But atheists and the concept of atheism are problematic to me because they are refuting the existence of spirit, soul and mystery. Their view is more or less that the mind is who we are and all we are, give or take a few hormones and the emotional/psychological reactions we have to them. This life is a given, and it is all there is.
That rather depends on one's definition of atheism, doesn't it? I'm sure there are atheists like that, but it seems rather too narrow and strict to me to be an all-encompassing definition of atheism.
I'm an atheist. I was born one; I've grown up in a society that is, arguably, the most atheist in the world (certainly with the absolute lowest number of "believers" in anything in Europe).
Over here, being an atheist is the natural, normal way to be - we don't grow up as believers who'd then have to fight their way towards atheism, we are just born into a society where belief in a deity has been a non-issue for a very long time; ever since we were allowed to, anyway (there are endless complaints recorded throughout history by German pastors whining about the godlessness of the less-than-human local serfs and how they had to be forced to attend church).
That said, while I have absolutely no reason to believe in the existence of a deity or deities, and have always considered myself an atheist, it doesn't mean I deny the existence of anything "supernatural". I don't "believe" in most of those things, but at the same time, I think it entirely reasonable to assume that there are things and phenomena that modern science and technology have yet to manage to explain. Souls and spirits and "recordings" of brainwaves or what have you - I don't know; these are the sorts of things where I think there may be things we aren't capable of understanding/explaining yet, because it would be ultimately and extremely arrogant to think that we've found out everything there is to find out.
One thing I've noticed is that a lot of believers seem to consider that sort of thing agnosticism. Maybe it is - but I think it's entirely possible to be an atheist as far as a god / gods are concerned (because that is really the only thing "atheism" means after all - not believing in the existence of deities), and an agnostic regarding supernatural stuff in general.
And I'm generalising here, obviously, but I've also noticed that people from predominantly religious societies seem to think atheists are all people who are actively denying the existence of a god... well, perhaps it is so if you're by default brought up to believe in one (or a few), but it doesn't have to be like that.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-04-03 05:19 pm (UTC)That rather depends on one's definition of atheism, doesn't it? I'm sure there are atheists like that, but it seems rather too narrow and strict to me to be an all-encompassing definition of atheism.
I'm an atheist. I was born one; I've grown up in a society that is, arguably, the most atheist in the world (certainly with the absolute lowest number of "believers" in anything in Europe).
Over here, being an atheist is the natural, normal way to be - we don't grow up as believers who'd then have to fight their way towards atheism, we are just born into a society where belief in a deity has been a non-issue for a very long time; ever since we were allowed to, anyway (there are endless complaints recorded throughout history by German pastors whining about the godlessness of the less-than-human local serfs and how they had to be forced to attend church).
That said, while I have absolutely no reason to believe in the existence of a deity or deities, and have always considered myself an atheist, it doesn't mean I deny the existence of anything "supernatural". I don't "believe" in most of those things, but at the same time, I think it entirely reasonable to assume that there are things and phenomena that modern science and technology have yet to manage to explain. Souls and spirits and "recordings" of brainwaves or what have you - I don't know; these are the sorts of things where I think there may be things we aren't capable of understanding/explaining yet, because it would be ultimately and extremely arrogant to think that we've found out everything there is to find out.
One thing I've noticed is that a lot of believers seem to consider that sort of thing agnosticism. Maybe it is - but I think it's entirely possible to be an atheist as far as a god / gods are concerned (because that is really the only thing "atheism" means after all - not believing in the existence of deities), and an agnostic regarding supernatural stuff in general.
And I'm generalising here, obviously, but I've also noticed that people from predominantly religious societies seem to think atheists are all people who are actively denying the existence of a god... well, perhaps it is so if you're by default brought up to believe in one (or a few), but it doesn't have to be like that.