1st March 2010, 8:07 PM
I subscribe to a particular breed of atheism:
The deity to which I proclaim non-existence is the Christian deity. I'm talking about the omnipotent, omniscient fellow who created the world 10,000 years ago, and fashioned women from men's ribs... the deity who is at the same time three separate entities encapsulated in one (Holy Trinity)... the deity to which the Abrahamic religions refer... that one.
Now, Bahamut, I see what you're saying. How can I, a mere organism, different from an amoeba and a fish only in that I'm more evolved, ever KNOW whether or not there are super-beings? And obviously, I cannot. But then again, would they be god? What is god, really? An atheist denies the existence of 'god', but is there a meaning for god beyond the narrow-minded dogmatic philosophies of the west, who created their own version of a god a mere couple thousand millennia ago? Could there be a third-party deity, yet totally unbeknownst to any on earth, who did create us and then took no further part in our lives? We will never know.
I cannot ever know more than that which I see with my sense, and deduct with my mind. (Even then, we open ourselves up to a whole nasty series of what-ifs, a la the Matrix... the Brain-in-a-pot theory, but I won't go there.)
WHAT I CAN SIT HERE and say though, fundamentally, is COGITO ERGO SUM, and that the deity particular to Christian theology does NOT exist.
The ball is in your court, monsignor.
The deity to which I proclaim non-existence is the Christian deity. I'm talking about the omnipotent, omniscient fellow who created the world 10,000 years ago, and fashioned women from men's ribs... the deity who is at the same time three separate entities encapsulated in one (Holy Trinity)... the deity to which the Abrahamic religions refer... that one.
Now, Bahamut, I see what you're saying. How can I, a mere organism, different from an amoeba and a fish only in that I'm more evolved, ever KNOW whether or not there are super-beings? And obviously, I cannot. But then again, would they be god? What is god, really? An atheist denies the existence of 'god', but is there a meaning for god beyond the narrow-minded dogmatic philosophies of the west, who created their own version of a god a mere couple thousand millennia ago? Could there be a third-party deity, yet totally unbeknownst to any on earth, who did create us and then took no further part in our lives? We will never know.
I cannot ever know more than that which I see with my sense, and deduct with my mind. (Even then, we open ourselves up to a whole nasty series of what-ifs, a la the Matrix... the Brain-in-a-pot theory, but I won't go there.)
WHAT I CAN SIT HERE and say though, fundamentally, is COGITO ERGO SUM, and that the deity particular to Christian theology does NOT exist.
The ball is in your court, monsignor.
H.R.M. DARVNIVS MAXIMVS EX TENEBRIS EXIT REX DEVSQVE GORONORVMQVE TENDORVM ROMANORVM ET GRÆCORVM OMNIS SEMPER EST