Strange Notions is a new Disqus site run by Brandon Vogt to try to discuss Rationality and Reason with Athiests. He may well succeed with some, but there is one subset of atheism he will never succeed with. On Richard Dawkin's spectrum of theistic probability , those with a score 6 and above often fall into something I term fundamentalist atheism. Many of them come from fundamentalist Christian backgrounds, if not in their generation, then within three generations of their recent past. Fundamentalist Atheism starts with the assumption that the supernatural doesn't exist and that the natural world is all there is, and runs with it, denying any data to the contrary. I've always been one to consider the natural to be a subset of the supernatural- that is the only real difference between the natural and the supernatural to me is the line of the shared scientific knowledge of mankind. A scientist, therefore, if he is to learn anything new about the universe, needs to have h...
Comments
The point is that God does not exist. Whether it challenges you to change or not is irrelevant. I might want to change, but that's got nothing to do with the supernatural.
We rarely want to change. And I submit, if your belief system does not encourage you to change, it is worthless regardless of what other confirmation of selfishness you find in it.
The Catholic Church thrives on people thinking that they need to be "forgiven" by God for their sins. The only forgiveness they really need is from those they have offended. The Church puts itself in the position of being endowed with the "power" to forgive sins. That is extremely presumptuous on its part. Truth be told, no one needs to be forgiven by the Church. That is just a ploy to gain people's dedication and allegiance.