the scientific study, teleology is relevant.
Quote:It's not very helpful to think in terms of "fate". It's more a question of destiny. The difference, at least to me, is that one (destiny) is responsive to our actions, while the other is not. In my view people who believe in fate too strongly don't really grasp the concept of feedback. They think that cause and effect run in an infinitely long straight line and that the initial conditions determine everything else about the system. But processes aren't linear. They are cyclical. And they aren't linear because of the existence of feedback. So the line isn't an infinitely long straight line, but more like a circle. Or more accurately multiple related, and never ending, cycles.
Anyway, all that just to point out that it isn't a question of God vs Determinism. That is a straw man argument by some religious people use against atheism. But the natural order isn't anywhere close to deterministic/fatalistic. You can only imagine it is if you study a very narrow phenomena and, for the sake of your study, assume all other things are equal (Cetirus Paribus). But in actual life the Cetiruses are never Paribus...
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In my own words;
religion of any sort that contains a master design premise cannot be rule wrong or lacking in evidence without knowing the unequivocal end point or origin of the universe and how it retains itself as continuous system.
The universe itself is both a good argument for intelligent design and non-theistic phenomenal odds as well.
I started as a skeptic, but since reading Christian texts, I find it's arguments and perception convincing. I also find it different than how it was popularly regarded to me by others. Growing as a man, gaining experience, gaining wisdom and applying doctrinal techniques in my life, I foundd myself unknowingly conforming to Christian ethics when I chose paths that ended bad results or allowed for better gain and discipline. This is anecdotal and doesn't account for anything, but I'm far from the only former agnostic/atheist that came to the conclusion that we are threading old ground when trying to assert a reasonable moral philosophy in our lives. As Sonsowey said, even if you don't believe it, you can acknowledge the important religion plays for the benefit of society.
But back to the quotations of atheists conversing about Christianity, even on RVF we find atheists condoning and participating in condescending and moral posturing discussions regarding theists.
This is the problem I've developed with atheism. It seems that no matter what, they can't stop themselves from participating in the moral posturing, which ultimately transforms into actively working to tear down the popular theology. They are unaware of how dogmatic these actions are unto themselves, but fine to oblige in condescending group critique of theological philosophies. Just as AnonymousBosch had mentioned, this is the conception point where it snowballs into more aggressive anti-theism and often develops more definitive morality structure to self-affirm their philosophy to themselves or outsiders(unknowingly becoming more dogmatic again).
Atheism has been continuously antagonistic in the modern west and plays a huge role in if we'll be able to overcome this Islamic cultural force or not.