What interests me is that you address all of this to a monotheist, JudeoChristian notion of 'God'. It's very reactionary with regard to mainstream culture. I don't wish to sound critical, though I probably do, when I say that many atheists in the US just dismiss non-mainstream positions regarding faith, belief, and deity as irrelevant without addressing the very real fact that most of their positions vis-a-vis the snarky dismissive 'Sky Fairy' logic lump polytheists, pagans, pantheists, and animists in with the monotheists, when they've never cared to find out very much about what anyone outside the dominant paradigm believes. It speaks to me, often, as an incomplete position based primarily on a rejection of that dominant paradigm without regard for its development as anything beyond a counter to contemporary JudeoChristian philosophy. In other words, by disregarding how so many other paths address some of the issues you raise here, you suggest that anyone who doesn't reject gods and godhood entire must clearly be a hidebound monotheist who buys into the specific belief system you've got pat rejections arranged for. If I sound angry, it's because just about the only 'debate' I ever get from atheists about the nature of faith that doesn't center around Why Jesus Is A Stupid Myth is pretty clearly cobbled together into Why Jesus Zeus Is A Stupid Myth.
I don't believe an omnibenevolent, omniscient, omnipotent being would have created the Universe as it is, which is in large part why I'm a polytheist. I believe in my gods because I have had, to the best of my understanding, direct interactions with them. They are a real presence in my life with whom I interact. I've seen magic work often enough that either it's real or I'm some sort of quantum singularity of coincidence. Either way, it makes sense to keep doing as I have been. It means that often, the insensibility of things like "Why is there evil and pain?" makes a lot more sense to me than to my Christian friends, because if there are two (or ten, or a hundred) gods working at cross-purposes, there will be conflict even if one of them is not strictly 'evil' in the Right/Wrong Big Picture sense.
As to an afterlife, I believe that we're all, at the moment of death, granted an understanding of the impact of our lives. Whether this is an interview with some divine being or simply a crystalline flash of clarity before oblivion, the true reward or punishment takes place in that moment, when you're fully aware of the person you were and the life you lived, and you must face that without your rationalizations and defenses. Because morality and Being a Good Person are so subjective, I try to live with that moment in mind. I don't have tenets and prohibitions and a Big Holy Book to tell me what to do and when. I've got my belief that the world becomes what we will it to be, both in action and in thought, and so I carefully consider my actions because I am empowered to change the world around me with them.
Many atheists seem to labor under the misconception that it matters to all people of faith whether or not you believe in our gods. I don't *care* if you believe in my gods, because as I said above, either they're real or I'm an epicenter for remarkable coincidence and either way I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing because it works for me and I'm happy. If you don't believe in my gods, that doesn't really affect me, but since you can no more prove to me that they don't exist than I can prove to you that they do, I don't accept their nonexistence as the default.
But please, when you're formulating your arguments against God and gods, offer those of us outside the dominant mainstream the basic respect of considering us as dynamic individual faiths, not simply an insignificant fringe element of monotheistic JudeoChristian philosophy.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 05:31 pm (UTC)JesusZeus Is A Stupid Myth.I don't believe an omnibenevolent, omniscient, omnipotent being would have created the Universe as it is, which is in large part why I'm a polytheist. I believe in my gods because I have had, to the best of my understanding, direct interactions with them. They are a real presence in my life with whom I interact. I've seen magic work often enough that either it's real or I'm some sort of quantum singularity of coincidence. Either way, it makes sense to keep doing as I have been. It means that often, the insensibility of things like "Why is there evil and pain?" makes a lot more sense to me than to my Christian friends, because if there are two (or ten, or a hundred) gods working at cross-purposes, there will be conflict even if one of them is not strictly 'evil' in the Right/Wrong Big Picture sense.
As to an afterlife, I believe that we're all, at the moment of death, granted an understanding of the impact of our lives. Whether this is an interview with some divine being or simply a crystalline flash of clarity before oblivion, the true reward or punishment takes place in that moment, when you're fully aware of the person you were and the life you lived, and you must face that without your rationalizations and defenses. Because morality and Being a Good Person are so subjective, I try to live with that moment in mind. I don't have tenets and prohibitions and a Big Holy Book to tell me what to do and when. I've got my belief that the world becomes what we will it to be, both in action and in thought, and so I carefully consider my actions because I am empowered to change the world around me with them.
Many atheists seem to labor under the misconception that it matters to all people of faith whether or not you believe in our gods. I don't *care* if you believe in my gods, because as I said above, either they're real or I'm an epicenter for remarkable coincidence and either way I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing because it works for me and I'm happy. If you don't believe in my gods, that doesn't really affect me, but since you can no more prove to me that they don't exist than I can prove to you that they do, I don't accept their nonexistence as the default.
But please, when you're formulating your arguments against God and gods, offer those of us outside the dominant mainstream the basic respect of considering us as dynamic individual faiths, not simply an insignificant fringe element of monotheistic JudeoChristian philosophy.
Love,
Rowan