There is zero human evidence about most of the things that are actually happening right now in the universe.
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It's not about God working in mysterious ways, it's about us having very little understanding of what constitutes reality. Like you know, this thing we're experiencing right now. We don't really understand it, or do you understand what's happening right now?
It is indeed a mystery because we have no idea how reality works. Even if God doesn't exist, reality is a mystery. We understand some things, sure, but we don't really understand the things that would let us answer "is there a creator?".
So saying "I don't believe in a creator because there's no evidence" just sounds so arrogant... As if humans had enough evidence to determine thst lack of evidence is good enough to reject something. The amount of evidence we have gathered about reality is probably extremely small compared to the evidence there is to gather.
I think I already said this before. If by "not believing" you mean "lack of belief", we're on the same page. I think lack of belief is the right approach to unknown subjects.
Give yourself the luxury of believing things only when you actually know about the subject. That means chances your belief is right are decent. Otherwise, don't shape your life based on a guess.
Yes, because I don't know then I don't have a belief.
As I said, even Schrodinger's paradox seemed logical and rational, he based his belief on it. Turns out he was wrong because he lacked knowledge, so his belief was just a guess. In his case, his belief was a good guess considering how close he was to the subject.
How close are we to understanding reality and it's origin? Not close at all. Even if we used our rational thought, our belief would be a pretty wild guess, because we have basically no knowledge.
So can you believe without knowledge? Sure. If you believe with knowledge, that's even better. Schdoringer believed based on a ton of knowledge and logical thought, and he was still wrong. Why? He lacked more knowledge. Now imagine me, believing with no understanding of the origin of reality... How close can I be to the actual answer. Not close. So, what's the point of believing?
Can you believe without knowledge. Sure. But why? Lack of belief and accepting ignorance is the humble path.
The more you know about a subject, the more you should allow yourself to believe things on that subject.
I don't know why you keep saying I'm saying belief and knowledge are the same. They are not the same. My point is that belief without knowledge is pointless. See? Not the same.
Belief based on knowledge = good.
Belief without knowledge = not good.
Do I have knowledge about the creation of the universe? Do I understand reality? Do I know anything about a creator? No. Thus, I choose not to believe anything about it. Anything I choose to believe without actual understanding is just a guess.
That's what I do, I dismiss the claim. But just because their claim doesn't make sense to me I won't assume they are wrong.
If something doesn't make sense to me, doesn't mean that thing doesn't make sense. If something makes sense to me, it doesn't mean it makes sense. If there's no evidence to prove something, doesn't mean that thing is false...
I just feel my place in the universe is pretty far away from absolute truths. I prefer the humble route of just saying "I just don't really know, do I'd rather not believe based on emotions or shallow perceptions".
Again, not sure where that "it is binary" affirmation comes from. Is that what you believe? Or do you consider that to be an absolute truth?
There are some many things I honestly have no beliefs about. It's like I'm a walking counterargunent to your affirmation.
Do I believe we live in a simulation? I honestly don't know and I don't know what to believe because I have no idea how reality works. Maybe? Maybe not? I honestly have no idea. How can I know if reality is real? I don't know.
Is there a god? I don't know. The question is too deep and if I said yes or no I'd be just guessing because I do not understand reality like that. There are things I do understand... how reality was created isn't one of them.
I honestly didn't understand what you said there. I don't believe a person needs to hold a belief for some time for it to be valid. Not sure how you arrived to that conclusion.
I just said that my instinctual answer isn't one that matches my worldview clearly. When I say "I don't believe" I actually mean "I have no belief/I don't know". I just need to train myself to say "I have no belief" which represents what I feel much better and with less ambiguity.
This topic is the example. Just because you're using your rational thought doesn't mean you're getting anywhere near an actual answer or having a better chance of answering "is there a creator"?
You can use all the reason you want, you just don't understand reality with such depth that you can start scratching that question.
Schrodinger was using reason when he proposed his paradox... But he was wrong because he lacked knowledge. Without actual knowledge, logical thought can make sense but still be wrong. Reality is more complex than the conceptual abstractions our minds use.
I mean, I'm pretty sure if 20 gods descend from heaven, a lot of Christians would stop believing there's a single god.
Being open to the possibilities doesn't mean that you'll change your mind once presented with irrefutable evidence, it means you're not limiting your mindset to a single possibility until proven wrong.
Christians are not open to the possibilities because they live a religious life that assumes God exists. Until proven wrong.
