Have your religious/spiritual beliefs changed in the past year?

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I went from being devout atheist to being totally nihlist.

Short response: no, you did not become a nihilist.

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

Short response: no, you did not become a nihilist.

You're a fucking snob. I am a nihlist by its very definition.

Dictionary.com -

Nihilism
1. total rejection of established laws and institutions.
2. anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.
3. total and absolute destructiveness, esp. toward the world at large and including oneself: the power-mad nihilism that marked Hitler's last years.
4. Philosophy.
a. an extreme form of skepticism: the denial of all real existence or the possibility of an objective basis for truth.
b. nothingness or nonexistence

I'm the poster-boy for nihilism. I'm as nihilist as there's ever been.

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:
there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator,
a "true morality" does not exist, and
objective secular ethics are impossible; therefore, life has, in a sense, no truth, and no action is objectively preferable to any other.

 

[skeptik]

omg u ra fucjing jardcore mang lyke omg

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

omg u ra fucjing jardcore mang lyke omg

Good for me. Is it so fucking wrong that I have a certain perspective?

 

[skeptik]

Anybody who says "I'm the poster-boy for nihilism. I'm as nihilist as there's ever been" is a fucking faggot.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Just by being here you aren't being very nihilistic. You should go do NOTHING, because that's OBJECTIVELY better than everything else. Man, fuck that.

 

[Cythraul]

I'm the poster boy for confirmation holism.

 

[skeptik]

No, you are the poster boy for MS Paint mustaches.

 

[Cythraul]

No, you are the poster boy for MS Paint mustaches.

I can't disagree with that.

 

[Valerie]

http://www.uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

 

[Manic Ferocity]

I thought the page just wouldn't load at first.

 

[skeptik]

lul

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

Just by being here you aren't being very nihilistic. You should go do NOTHING, because that's OBJECTIVELY better than everything else. Man, fuck that.

Hahaha. Maybe read the definition again. Objectivity and nihilism aren't exactly in-tune with each other.

It was an honest mistake on your part, you've never met me so you don't know what I'm really like.

 

[FenriR]

I'm still a cynical atheist bastard. Though I like to think I'm more open-minded and easy-going than I was a year ago.

 

[mutantllama]

I thought the page just wouldn't load at first.

So did I. lol

 

[Zephyrus]

What happens if you love lemons?

Then you make lemonade...

 

[Alter]

You're a fucking snob. I am a nihlist by its very definition.

Dictionary.com -



I'm the poster-boy for nihilism. I'm as nihilist as there's ever been.

Go read up on it before you just tag yourself before the title just because it sounds good.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

Hahaha. Maybe read the definition again. Objectivity and nihilism aren't exactly in-tune with each other.

It was an honest mistake on your part, you've never met me so you don't know what I'm really like.

I'm pretty sure it was sarcasm. You should probably kill yourself because objectivity doesn't exist and living is basically pointless. SHITTY LOGIC ALERT!

 

[CAIRATH]

This is probably very much connected to the way I've traditionally thought about the theism vs. atheism spectrum. Since theists are pretty much always pushing for belief in an absolute truth, it is natural for me to assume that the same thing applies to atheism.

It probably does apply to some atheists. The problem with atheism is that it is kind of a blanket term and there are many different philosophies that boil down to atheism but aren't exactly the same. Personally I approach it from a scientific point of view so I do not like to state things in terms of absolute truths because I simply don't think that there are any and I don't see how you can defend any viewpoint based on one without resorting to what basically boils down to the same thing as blind faith. But I have not personally experienced, seen or learned anything that makes me believe in a god (and certainly not a theistic or personal god) so I reject the concept of god in the same way that I reject anything else that I do not believe in (santa, unicorns, etc.)

So, the big problem for me is: why would anyone call himself an atheist if the naturalistic model of the universe has such a giant fucking gap in it at the origin of the universe? If you can't even begin to explain that in naturalistic terms, I think there's something a tiny bit wrong with simply proclaiming that the naturalistic model of the universe is the only one that should be believed.

Because that model is the most reliable one we have. It is one that we all accept (even religious people) on a day to day basis when it comes to other aspects of our lives. The scientific model is the only one that can make claims that can be independently verified, tested and reproduced. It is the only one that can establish a demonstrably true relation between cause and effect.

It does mean accepting the possibility we may never learn the truth about things such as this, which maybe seems unsatisfying. But I'd rather accept the possibility that I cannot know the answer than accept an answer which appears to have no basis in any kind of perceivable reality. Because that answer cannot be in any way tested, verified or even be communicated to someone else. There is literally no way of distinguishing a supposedly "absolutely true" answer like that from the infinite amount of falsehoods that could apply to the same question.

That's getting kind of philosophical and I probably did a poor job of explaining that, but there you go.

I'm not sure how this is supposed to resolve any contradictions regarding the origin of the universe. All the big bang theory really seems to be saying is:

"We don't know what happened before the Big Bang, so... nothing happened before the Big Bang!"

Not really. What it says is that the big bang is literally the start of time. There was nothing before the big bang because the concept of "before" has no meaning without time. It is a difficult concept to accept but like I said I just don't see how you are going to arrive at any explanation for the beginning of the universe that isn't difficult to accept. Whatever the true answer is I don't see how it is ever going to fit in any category besides A: a universe with a finite timeline (with a beginning and an end) or B: a universe with an infinite timeline. Neither of which are concepts that we can easily grasp or process.

And I can't see how it would matter whether you're an expert on the physics behind the Big Bang theory or not to be able to deem it a cop-out theory, since it still doesn't (and can't) explain why any of this shit actually exists in the first place. All it is, really, is just a prediction of the timeline of the universe up to (and excluding) the 'time' of singularity.

The question of why is really more a philosophical than a scientific one when you apply it to something like "why do we exist?". I don't think science will ever explain that in any kind of non-mechanical way. It isn't really trying to, either.

And you can still be comfortable with atheism given all that? I find that a little hard to swallow.

Very. But I am not nearly as bothered by the question of why as you seem to be. The way I see it things are just the way they are. Not everything needs to have a clear cut reason to be (infact that very concept is entirely a human concept, why should it even apply to something such as the universe itself at all?) and I do not need easily digestible and clear answers to questions about the origin of the universe in order to live my everyday life. I'd like to know, obviously, but out of curiosity rather than necessity.

 

[cookiecutter]

Good post, especially the last point.