God is only a construct of the human psyche.
This is based on naturalism. As I like to put it, the natural is what we wake up to every day. What we know exists because it just does. We can stop believing in it, and it's still there...
There really is no disputing that we are all sense based creatures. We see, smell, hear, feel, and taste the world. What we interpret from these senses are purely a product of our mind's often faulty interpretation of information.
If I see the color blue, I am receiving photons of a certain spectral form which then my mind weighs against my other senses, and what they are percieving at that moment. Eventually I see blue (it could actually be a different color, but if the surrounding environment and other sensory perception leads my mind to blue, that is what I see). This is just how we work.
These senses are beyond slightly fallible. We can hallucinate, have insane dreams, and even completely change personality, or who we are our proverbial soul, with a little viral infection or brain damage.We also like to order things from a child putting the square block in the square hole to Faces, patterns, and so much more... We like to make order of coincidence as well.
Here is a demonstration of this from my own experience. When I go to the super market I say a little prayer (I know, atheist blasphemy). It goes like this, "Asphaulta, Asphaulta, goddess of grace, please will you grant me a parking space?" This is said with the implied intention of getting not only a parking space, but a good one, preferably up front. When I say this little wish, some of the time I get a space right up front, sometimes a little further back, rarely though do I not get one. Of course that goes without saying. There always will eventually be a space for me to park. The interesting thing is it happens that I tend to remember and cherish the instances where I get spaces up front more vividly. Something in me fools me into thinking that saying this prayer improves my chances of a closer space. Any statistician would tell you that's a matter of chance, in reality. But in my mind, in some way, I think I am, or rather Asphaulta is, making a difference.
We sensory creatures see not just order, but also interaction where there is really only random coincidence. This disposition leads us to come up with all sorts of reasons, true or false, for things to happen. The concept of god comes from this. Our testimonies about god also come from a mixture of our fallible senses, and our desire to make sense of everything..
There is no reason other than presumptive hypothesis to assume that god exists. Belief in spite of this is supported by followers of religion because they are conditioned by society, churches, parents, etc... to perceive certain experiences to be explained by god. To further back the idea of god, psychologically, we have the problem of mortality and no control. God, the concept, helps us with these dilemmas by comforting us with ideas of control, via perceived prayer, and protection. In reality there is no need for god as an explanation for any experience at all. Coincidence is everywhere and supposed successful prayer, as displayed with Asphaulta, is only our ordering of it. It really is just our want to believe and often our lack of understanding of our perception.
God is only a grand speculation.
God is only a grand speculation.
Down with Asphaulta's chosen people, symbolized by the iconic wheelchair in the sand!
ReplyDeleteNo really, I thought it was well done. :)
-Ryan
Consider your conscious experience for a moment. I’ll bet you go about your daily business feeling as though your mind and your body are separate. That’s been termed “intuitive dualism”. It FEELS as though your body isn’t you, like it’s something that BELONGS to you, and the “real you” is what is happening in your mind.
ReplyDeleteThere’s lots to say about that, but I’ll just point out one thing. If you extrapolate that dualism to the outside world, even if you do this unconsciously, you might see the world as a physical thing AND believe that there’s a separate consciousness that it “belongs” to as well. A consciousness with intentions and thoughts and desires. This is projection, of course, and one based on a false premise, but we’re now a good part of the way to a hypothesis about how religion arose from the positing of agencies that aren’t really there.
I think dualism is false, but I can’t help the fact I evolved to “feel” as though it’s true.
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ReplyDeleteGod exists in your mind, but not in reality. It also doesn't exist in all minds. The Pirahas don't have a god concept at all. Of course, they are apart from modern culture and have had no introduction of the idea of god all together. God, though, clearly isn't an innate concept. To say that god revealed himself to all people I think is a stretch. The idea of god was introduced at some point to everyone in modern ethical monotheistic culture. Without that concept many different explanations could be contrived. Many different ones have been described throughout history. Look at the history of creation mythology. Look at all the varieties of Theistic and Atheistic religions in the world too.
ReplyDeleteAs for the scientific advances you speak of, those are mostly purely theoretically based and are purely conceptual, just like god, until proven by experimental evidence via the LHC or whatever.
I would say that god exists, but only in the mind. I also would say that ghosts exist, but only in the mind. There is no natural law to show that either of these things are anything but conceptual. There is testimony and there is scripture based on this testimony. The problem with testimony is that it comes from perceptual concepts that people describe. Again, still a concept.
Did I miss anything?
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ReplyDeleteThere is no proof you have shown that it is anything other than that. Give me an argument that disproves my claim. I am not claiming to see anything. The purple alien comment actually goes with my claim. You can say you see anything, even god. Until you prove it, why should anyone be inclined to believe it. I am only claiming that god is only a concept. Dispute it. :)
ReplyDeleteWhy dispute a bad argument against the existence of God? Any real philosopher of religion who reads it will see the obvious flaws, and obvious mess that this argument it. Simply put, it's not a good argument. If you're interested in knowing why maybe you'll read some literature on the subject but it's silly to waste my time trying to help you understand reason and the rules of logic when you're obviously working far outside them (and seem to have no intention of doing otherwise). Atheists who believe that God doesn't exist, for these reasons, are just as simple minded as any theist who believes blindly.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't actually pointed out what is bad about the argument. You have just stated that it's bad. The reality is that god is purely psychological and is a product of the features of the mind that I only loosely outlined. I do agree that the argument isn't complete in the form it is on this blog post. This isn't the only reason I am atheist by the way. :)
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