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Agnostic and More

“Agnostic?”… “Are you really?” … “What does that mean?”
The many terms for declaring disbelief in god and religion is baffling. These are the terms used when waffling about the degree of possibility that God exists. Whether, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, critical thinker, et al, they cover a lot of ground. There seems to be a large number in this semi-nonbeliever group. Why the reluctance to saying you are 100% certain? It’s our human nature, for sure. Some thought about the question might help. What is it basically that nonbelievers don’t believe in?
I resolved my query of, yeah or nay, by going back in time. It took awhile. Before that, I discovered the scam of religion and the psychology of cults and the roots of monotheism. But, I hadn’t gone back far enough. Go back to the beginning to find the creation of the great beyond, the world of spirits and dreams by our ancient ancestors. This is the world created by the human mind and this delusion is still with us. So, it is not even a question of holy books and saviors.
Are there any doubts that the supernatural does not exist, other than in the minds of humans, that is? The delusion of the supernatural realm has been with us since the beginning and needs to be accepted for what it is, a mental construct of the human mind.
What is your level of nonbelief in the supernatural? GROG

GROG 6 Aug 10
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17 comments

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1

At one time I believed in and studied everything supernatural. Of course, god belief is supernatural if you accept what scriptures say. Today I know that there is nothing supernatural. If you think otherwise you simply did not understand your subject well. Please know that it is OK to "not know something." Not knowing does not make anything supernatural.

1

I am very confident that there is nothing out there that I would call god. I do not subdivide nature into Infranature-Nature-Supernature … all just bloody nature. I am perfectly happy with my very simplistic view of the universe visible and otherwise.

Right on. That is my whole point. The universe is 100% natural. The dream world, the supernatural was created by the first humans, and we humans have been stuck with that delusion ever since. God and gods are not even a factor because the supernatural realm required for their existence doesn't exist. GROG

0

After leaving religious indoctrination, I don't feel the need to put myself in a box full of labels or believe in the psychopath God. As non-believer of religious methods the scammers can't manipulate me with their lies and fantasy. I believe in me and I let others believe in what it make them feel satisfied. No God then it is not necessary to be a masochistic.

1

I’m on the highest level of disbelief, never having had one in the first place. However, I believe that absolute certainty is the sign of a closed mind, so I say that my mind is still open to verifiable evidence. Short of that happening I’m happy to say that I’m 99.999% an atheist.

True there is an (maybe) innate fear of being a 100%er. I have gotten past that when I realize how early humans must have viewed the world around them. To make sense of what they didn't and couldn't know, they created stories. Even today when we experience the death of, for example, a pet, we wonder where did life go? The supernatural fills some human need, even now, but it exist only in the human mind. The delusion must end,,,,someday. GROG

@GROG It’s not really that with me...I think to be 100% definite about anything without proof smacks of arrogance and a kind of certainty that I associate with believers. I like to keep the distinction between myself and them.

4

Most people on this site are atheist in practice, but most are not too bothered about labels, because when once you leave behind religion and its dogma, you realize that no god is going to punish you for spelling mistakes, even if you spell atheist, agnostic, skeptic, humanist, or twenty other ways even deist.

Also most people on this site are happy with, and familiar with the philosophy of science, and the general assumption it makes, that it is alway good to technically allow the possibility of error, no matter how certain you are of something. And given the fact that all of the worthwhile knowledge and understanding in the world, has been generated by that philosophy, it is perhaps no bad thing to show it a little nod of respect, even if it is trivial and without real meaning.

Well, there are times when it's not right to be so bloody polite. Asked how many lives you have, one or two? What's your answer?

@GROG To the best of my knowledge I have only one life, and I would think that that is the view of most people here too. But in any case, the issue of how many lives people have could not be more trivial and unimportant.

@Fernapple Oh, Fern. How can you say that the issue of one or two is trivial? The monotheists don't think so and they number half of the world's population, while most of the other half still believe in spirits and a spirit world. GROG

@GROG It is trivial unless you can prove, not only, that there is another life , but even more importantly that this one in some way affects the other.

1

My reluctance stems from claiming for years that I was absolutely certain God did exist. Now that I'm relying on facts and reason, I have to admit that it's a possibility and I simply don't know. I have no problem, however, with stating that Jesus Christ as he's taught by the various religions doesn't exist along with several other supernatural figures.

1

Why the reluctance to saying you are 100% certain?

  • I’m not 100% certain about nearly everything.

What is your level of nonbelief in the supernatural?

  • I do not believe or disbelieve.
2

Rather than putting energy into believing something for which there is no evidence (in order to achieve social acceptance), I put energy into being comfortable with the unknown.

1

Supernatural is stuff we can't explain with science and I do believe there is stuff we can't explain. Maybe we will come to understand more but to say we know it all seems off. Sometimes people are afraid of what they don't understand and deny that too

0

I am and always have been an Atheist since my childhood when I came to realise that there ARE, and never will be, ANY Logical Reasonings/Reasons as to why there must be or ever has been a Supreme Deity/God because, to put it simply, everything occurs due to the forces, etc, of Nature in a completely Natural World.
A truly thinking person will say " I don't know, BUT I WILL seek out the answers," where those who are afraid or wish to gain control, etc, will respond, almost immediately, with something like " Everything is the work and will of a Greater Power/God/Deity/Deities and we should NEVER question it again."

