It just doesn’t sound like faith in God, or like anything supernatural.
I think of it less as baby and bathwater and more like bathwater, and then over somewhere else, there’s a baby we’re not throwing out which has nothing to do with the bathwater we did throw out.
I have a friend, who, probably in an effort to be super accepting, talks about how she’s not an atheist because she believes in humanity or something warm and fuzzy like that.
She ends the conversation if you ask if she believes in any creator being or anything supernatural. Is there some reason to consider doing selfless things because it makes you happy as contrary to atheism or analogous to religion?
You are, to a large extend, right. Trying to use the word god in such an abstract manner can bring into question wether we need to use that word at all. I don’t think it is a very useful word anymore as it carries too much with it. What I am trying to say is that I see, repeatedly, people that would purport to be rationalists, to hold beliefs on these subjects instead of holding in mind all the possibilities. It seems to me that many atheists have already decided on the materialist view as if it has been scientifically resolved. The truth is that it hasn’t and attention has to be directed towards all the possibilities. It is these possibilities that I call the “baby” that is thrown out with the bathwater. And yes they do include the possibility of higher levels of consciousness.
Clarification: I do not mean anything supernatural as anything that exists is by definition natural. To me the word ‘supernatural’ does not mean anything. Maybe instead of ‘supernatural’ the word ‘unknown’ should be used.
That sounds acceptable to me.
It just doesn’t sound like faith in God, or like anything supernatural.
I think of it less as baby and bathwater and more like bathwater, and then over somewhere else, there’s a baby we’re not throwing out which has nothing to do with the bathwater we did throw out.
I have a friend, who, probably in an effort to be super accepting, talks about how she’s not an atheist because she believes in humanity or something warm and fuzzy like that.
She ends the conversation if you ask if she believes in any creator being or anything supernatural. Is there some reason to consider doing selfless things because it makes you happy as contrary to atheism or analogous to religion?
You are, to a large extend, right. Trying to use the word god in such an abstract manner can bring into question wether we need to use that word at all. I don’t think it is a very useful word anymore as it carries too much with it. What I am trying to say is that I see, repeatedly, people that would purport to be rationalists, to hold beliefs on these subjects instead of holding in mind all the possibilities. It seems to me that many atheists have already decided on the materialist view as if it has been scientifically resolved. The truth is that it hasn’t and attention has to be directed towards all the possibilities. It is these possibilities that I call the “baby” that is thrown out with the bathwater. And yes they do include the possibility of higher levels of consciousness.
Clarification: I do not mean anything supernatural as anything that exists is by definition natural. To me the word ‘supernatural’ does not mean anything. Maybe instead of ‘supernatural’ the word ‘unknown’ should be used.