Theism of any stripe is a pernicious threat to thought and enlightenment. It subjugates its followers by making doubt a sin and ignorance an asset. It lives in fear of being exposed to logic and common sense. It attempts to hide from exposure. It creates mysteries to camouflage its shallowness.
Saturday, May 24th, 2008, 12:46 pm | 
Free Thought, Theism | 
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8 June 2008 at 10:57 pm
Jack, are you suggesting that our greatest individual worth is measured in the quantity of uncertainty we bring into ourselves and others? I am wrestling with the ability to join you in a “life well lived” based on those terms.
Unfortunately, I find myself painfully aware of the certainties. You know, the run of the mill consequences for “bad” behavior. Then there are those lighter examples like, no matter what I reason to be a desirable end to the perfect date (a romantic tumble in the bedroom), my wife may reason to be different (reading a book) which leaves no practical room for questioning. There must be something of a higher order, love in my case, literature in my wife's and… well in your case, swirling uncertainty, perfected through years of noble doubt-making. I'm sorry to raise the question, though I know you don't mind, but all of the things you've mentioned above seem to point me right back to your final, coffin-nail like last line.
What are doubts if not mysteries and unanswered questions if not mysterious? Where is the depth, in a life well lived deep under a lake of gruntled Socratic enterprise?
So to apply your own tool of interrogation to your condemnation of what appears to be generalizations aimed at the faithful, could your atheism possibly be “creating mysteries to camouflage its shallowness”?
Thank you for opening the door to doubt, you've also left all the windows flung shutter-free to air out the room!
8 June 2008 at 7:57 pm
Jack, are you suggesting that our greatest individual worth is measured in the quantity of uncertainty we bring into ourselves and others? I am wrestling with the ability to join you in a “life well lived” based on those terms.
Unfortunately, I find myself painfully aware of the certainties. You know, the run of the mill consequences for “bad” behavior. Then there are those lighter examples like, no matter what I reason to be a desirable end to the perfect date (a romantic tumble in the bedroom), my wife may reason to be different (reading a book) which leaves no practical room for questioning. There must be something of a higher order, love in my case, literature in my wife's and… well in your case, swirling uncertainty, perfected through years of noble doubt-making. I'm sorry to raise the question, though I know you don't mind, but all of the things you've mentioned above seem to point me right back to your final, coffin-nail like last line.
What are doubts if not mysteries and unanswered questions if not mysterious? Where is the depth, in a life well lived deep under a lake of gruntled Socratic enterprise?
So to apply your own tool of interrogation to your condemnation of what appears to be generalizations aimed at the faithful, could your atheism possibly be “creating mysteries to camouflage its shallowness”?
Thank you for opening the door to doubt, you've also left all the windows flung shutter-free to air out the room!