1

The term Agnostic does not necessarily mean semi-nonbeliever. Agnosticism is the reason for non-belief. I believe that nothing is known with certainty of the existence of God.

There is no waffling on my part. I’m as sure of the non-existence of gods as I am anything. But who can be 100% sure of anything except a person whose mind is shut to other possibilities and is a non critical thinker?

Why quibble over words? All I'm saying is that anyone who really believes that they will be physically resurrected and spend the rest of eternity in heaven is crazy. Not 100% sure about God, how about resurrection? How possible is that? GROG

6

Welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay.

I'm an atheist. I'm sure there are no gods.
I'm also an anti-theist. I'm sure all religion
Is evil.

I am secure in both those positions.

3

Having done my homework, and finding that there is no good evidence for the existence of gods, I am an atheist. 🙂

Was there anything in particular that changed your position? One of my friends (formerly Mormon) got into it and one of the things was Brigham Young's involvement with some murders (for God, I guess). GROG

@GROG My first discovery was that the prophets were false. A number of their predictions failed to come true. I also found many contradictions in the Bible, and just general nonsense. Christians of various persuasions tried to convince me that religion was true, and I read quite a few books on apologetics. But their arguments were almost always illogical and baseless. So, I found no good evidence that gods exist. My conclusion is that religion is mythology, not reality.

1

Everything is natural, but there really is an ultimate reality beyond the world of our senses, call it what you wish. In our everyday lives all we ever really experience is our own nervous system. We create our own dream world and that dream world is actually what is nebulous and supernatural. Ultimate reality beyond is very real and enduring but we can not detect or understand it with our symbolic space/time/causality model of the senses.

How do you know this?

@adaptable1958 I understand how the brain functions. I should have been more specific. I was referring to this statement, "there really is an ultimate reality beyond the world of our senses" and this statement, "Ultimate reality beyond is very real and enduring but we can not detect or understand it with our symbolic space/time/causality model of the senses."

@jlynn37 The realization has been enmeshed in physics for a long time and has become universally understood. Beginning with Maxwells equations and then Einstein’s theories and quantum mechanics physics has become thoroughly comfortable with the idea.

Max Planck said in 1944, "As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter".

The point is hammered home thoroughly in “Reality is not What it Seems” by physicist Carlo Rovelli. One of the chapters is entitled “Time Does not Exist” or something like that. Any questions about creation or immortality are meaningless from a cosmic perspective, so that’s why I said ultimate reality is enduring.

@WilliamFleming I'll stop here. Thank you for your response.

@WilliamFleming i find it reassuring that just because i experience the passage of time this way, doesnt mean existence vanishes. my entire life is permanently carved in spacetime. My happiest moments are in a very real way preserved in the amber of the universe. It only seems fleeting in the practical sense.

1

I am 100% sure that I don't care either possible way. What does that make me?

Unaware? Don't know, don't care, but think please. GROG

A free mind person!

Apatheist I think.

@Wurlitzer Yes, I've heard Apatheist before. Perhaps sounds too fancy to me that it's difficult to remember but yeah, agree. @Merseyman1 Free mind..I like it !! @adaptable1958 Yes, absolutely yes !!! @GROG What's there to think about?

A "Don't Carist"

@Julie808 Never heard this one before, I think I will make a T-Shirt !!! Thx !!!!

3

Who gives a fuck. You folks could not possibly beat this dead horse any more dead than it has been since I joined this site a year and a half ago. This has gotten beyond BORING!!!

You drunk? GROG

@GROG No, I haven't been drunk since the 80's. I find the almost militant Atheists as irritating and boorish as the almost militant Christians. This idea we are supposed to fit in these little boxes is ridiculous.

There is a lot of confusion about what agnosticim means so I think this subject bears repeating.

@dare2dream Why, and why is it important on any level? If you folks haven't figured it out in the 18 months I have been here, I doubt you ever will.

@Sticks48 I haven't drank alcohol since the mid 90s, so we are peers in that too.

@TomMcGiverin l drink two or three drinks a week, maybe. When I go out I have one Dewar's on the rocks and that is it. When I play I have the same. If it is a place that sells beer and or wine only I only drink water.

@NoPlanetB Of course they do and I have a right to put in my two cents. That is the point of being here. 🙂

2

I voted in the link, I am 110% Atheist, do not believe in the supernatural nor card reading, horoscope, re-incarnation, afterlife, gods, ghosts, superstitions of any kind. All these things are human creation to cope and deal with the idea of a short life, fear of death, and to try to control our future in one way or the other with prayers, going to the fortune teller to see what decision should be made, knocking of wood, etc

Spread the word. They are crazy and need to be, first pitied, then laughed at and then educated. GROG

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