RE: Using Intellectual Fanatics to Discover the Flaws in any Ideology, Idea or Concept | Part 2 of 2
In regards to atheism, I think that some distinction must be made between the people who would say "I don't believe in a god" and the ones who would say "I believe there is no god." It is a small difference but it is an important one. The former doesn't make any claim while the latter does. Neither the first or second or anyone else can say to a certainty what the reality is so all claims have to be seen as dubious. The first atheist has no belief to speak of they just aren't going to take anyone's word for it. The second, on the other hand, actively disbelieves and that can be viewed as a belief in itself.
I do agree that most people seem to be blind to the flaws in their own view of the world. It is painful to be wrong for a lot of people and admitting fault to the self takes a level of intellectual honesty that has to be cultivated. One has to learn that it is okay to be wrong and changing a flawed position is a sign of strength and not a weakness.
Religious people I have met for the most part know they are religious - christians, moslems, etc. They might belief so strongly in their view that they handle it as truth but they are keenly aware that it is their FAITH.
Most atheists I encountered however claimed to not belief anything but to simply know the truth.
So what you have written here ("Neither the first or second or anyone else can say to a certainty what the reality is so all claims have to be seen as dubious.") is already at a high and neutral level of discernment in my book and I often wish atheists I meet would be fair like that. I myself wasn't, I was a fanatic in my atheist times ;)
I mainly stumbled upon the idea that atheism in itself can be considered a religious faith when I dared to test the basic assumptions of modern science for their validity. And it turns out most things that atheists' argumentation rests on are not certain at all, but metaphysical and theoretical in nature, which turned my world upside down and made me consider other options.
I also think the image of "a god" leads to many confusions and rightful rejection. We are not forced to simply take the christian's image of "a god" for the proposition in question, but as a linearly oriented society we always do that. So I am fully with the atheist who doubts the existence of A god (as in a personalised entity with an agenda). The idea of god may be something totally else than what we in the West generally assume. So I tend to avoid the word in conversations because it conjures up more confusion than clarity, namely a fixed image of what god supposedly is.
Actively disbelieving has always served me well, but the shift came when I dared to apply the same methodology to what I an as atheist held to be absolutely certain. And everything changed for me.
I have always said that people who claim to know these types of things to a certainty are either misinformed or lairs lol.
There are bad actors on all sides of this issue. Some non-believers can be quite forceful. I have lived in some deeply Christian areas and have seen them be rather aggressive and confrontational as though someone not believing is a personal insult to them. There was once a big "to do" in a class I took. The professor pointed out that many stories in the bible are very clearly adapted from other mythologies which is not incorrect (the nativity story borrows heavily from the birth of Hercules, for example)but a student took this statement as an "attack" and went as far as to demand an apology because someone made an accurate statement. In some parts of the world one can be killed for not believing or believing the wrong thing.
The way I view this is that it doesn't really matter. In practice, whatever god someone does or doesn't think is real changes very little in his or her day to day life. The important thing (to me anyway) is that people don't force things on others and that is a lesson both believers and non-believers need to learn.
I agree completely!
I love the argument that whoever tends to defend his own position recklessly may deep down not be sure about his convictions at all ;)
Have said it before and I'll say it again: Nobody knows what's up on Earth ;9