Are you an atheist?

[hmg]

Simply being alive and conscious is all the proof you need for something powerful at work in the universe, what more evidence do you need? Science has nothing to say on the subject. All humanity's civilisations have been theistic. Ours isn't. Going well, isn't it?

 

[boxedjoy]

It's not even so much as I don't believe as I don't care enough to believe - I'm not ever gonna know the answer of Is God Real so why waste the energy wondering when I could use it to do useful stuff in my actual life etc

 

[vimothy]

the thing that annoys me is the idea that its obvs false, which ofc its not

 

[hmg]

I'm not ever gonna know the answer of Is God Real

Pascal's wager: Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (eternity in Hell).[2]

 

[vimothy]

and that's what you get out of the coppleston russell debate - a solid arg

 

[boxedjoy]

When i get older I want to train as a humanist minister. I love the idea of my job being to bring comfort and hope to people at times of significance without having to add a ~spiritual dimension~ to it all

 

[luka]

We had a humanist minister for my dad's funeral. He meant well and I felt sorry for him but I basically had to write all his material for him

 

[constant escape]

@boxedjoy you mean nothing metaphysical? Or can you get metaphysical without getting spiritual?

 

[vimothy]

how can a humanist minister offer confort or hope to ppl

 

[vimothy]

I mean, what have they actually got

 

[boxedjoy]

Luka I'm very sorry for your loss. If you don't mind me asking how did you feel when you were talking about your dad to the minister in preparation for it? I'm really fond of the idea of just sitting with people, hearing how wonderful someone was, and then sharing their wonderfulness with a broader audience

 

[john eden]

I've no idea why anyone would identify with something so boring

it frees up space for excitement in other areas.

 

[vimothy]

if only it did

 

[constant escape]

I mean, what have they actually got

Do you think it would just take an extraordinarily sensitive person, like the kind of person who would touch you in day-to-day exchanges?

 

[john eden]

We had a humanist minister for my dad's funeral. He meant well and I felt sorry for him but I basically had to write all his material for him

This is kind of the point of humanist celebrants though - to capture the family’s memories.

 

[luka]

Luka I'm very sorry for your loss. If you don't mind me asking how did you feel when you were talking about your dad to the minister in preparation for it? I'm really fond of the idea of just sitting with people, hearing how wonderful someone was, and then sharing their wonderfulness with a broader audience

this was 8 years now no need to be sorry. if you like the idea of doing that you will be really good at it. i like that kind of thing to and i am amazing at it.

 

[luka]

today i wrote a poem for a man whose wife has told him she wants to divorce him and he read it and burst into tears cos i expressed it so amazingly and powerfully and with so much beauty and truth. he'll probbaly show her the poem and save their marriage. that's all you have to do. sit with the emotions, articulate them and aestheticise them. you are a natural. i know from your dancefloor thread. i'll write you a reference.

 

[luka]

how can a humanist minister offer confort or hope to ppl

they dont really theyt just officiate in the way a priest would. its more a formal role when you dont want a god botherer doing it.

 

[vimothy]

any kind of optimism In this area is like an implicit agnosticism

 

[vimothy]

nihilism is just too horrible