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The god of the gaps will never die, so long as personal subjectivity prevails. You can’t live without the mysterious, nor can you live without knowledge.

#god
Shifty 4 July 22
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0

As the gaps narrow there is less and less imagined, much less actual utility in such beliefs.

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What gaps? Please do explain.

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This doesn't make sense to me. "God of the gaps" is a phrase used to describe how religious people use the diminishing gaps in scientific knowledge to justify their beliefs.

What mystery can we not live without? It seems to me that lives are improved when we solve life's mysteries.

JimG Level 8 July 23, 2019
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"God of gaps," isn't it a theory that god exists because there will always be unknown? How is that related to "personal subjectivity"? Even without personal subjectivity, it is entirely possible that there will always be unknown.

Is there a point to what you said, or was it something that sounded good at the moment. Nothing wrong with that. I do that from time to time.

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It would be difficult to survive without basic knowledge, but the mysterious ?? Don't get it.

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From what I recollect, and some knowledge that I have gained from scholars and humanist, god of the gaps is the term that religious people use. Everything science claims is proven to be true it is no longer theory it is fact. However science can't explain everything such as the origins of life, the very first life form although science does have pretty good idea such as primial soup DNA RNA ECT. So if science can't prove it it must be God. This is the god of the gaps fallacy. I've seen Bible thumpers used this quite often.

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“God of the gaps” is a ridiculous concept invented by atheists in their never-ending quest to disparage the religious. Religion does not attempt to explain reality. Religion is about awareness, appreciation and reverence.

If atheism is simply the withholding of belief and there is no “burden of proof”, then why the frantic campaign to disprove?

There is no campaign to disprove, there is a campaign to avoid someone's belief system based on faith to rule over other people's life

There are those who cannot accept uncertainty about anything, and invent mythical entities to explain phenomena.
The atheist, "frantic to disprove" those mythical entities, is a fantasy of those insecure theists.

Once again, I am trying to understand what you said....

What do you mean by "religion is about awareness, appreciation and reverence." Are awareness, appreciation and reverence not possible without religion?

@AtheistReader Sure, anyone can be deeply aware and have appreciation and reverence. Church groups are nothing but shells. People with the spirit of religion are deeply aware and reverent whether they say they are religious or not.

@AtheistReader, @Cherie4444 Anyone can write stuff down whether it makes sense or not, or whether it is just imagination. To write down that God created the world explains absolutely nothing about reality. If some church group wants to latch on to biblical myths and claim that they are literally true, that is their right, but that is not the true spirit of religion. That’s my opinion anyway.

@WilliamFleming I guess "the spirit of religion" is what I am trying to understand, or at least your idea of what that is. If awareness and reverence exist independent of religion, why make a reference to religion at all? Why not call it awareness and reverence?

You say that "Religion does not attempt to explain reality. Religion is about awareness, appreciation and reverence."

And then you say: "People with the spirit of religion are deeply aware and reverent whether they say they are religious or not."

Then why are we even using the "religion" to describe this "spirit"?

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Anyone alive is living with the mysterious. Whether or not they are facing mystery.depends on their honesty and courage.

I am just trying to understand what you said. Is "mysterious" basically the unknown? Is that why "anyone alive is living with the mysterious"? Is that the same thing as saying "anyone alive is living with the unknown"?

And what does it mean to "face" mystery?

@AtheistReader Yes, Mystery is the unknown. Many people prop themselves up with the notion that they know and understood reality, but no one really does except superficially. Science is great but it is very limited.

@WilliamFleming The 'limitations ' of Science are ONLY those enforced upon it by the Authorities, mainly Religious Authorities, governing at the time.
For example, Stem Cell research and the limitless benefits it would have for mankind, i.e. the Big Daddy Churches scream " No WAY, it's against God's Laws," and the Governments of the Day put limitations upon it immediately when it could end such things as cancers, birth defects, etc, etc.

@Triphid That’s not the kind of limitation I mean. There is a built-in, fundamental limit to what humans can comprehend with our rational methods. Reality is not the way it seems, and unless there are basic changes in science there will be deep questions that can not be answered. Whoever thinks they fully understand the world is wearing a blindfold.

@WilliamFleming "deep questions that can not be answered" seems to be a real need of yours...might I suggest a religion of some kind?

@AnneWimsey Hey, if you read my bio you’ll see that I attend Unity.

No one has answers to those deep questions. All we can hope for is awareness, not answers or understanding.

@WilliamFleming Bah humbug!

@WilliamFleming Well, I think all human knowledge is limited. Your statement that "science is very limited" doesn't really explain anything I am afraid. I think those who talk about the "mysteries" often talk about the unknowable. There will always be (probably) the unknown. There are those however who believe that some of the unknown are also unknowable.

So, is that your idea of the mysterious? Because something is at this time unknown doesn't mean that it is unknowable. If it is knowable, what is so "mysterious" about that, right?

If so, why do you think that there are things that are unknowable?

@WilliamFleming Sir, the Human Mind/Brain is far, far more capable of a greater comprehension than we give it credit for.
All it truly needs is to be let free of the external limitations placed/forced upon it.

