"An atheist . . . is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles — except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don't yet understand. If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural. As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful."
— Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
"I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."
— Albert Einstein
"Some people have views of God that are so broad and flexible that it is inevitable that they will find God wherever they look for him. One hears it said that 'God is the ultimate' or 'God is our better nature' or 'God is the universe.' Of course, like any other word, the word 'God' can be given any meaning we like. If you want to say that 'God is energy,' then you can find God in a lump of coal."
— Steven Weinburg, Dreams of a Final Theory
"Thus a skeptic is simply a person who chooses to examine carefully whether his or her beliefs are actually true."
— Andrew B. Newberg, Why We Believe What We Believe
"Skepticism challenges established institutions. If we teach everybody, including, say, high school students, habits of skeptical thought, they will probably not restrict their skepticism to UFOs, aspirin commericals, and 35,000-year-old channelees. Maybe they'll start asking awkward questions about economic, or social, or political, or religious institutions. Perhaps they'll challenge the opinions of those in power. Then where would we be?"
— Carl Sagan
Mojo Brew bio
8 months ago
4 comments:
I prefer agnostic. To some God exists and it makes them happy. I have no need to disturb their happiness as long as they do not impose their beliefs on me.
An agnostic does not deny the existence of God and heaven but holds that one cannot know for certain whether or not they exist. The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge. He made up the word from the prefix a-, meaning "without, not," as in amoral, and the noun Gnostic. Gnostic is related to the Greek word gnsis, "knowledge," which was used by early Christian writers to mean "higher, esoteric knowledge of spiritual things"; hence, Gnostic referred to those with such knowledge. In coining the term agnostic, Huxley was considering as "Gnostics" a group of his fellow intellectuals
"ists," as he called them who had eagerly embraced various doctrines or theories that explained the world to their satisfaction. Because he was a "man without a rag of a label to cover himself with," Huxley coined the term agnostic for himself, its first published use being in 1870.
I called myself an agnostic for several years until I realized the main reason I was using that label was because it was more socially acceptable than atheist. Why should I hide what I am to make other people more comfortable? If anything I can say is going to threaten someone else's faith, then their faith doesn't stand up.
That's not my problem and perhaps an exciting opportunity for them.
Besides, there is real danger in staying silent, as the past decade has illustrated all too effectively. I've posted this before, but I think this essay describes this danger exceptionally well:
Greetings from Idiot America
That you take a stance is one of the things that I like best about you Ronnie.
Cat-licker theologists will tell you that Gnosticism is heresy. And if we're talking roots (prefixes)the Greek "a" doesn't necessarily imply ANTI-, it simply indicates "without." So as an atheist I'm not especially against the concept of supernaturality, I simply find it useless, meaningless, and a complete waste of time. YMMV.
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