Brahma's atheist

The minds of religious people must be strange. It's the way they process the information of the world around them. There must be a lot of deliberate misunderstanding, misinterpretation, ignorance and excusism. All to make sure their gods exist in the way they want them. It must have been going on throughout history since people first came up with supernatural beings. Things go wrong in the real world then they have to come up with excuses. Or a new discovery is made and they have to fight against it or somehow absorb it into their fantasy so as not to disrupt it.

Nowhere357

I have a rather simple-minded theory, that gods served to explain the unknown, especially unknown power.

So early man had volcano gods, storm gods, etc. As we come to understand scientifically the causes of these things, various gods one by one bit the dust.

Currently we have only one huge unknown. That is the question of what happens when we die.

Therefore, only one god yet survives. The god of the afterlife. So the scientific investigation into the nature of life and mind, is seen as a direct attack on this remaining god.

No wonder theists are so upset.

Ojuice5001

Brahma's atheist,

While some religionists fit the profile you describe, I deny that that's inherent in the nature of theology. I for one have striven to avoid it, and I think I have succeeded.

The gods are postulated to explain some of the facts of the world; I agree with that. They have the same relation to facts as a scientific theory. Now anytime two ideas have that relation, you can either alter the theory to fit the facts, or vice versa. There's no reason that that changes when the theory is about gods.

When I started to believe in gods, I deliberately based my conjectures on asking myself, What kind of gods would be likely to cause the events that I see? There were misapplications of the strategy before I came to my current true beliefs, but no real abandonments of it. That's why, of the several spiritual experiences I've had, I accept the experience that my patron deity is a goddess of the past. That's why I believe my often-maligned theory that the newest gods on the Western-culture scene want most people to be atheists. That's why I believe that Allah exists, is not the same as Yahweh, and is an enemy to the West. You get the idea. I certainly didn't get these ideas from my secularized-Christian culture, nor are they obvious examples of wishful thinking.

Your post ends by saying that theists can also "absorb it into their fantasy so as not to disrupt it." I maintain that there's nothing wrong with a theism that does this. That's what theists should always do. Therefore, you shouldn't judge theism as if it were committed to a tendency to deny new knowledge.

atheist_in_foxhole

You're joking, right?

Ojuice5001

No, I am not joking. All of these opinions are ones I have posted numerous times before.

Was it one of those several ideas in particular that made you think I was joking?

kctan

Actually, 1+1 does equals 11. Depends on how you're doing your addition.



Anyway if you said that "1+1=3 otherwise our gods won't exist" is also slightly better IMSVHO. 1+1 also won't be equal to 111. (Hint roman numerals...)



OK, too much nonsense. Back on track then,

They ain't all that strange actually. We share the same thought pattern.

It's their way of rationalising the happenings around them to fit into their stereotype of the world as spelt out in their holy book or holy teachings. Missing that, it's actually like our way of rationalising the happenings around us to fit into our stereotype of the world only for us, it's more towards a reality which we have come to 'appreciate' rather then to denial or 'purify' (blocking out the 'bad', retaining the 'good').

Very true. The primitive concept of gods actually havn't changed much throughout the ages if you really study them properly. Creation, abilities, attributes etc... remains basically unchange even if you were to compare a natural phenomenon god (wind, rain, typhoon, volcano etc...) to that of a 'well' thought out monotheistic god (allah, jehovah etc...).

Things are always going wrong but to be more exact, things are always the same, that's why out of the norm events are more memorable. Anyway, it's not really excuses (this is for the priest type humans so as to preserve their livelihood), it's more as a way to sooth personal feelings & trying to remain the same inspite of changes. We afterall dislike changes no matter how much we say otherwise.

Stability in evolutional sense is better then chaotic changes. It's a better environment to propagate & bring up the young. Instability means uncertainness which could delay or postpone propagation & disrupt the proper bringing up of the young.