I have no belief. I don't need to pick sides on a topic I have no knowledge about. With the limited understanding we have of reality, I think any outcome is equally likely to be true. I have no knowledge that tells me a creator exists or doesn't exist.
"Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities." (Wikipedia)
I guess I'd be the first type of atheist if I were to use that label. Just lack of belief.
It's possible to have no belief, not sure why you're saying there are only 2 options as if that was an absolute truth. In fact, some people have pointed out that atheism is lack of belief, Wikipedia says that.
Yes, knowledge and belief are different, I never said they are the same. My point is that knowledge is more valuable than belief. When there's no knowledge, belief is worthless. We have no knowledge about a creator or the actual events of the origin of the universe, thus, belief is pointless. Whatever you choose to believe is just a very uncertain guess.
Why believe based on almost zero knowledge? Isn't that as bad as what religious people do?
You used "not believing" in your explanation. Does that mean "I have no belief" or does it mean "I believe it is false"?
Edit: ah ok, so you choose to believe it is false. Yeah, I can't agree with this. I do agree with having no belief at all. Assuming something is false because there is no evidence seems like a rushed conclusion to me. I understand the burden of proof falls on them, but the fact they don't have evidence doesn't make them wrong.
If you want to make conclusions about matters humans can barely comprehend based on your human comprehension, that would be something very human to do, so it's understandable.
Yeah, in this case believing anything is worthless because we don't understand the origin of reality. That's my point. It's fine to believe something when enough evidence has shown it is likely the case. It is not fine to believe something is true without evidence, or false because of lack of evidence. Specially when gathering evidence about it is nearly impossible with our current understanding.
Maybe the humble thing to do is to wait until we gather more evidence that supports or rejects these ideas.
Do you believe there's no superposition because you've never seen a cat dead and alive at the same time?
Reality is more complex that these thought experiments. I honestly find the unicorn argument to be a mockery of what I'm trying to say but I'll play along.
I do not believe in unicorns because they are supposed to live on earth, yet billions of humans have never seen them. There's no fossil evidence, it was common for people to create mythical creatures in the past, we understand their origins through history.....
You see, all of these things are clear human understanding. The existence and nature of reality isn't something we can reason about like that. So you keep trying to establish equivalence between two different things. One is human and mundane, the other one deals with the origin of reality.
Yeah I totally agree. Accepting ignorance about things we actually understand would be impractical. Even if philosophically we can't truly know if we actually know anything, practically we need to establish truths that work as tools to build more complex systems.
What I'm trying to say is that we don't really understand much about the origin of the universe, so saying "I don't believe there is a god because of lack of evidence" seems too harsh. Like, ok, we don't really understand much about this topic, we don't have evidence, how can lack of evidence help you make up your mind then? The humble thing would be to say "I don't really know much about this because we don't really understand this subject, so I can't form opinions".
I guess it's just a matter of linguistics, I'm just realizing that "I don't believe" means something different for different people. Personally I thought it meant "I think chances are there is no creator". But for some people it means "I don't believe in the religious ideas, even if I don't believe the opposite". For others it is "I have no belief one way or the other".
So yeah, this is the problem with language. Sometimes ideas are more complex than words.
Your experience is irrelevant. Do you realize how little you know and how ephemeral humanity is? The human race will be gone in the blink of an eye.
This is exactly the type of argument I disagree with. Humans need to be more humble about how they perceive the universe. We're like two blind men arguing about the existence of color.
Yeah, Schrodinger's was also a logical paradox that contradicted superposition. Too bad reality is more complex than human logic. "well I've never seen a cat being dead and alive at the same time, I guess superposition is just false because there's no evidence".
The fact you're pointing Russell's Teapot shows exactly what I mean with this post. You're using a simple logical thought experiment to derive a most likely conclusion about the nature of the universe, when in reality you have basically null knowledge of what is actually going on with reality. This is exactly my disagreement with atheism.
The problem is that "most likely". Just because we don't have evidence for something it doesn't mean it is most likely false. Humans most likely won't discover 0.001% of the truths of the universe, so saying something is likely or not based on our capacity to understand the universe is a joke.
Please don't pull the "Russell's teapot" argument. This isn't the same. That thing is very close to our human experience, the creation of the universe is not.
Pretty sure there are plenty of atheists that are constantly on the lookout to attack people who they don't agree with. Anyways, shaping your life is not just about what you do but also about the way you think. Someone who believes God doesn't exist because there's no evidence, probably has other beliefs about things they don't really understand. Letting go of those ideas that seem logical but have no basis helps lower the ego. Letting go and accepting ignorance feels much better than forming opinions without knowledge.