@AtheistReader @Triphid @AnneWimsey:

Our perception of reality is symbolic only, based on our artificial model of matter moving through space and time. Behind this illusory perception is ultimate reality which we can not perceive directly or understand. This is not some woo woo idea. It is established science and has been since the time of Faraday and Maxwell. A few glimmers of the reality beyond our senses might be had by physicists and modeled by mathematical equations,

From a cosmic perspective our questions about existence are meaningless. According to quantum gravity theory there’s no such thing as time, particles of matter are events rather than things, and space is not the smooth infinite expanse that we imagine.

Clearly we don’t even know what existence is—the concept might have no meaning. All of our experience and knowledge depends on conscious awareness which is a profound mystery. We don’t know what we ourselves are.

Whatever understanding we have is limited in scope and superficial.

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." Albert Einstein

@WilliamFleming Have you always been such a negative person, or is it just something you have adopted over time and utilize for sites/groups like this?
Yes, the word 'time' is a human concept devised to measure the passing of events like the period between sunrise ( a misnomer btw, since the sun does not actually move across the sky, the planet rotates upon its axis) and sunset, etc, and from sunset to sunrise and so on.
However, events in the Universe happen, the birth and death of stars for example, and they take either long periods or short periods, whatever the case maybe, to happen hence we label those periods as 'time.'
As for our 'frail and feeble minds' that may have been Einstein's take on things during the period when we knew little about our mind/brain BUT we have learned more about it since then and, for most of us, BUT sadly not all, we have found different and our ' feeble and fragile minds' can and do expand, no physically, beyond these skeptical limitations with every bit of new knowledge we seek to gain in our lives and they keep expanding the more we learn and comprehend.
For example, I was totally ignorant about and of computers, etc, until the year 2,000, then I began to learn how to use one, what it meant, beneficially, to me as tool for communication, writing poetry, etc, etc, and now I own one and use it, not regularly, but when I feel the need to do so.
Another personal example here would be that, until my early teens I knew only that a switch turned a radio on and a twist of a knob change it from one station to another, but then curiosity kicked in and I wanted and needed to find out and know more, so I started, first, by getting hold of old, discarded valve operated radios and stripping them down, cleaning them , replacing worn out parts with like parts, etc, ( NO circuit diagrams/manuals, etc whatsoever and absolutely NO training in electronics as well) then testing them/re=repairing them until they worked once again and then either keeping them or re-selling them to the few collectors around town at the time.
That, eventually lead to expanding my 'frail and feeble mind' even further and I learned how to make my own antennae specifically designed and built for set and certain frequencies or wave-bands and finally to my studying for and gaining my Ham Radio Operators before reaching the age of 18years.
Though ,my examples mat seem trivial to you, they were a great step to a boy raised in household were the bread-winner was a humble, Underground Hard-rock Miner who was also very much self-taught from the age of 12 years.
So, these limitations of which you speak, are to me only those we or external influences place upon us and WE, individually or as combine effort, can and do, expand our minds, knowledge and comprehensions, etc, whenever and however we so desire, all it takes is just the simple urge/desire to do so.

@Triphid To me our relationship with reality feels very positive—extremely positive in fact. While we don’t really know anything except superficially, we do possess conscious awareness, a gem of infinite value. The implications of our awareness are absolutely staggering—existence is a grand miracle beyond compare. We should logically be celebrating every second with reverence, joy and glee. Yes, we are in darkness, but it is a dazzling darkness of the utmost promise.

And the scientific and technological knowledge that we have amassed, while superficial is still something deserving of pride and joy as well as practical application. That kind of knowledge is great and beyond the horizon lies something a thousand times greater.

In the book “Reality is not What it Seems” by physicist Carlo Rovelli, one learns that time does not exist. Time is an illusion needed by our limited minds to organize sensory input. And particles of matter are events, interactions between covariant quantum fields. Space is not the smooth infinite expanse of our imagination but it is composed of a finite number of granules.

It is clear to me that no one knows the meaning of the existence concept. If you are thinking of that in negative terms, think some more.

KL2HK

@WilliamFleming Oh, I'm NOT a negative person by any means, I see hope probably where others see none, I strive to make things better as best I can given that I AM just one amongst billions.
I'd guess that people would label me as an Eternal Optimist, BUT hey, it's better than being a Pessimist, isn't it ?

0

The god of the gaps is another ridiculous invention of chrustian nutcasess, it was born dead because it is imaginary and from retrograde minds at that.

3

it is interesting to be told what i can and cannot live without. it is never accurate of course. it is rarely even close.

g

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Oh, sweetie, hordes of drumpy supporters prove every day that people can live without "knowledge", and I personally have lived at least 5 decades without any "mysterious" crap (unless you count how I didn't catch anything fatal from philandering ex...even my doctor is/was mystified)

1

I don’t agree with your statement “you can’t live without the mysterious, nor can you live without knowledge”. Neither of these assertions are factual, but I think what you are trying to do is pose this as a question are you not? If you are...then yes, I think we can live without the mysterious, in fact I know that I do. There are lots of unanswered questions, but that does not stop me from living without having all the answers, or even needing to know them. Some things are just unknowable.

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It's not that hard. Certainly not as hard as Dawkins makes it. If you want to defeat the god of the gaps then just figure out the universe.

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I agree, the human animal is driven by curiosity.

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You can live without the mysterious. The key to this is finding out what the big mystery is about and then you can explain the mysterious.

We don't know everything, but if we could survive long enough perhaps.

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