Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - The "New Atheism," the vocal minority making the rest of us look bad, or more?

mixedmedia · 10-25-2006, 06:25 AM

I am an agnostic with Taoist tendencies. I do not believe in deities or miracles or saints or the writings of people from millenia ago purporting the cause and reason of existence before mankind could even begin to conceive of the true mysteries and vastness of the universe. I believe that deistic religions are the products of self-centered and cosmically-impaired societies and it's nothing less than foolish to try and make our constantly expanding world fit within the confines of their dusty, old texts. Sometimes I wonder if the world's deistic religions could have come about from brushes with fantastic universal truths by ordinary people who meant well, but, being ordinary people in a darker, less enlightened world, did not have the capacity to process the enormity of what they'd seen thereby leaving much open to interpretation by the limited scope of their imaginations.

But regardless of how they came about, in most cases I don't think it took long for some to view these burgeoning concepts as opportunities to wield power and influence over large groups of people. (And sometimes I wonder if they underestimated just how powerful and influential these concepts would be...and would remain!) Using religion in this way, I believe, has corrupted its spiritual efficacy and diluted its significance as a tool of "higher learning." Buddhism being a happy and notable exception (non-deistic = coincidence?...I think not).

I say I am agnostic because I am open to the possibility that there is an underlying order to the universe that very well could be metaphysical. I just don't know. So, for the most part, I give people space to believe what they need to believe. After all, my ideas are based on a sort of faith, too. Take note of how many times I say "I believe" in this post, lol. But I do take issue with faith when it becomes more of a conquest than a quest for knowledge and understanding about one's place in the universe, especially when coming from those who exhibit very little capacity for understanding the basic human tenets of love, compassion and tolerance. I don't know a lot about the atheist movement, but I am sure there are ignorant, intolerant atheists, as well. So I guess what it comes down to, for me, is that it is not so much what one believes, but whether one uses that belief to make one's self wiser and a more thoughtful, kinder, and positive influence on the world.

So I don't know if any of this addresses the OP

, but those are my thoughts this morning on faith and religion.

10-25-2006, 06:25 AM	#10 (permalink)
mixedmedia has all her shots. Location: Florida	I am an agnostic with Taoist tendencies. I do not believe in deities or miracles or saints or the writings of people from millenia ago purporting the cause and reason of existence before mankind could even begin to conceive of the true mysteries and vastness of the universe. I believe that deistic religions are the products of self-centered and cosmically-impaired societies and it's nothing less than foolish to try and make our constantly expanding world fit within the confines of their dusty, old texts. Sometimes I wonder if the world's deistic religions could have come about from brushes with fantastic universal truths by ordinary people who meant well, but, being ordinary people in a darker, less enlightened world, did not have the capacity to process the enormity of what they'd seen thereby leaving much open to interpretation by the limited scope of their imaginations. But regardless of how they came about, in most cases I don't think it took long for some to view these burgeoning concepts as opportunities to wield power and influence over large groups of people. (And sometimes I wonder if they underestimated just how powerful and influential these concepts would be...and would remain!) Using religion in this way, I believe, has corrupted its spiritual efficacy and diluted its significance as a tool of "higher learning." Buddhism being a happy and notable exception (non-deistic = coincidence?...I think not). I say I am agnostic because I am open to the possibility that there is an underlying order to the universe that very well could be metaphysical. I just don't know. So, for the most part, I give people space to believe what they need to believe. After all, my ideas are based on a sort of faith, too. Take note of how many times I say "I believe" in this post, lol. But I do take issue with faith when it becomes more of a conquest than a quest for knowledge and understanding about one's place in the universe, especially when coming from those who exhibit very little capacity for understanding the basic human tenets of love, compassion and tolerance. I don't know a lot about the atheist movement, but I am sure there are ignorant, intolerant atheists, as well. So I guess what it comes down to, for me, is that it is not so much what one believes, but whether one uses that belief to make one's self wiser and a more thoughtful, kinder, and positive influence on the world. So I don't know if any of this addresses the OP , but those are my thoughts this morning on faith and religion. __________________ Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce