Does God Exist?

[fezzyfestoon]

Definitely not. And I personally find more arrogance in the assertion that those who don't believe in God are burdened with proving its nonexistence than I do in claiming it doesn't exist. That makes absolutely no logical sense. Are we supposed to believe in anything until we can prove it doesn't exist? Can anyone here personally prove to me right now that there aren't invisible, all-powerful elves living in trees? If not, then we must respect the belief in them, right? No. Nonsense doesn't just get respect because it's widely accepted nonsense.

God is a way to mask the uneasiness about not being all-knowing ourselves. If I don't know how something happened billions of years ago, I'm not going to freak out and demand to know. I can live with being in the dark about something literally countless human generations ago. Human knowledge of the world is finite. I can also live with human life being finite. And I personally believe that gives me a better respect for the power of our short opportunity to take advantage of the wonder of our real world.

[fezzyfestoon]

Your argument is problematic because we should, in fact, respect animistic beliefs.

I agree, but animism can be respected without having to accept the entire overlying religious belief system. And I don't think of it as a system of beliefs in the same league as religion regardless of many integrating its general philosophy.

[fezzyfestoon]

Your argument is problematic because we should, in fact, respect animistic beliefs.

I agree, but animism can be respected without having to accept the entire overlying religious belief system. And I don't think of it as a system of beliefs in the same league as religion regardless of many integrating its general philosophy.

Hmm. This honestly wasn't the sort of response that I was expecting. I understand perfectly, though I don't share, your opinions relating to the distinction you're making between the basic tenets of a stance on the world and the more specific socially-produced tenets of a particular religion but I'm honestly a little confused as to why things like, say, Shinto or African or South American folk beliefs would be more respectable than more 'conventionally' (i.e. westernly) theistic systems.

What I'm looking mostly at as the acceptable and respectable beliefs of animism are simply the basic concepts that people have a deeper connection with the world than there simply being people on one level and then all else. The details and more religiously motivated explanations are more or less just as nonsensical as the religions themselves. At least personally, I view the concept of animism as potentially being rooted in little-explored scientific or psychological arenas rather than simply a religious concept of explaining an unknown. There are definite traits in animals and their relationships with humans that suggest a deeper connection on some level. I don't necessarily believe in the characterization of that being a result of souls, but there is something to it. It was rooted in evidence and then supported rather than most religions being created and then "proven" in a backwards way devoid of reason or objectivity.