tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post2048135649132476946..comments2023-04-03T05:38:34.494-07:00Comments on Faith Like a Man: Why I Am Not an AgnosticRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17980477656146061585noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post-6351983995073841822012-08-13T11:18:27.757-07:002012-08-13T11:18:27.757-07:00I've found in my life and observed in others t...I've found in my life and observed in others that faith is almost always a choice. I've made the choice for faith in my life and I've seen people choose faith and then choose to leave it behind. I believe faith has to be a choice because faith is such a difficult thing to live with. I see faith as I see love: sometimes we must choose to have it or live it even when we don't feel it. In this way, the choosing, faith grows in to something profound and meaningful, rather than obligation to what one has grown used to or feels obligated to. Faith is not obligation to a feeling, but active participation in a choice; a choice completely within a person's control.lucasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post-36648932142426433552012-07-31T22:18:44.659-07:002012-07-31T22:18:44.659-07:00Thanks for making this distinction Ryan, I think a...Thanks for making this distinction Ryan, I think atheism is something that a lot of people don't understand. I used to consider myself a deist, I believed in the possibility of a higher power that set into motion the current construct of the universe and then just let things happen. I was never able to rationalize or believe in Christianity, mostly because the idea of an all knowing, all seeing creator being so concerned with being lavished with faith from his disciples and believers under threat of eternal damnation, did not seem to be the act of a being that is also so easily able to grant eternal life and eternal happiness. It all seemed too childish to me. <br /><br />Anyways, just a synopsis but I now consider myself an athiest and the way I look at it is I live my life "without god", which is a very literal manifestation of it. Contrary to those who might not understand this does not mean that I hate Jesus, or love the devil or ascribe to any other doctrine. I no more believe in satan than I do a christian god, and to be blunt am indifferent to both and more. <br /><br />I do not have a problem with anyone else' faith until their faith is thrust upon me, which in this country can happen quite a bit. I am constantly amazed by how many moral decisions in this country are discussed politically through the morality of a christian lens. I also feel that atheists are probably the last minority that will receive widespread social acceptance. A recent poll among christians showed them to trust athiests just a little less than rapists. This is a strange benchmark for us to judge one another by in a country that was founded on religious freedom, something that also has been lost and mangled in the rhetoric of the day. <br /><br />Religious freedom as well as allowing anyone to believe any religion they want also protects people from having to have a religion. <br /><br />Since I've accepted this personal truth, my life has been far better. Although at times it is hard to struggle with the finite nature of my experience on earth and my mortality, I find it far better to accept that I live in an indifferent universe, rather than one where there are great, unknown, cosmic or theist influences happening to me and everyone else at the hands of what I can only describe as an omnipotent, omnipresent, bipolar schizophrenic.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07975253631837662998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post-80656326828083816212012-07-23T17:39:38.168-07:002012-07-23T17:39:38.168-07:00Oh, man, Ryan... spiders aren't insects.
I ta...Oh, man, Ryan... spiders aren't insects.<br /><br />I take your point, though.Eric Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04377671983302859085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post-22142770274699492362012-07-23T04:28:32.874-07:002012-07-23T04:28:32.874-07:00It is semantics to some degree. I can't draw ...It is semantics to some degree. I can't draw circles on here, but I view agnostics as a tiny circle inside a much large circle. In logic terms, it's like all B = A, but not all A = B. If I'm an A, then I'm an A. But if I'm not a B, even if Bs are As, then don't call me a B. <br /><br />As an analogy, all spiders are insects, but not all insects are spiders. If I'm an insect but not a spider, don't call me a spider. =)Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17980477656146061585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8858648209241030386.post-76023516416958803642012-07-22T22:24:50.796-07:002012-07-22T22:24:50.796-07:00Perhaps this is a point of semantics, but one of t...Perhaps this is a point of semantics, but one of the statements you are responding to is: "You're not really an atheist - I think you're an agnostic" but then, in your closing, you write that you "go so far as to say that by definition, an agnostic IS an atheist." If that's true, what's the concern with people saying the statement you're reacting to? If I'm a Granny Smith apple, and when I tell people I'm a Granny Smith, they say "nah, I think you're actually an apple," my answer would be, "well, duh. That was implied." Or, am I missing some nuance of this?Eric Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04377671983302859085noreply@blogger.com