It’s a bad argument against atheism. Atheists don’t just disbelieve in any particular God, they disbelieve in all of them. Of course, if you redefine God to mean “potato”, then atheists will believe in God. But that’s a bad use of language, and the default assumption is to use the word in its normal context.
You persist in this, Chaosmosis, in assuming “against.” What I presented was not an argument “against” atheism, per se, it was a question as to the nature of atheism. If “atheism” is disbelief in “God,” then there must be some definition of “God,” or it’s totally meaningless.
I don’t define God to be a thing. I equate God with Reality. What is that? I do not assume that I understand God. I did not invent this understanding, I found it. It’s actually pretty standard Islam. God has many names, and one of them is al-Haqq. The Truth or the Reality. Because this is a reference to a singleness, I capitalize it, this is not a reference to the ordinary individual realities, the body of facts, all of which are conditional and relative.
I don’t “believe” in this, I “trust” it, which is a better translation of the word in the Qur’an which is ordinarily translated as “believe.” That is, there is an operating hypothesis here, on which I lean. It has effects. But it happens to be one which does not constrain my reasoning, that encourages it. But it is arbitrary, it’s a choice.
I am responsible for it.
And you have your own choices to make.
In any case, “belief” is about an assumption of truth. “Trust” is only about a mind-state, in fact, or what I more routinely call a “condition of the heart.”
If I unpacked “disbelieves in God” to “has not encountered a concept of God they both believed (“did not disbelieve”, if you prefer) and did not consider a silly conception of God”, would atheism still be meaningless? Would that be a horrible misconception of atheism?
Are you sure there’s nothing bundled in with “God is Reality” beyond what you state? Let’s say I said “God is Reality. Reality is not sapient and has never given explicit instructions on anything.” Would you consider that consistent with your belief that God equals Reality?
I’m not trying for Socratic Method arguing here, I’m just not quite sure where you’re coming from.
You persist in this, Chaosmosis, in assuming “against.” What I presented was not an argument “against” atheism, per se, it was a question as to the nature of atheism. If “atheism” is disbelief in “God,” then there must be some definition of “God,” or it’s totally meaningless.
I don’t define God to be a thing. I equate God with Reality. What is that? I do not assume that I understand God. I did not invent this understanding, I found it. It’s actually pretty standard Islam. God has many names, and one of them is al-Haqq. The Truth or the Reality. Because this is a reference to a singleness, I capitalize it, this is not a reference to the ordinary individual realities, the body of facts, all of which are conditional and relative.
I don’t “believe” in this, I “trust” it, which is a better translation of the word in the Qur’an which is ordinarily translated as “believe.” That is, there is an operating hypothesis here, on which I lean. It has effects. But it happens to be one which does not constrain my reasoning, that encourages it. But it is arbitrary, it’s a choice.
I am responsible for it.
And you have your own choices to make.
In any case, “belief” is about an assumption of truth. “Trust” is only about a mind-state, in fact, or what I more routinely call a “condition of the heart.”
If I unpacked “disbelieves in God” to “has not encountered a concept of God they both believed (“did not disbelieve”, if you prefer) and did not consider a silly conception of God”, would atheism still be meaningless? Would that be a horrible misconception of atheism?
Are you sure there’s nothing bundled in with “God is Reality” beyond what you state? Let’s say I said “God is Reality. Reality is not sapient and has never given explicit instructions on anything.” Would you consider that consistent with your belief that God equals Reality?
I’m not trying for Socratic Method arguing here, I’m just not quite sure where you’re coming from.