I consider myself somewhat of an agnostic. I completely understand why we don’t believe in the gods of certain religions, especially those of Christianity and Islam.
However I’m talking about a general creator of it all, not one affiliated with any man-made religion.
I know this is deism, and that’s actually what I’m talking about.
Even though I don’t believe in the gods of man’s religions I still find it very hard to believe that emotion, consciousness, and the ability to even ponder these things is simply a result of chemical processes in the brain. I can’t help but think that my mind is part of something more than just this nonliving Universe. I myself doubt the notion that I, a conscious, thinking human, am just a product of an accident.
I want the atheist opinion. Can we automatically rule out a creator?
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Atheists: Can We Automatically Rule Out A Higher Entity?
Posted on May 2, 2011.
I don’t rule out Deism, but nothing needs to be done if Deism is true.
I’m not so much an Atheist as an Ignostic.
Nope. True atheism assumes a lack of a deity, but that’s only on the condition of a lack of convincing evidence otherwise. Therefore, if convincing evidence is found suggesting a higher entity, it must be taken objectively.
In other words: you can rule out a higher entity “until convincing evidence is found”, but not “automatically.”
You underestimate the power of the brain. Other animals also feel emotion and are able to think about their actions, they dream and have desires just like humans. Their brains are less complex than a human brain, but yet they are still able to have similar functions as humans do.
I’m no biologist, so I can’t explain how it all works. Neurologists can’t explain exactly how the brain works and studies of the human brain have been going on for centuries.
I really don’t think a “creator” is necessary aside from the sperm and the egg containing the dna and such necessary for life.
I don’t automatically rule anything out. If sufficient evidence can be presented that a “higher power” exists, I would have to accept it. Until such time, I disregard it. Since evidence could theoretically still come in, I can’t rule it out completely. But I won’t hold my breath waiting.
I can’t rule out something that has never had the evidence to even consider it.
Yes we can. There is absolutely NO evidence for any kind of a “magic man.” It’s all made up by people. Just like we all know the Egyptians wasted their time building pyramids…
Ive always been very anti religion , and i agree with your way in thinking , awareness and signs of some aura type universe is what makes us human, religion is war on the worlds so what could be more evil than that .The world would be a better existence if we all had a feeling for the natural sources of the world ,and to feel what human nature gave us, to be caring and thoughtful of others and aware in our surroundings.
I’m a fellow agnostic, not atheist.
I just wanted to point out that emotion can be affected by us altering the chemical make up of the brain through various medications or other drugs. The emotions can be altered for both the “good and bad” emotions.
Through scans we can see what is going on in the brain as people experience different emotions, and we can show how there are constants in the results for everyone’s brain, showing how X is present in higher (or lower) amounts, or how X brain region is more active under certain emotional states. There’s pretty good evidence for emotions being chemical processes.
Consciousness is also affected by the physical state of the brain. Who we are, our personality, our interests, our memories, our way of thinking and reasoning… all of these things can be affected by damage to the brain. Someone who has head trauma, or surgery, or tumors or illness that affect their mind can think totally unlike their usual self. This implies that our consciousness is tied to our physical brain. If our mind were part of something beyond ourselves, the state of our brain shouldn’t have such a great effect.
My reason for being agnostic is quite different from yours. My reason is because the universe exists and we can’t explain how it came into being. The big bang only deals with how the universe came into it’s current state, not where the matter originally came from. It’s beyond our knowledge. That’s why I have to leave the god(s) possibility on the table.
I just find it interesting to hear why other agnostics settled on agnosticism.
No, we cannot rule out a creator.
But we know that if there is one, the universe would look the exact same as if there was not one.
So, god is irrelevant.
Hence, is not required.
I was going to let others handle this one… but after seeing the lacking of an atheist response and mostly a Christian one (@ruth) Let me explain one thing. Atheism is not a belief, no matter what any theist may say, it is not. Think of it like this, the TV being off is NOT a channel. But the reason I am an atheist is because no specific, testable, empirically based evidence has ever been presented to me to say other wise. Mostly all of the “irrefutable evidence” which includes personal opinions, personal experiences, and a book that was written thousands of years ago and lost itself in its own translation does not count. It is illogical to put faith before reason and thats the major support of any religion. Primarily Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, I am an agnostic as well as I am open to anyone who can present reasonable evidence to say otherwise.
I think the problem you are having is an internal one as well as an external. From what I interpret, you are experiencing alot of outside pressure to force you to convert to a set religion and you are also doubting you current scientific knowledge with the pile upon pile of excrement they spew out of their mouths to attempt to convert people. That notion of, “we are so special” and “I didnt evolve from no stinkin ape” is just a rudimentary opponent pushed by a dim bulb that doesnt know how pathetic it really sounds.
Think about it like this, (or not, thats the great thing about logic, do it your way) the average life span now is about 70 years. This is only recent and has been about since the 1950s. Ever before that it was about 40. and we go back a couple hundred years it was 20, and then 17 which was the lowest it ever was. If you think about it like that, for most of humanities ancestry our life expectancy has been 17 years, and homo-sapien has been around for about 200,000 years……. which means that we went through 11700 generations of mutations and thus are formed what we are. It wasn’t just a flash moment and suddenly we became humans fully formed from bacteria.
So essentially what Im saying is you have to rule the creator out. Not anyone else. I highly suggest that you look into it further(I only looked back through this once)
Let me know if you want anything else.
Hope it helps
TCM
————————–combating some of the stupidity section——————————
@Galactus
Ive seen this argument before and its absolutely… pathetic really. You make it seem as if its required to believe or not believe in some bronze age, man slaughtering diety and push the burden of proof onto those saying that it does not exist. An atheist does not have to prove something does not exist any more than you have to prove that the tooth fairy exists. If you want to prove that the tooth fairy exists you alone have to pick of the burden of proof and convince people that it is true using reasonable, testable evidence.
@Ruth
You are a babbling buffoon that hasn’t the slightest clue what toxic lies are spewing out of your mouth. You make it seem as if one has to prove why they are an atheist.”It is amazingly stupid to think” exactly what you think. Evolutionary biology is a process upon which organisms take millions and millions of years to through small changes that allow for its development. I’m sick and tired of hearing this same old blatant lie told over and over again as if the next time you say it it will have more validity than the last time. I highly suggest you go to actual sources instead of a creationist movie specifically targeted to lie and cheat its way into teaching “intelligent design” in the classroom and actually reading that book called the “bible” that you claim to source. Please, stop being such a fool and holding back the progression of humanity.
Why are you so afraid of the truth?
The Pope, Catholic Church, Church of England and mainstream churches all accept the big bang and evolution!
Lord Carey the former Archbishop of Canterbury put it rather well – “Creationism is the fruit of a fundamentalist approach to scripture, ignoring scholarship and critical learning, and confusing different understandings of truth”!
I’m not atheist and here’s why. It is amazingly stupid to think that anything like say, a germ,could just jump into existence. It’s up to you to believe in which god(s) you believe in, but the odds, as evolutionists love to screw around with or hide, are so much in favor with an intelligent creator that anything else is just as likely as a fairytale.