Am I an atheist?

[dybmh]

Is the Tao a God? Are Taoists atheist?

I'm going to stick my neck out on this one...

The Tao is Truth. If a person believes that God is the ultimate truth, then they might look at The Tao as an example or a model that helps define their own version of God.

But, I don't think the converse is accurate. A Taoist would not look at God as an example or a model of The Tao.

It's similar to my approach to the Hindu concept of Brahman. Because I am not Hindu, I can only approximate my understanding of Brahman. So far, as an outsider, it seems to me Brahman is a very very good way of describing God. But I would be surprised if a Hindu would ever describe God as an example or model for Brahman.

 

[Curious George]

Is the Tao a God? Are Taoists atheist?

Do the taoists consider themselves athiests. I certainly do not consider the Tao a god. Do you?

 

[sealchan]

Do the taoists consider themselves athiests. I certainly do not consider the Tao a god. Do you?

What is more divine, a deity expressive of ultimate power or the ultimate power itself?

I think that when we talk about religion and God we need to understand that one can have either a personification of ultimate power or a more abstract principle which in turn underlies the power of a God or gods themselves.

Is atheism then against religion or simply against the personification of ultimate power out of which the Universe arises?

How about coining a new term, adivinitist? For a more comprehensive understanding of their being no evidence for a knowable super-universal power whether conscious being or no?

 

[Curious George]

What is more divine, a deity expressive of ultimate power or the ultimate power itself?

I think that when we talk about religion and God we need to understand that one can have either a personification of ultimate power or a more abstract principle which in turn underlies the power of a God or gods themselves.

Is atheism then against religion or simply against the personification of ultimate power out of which the Universe arises?

How about coining a new term, adivinitist? For a more comprehensive understanding of their being no evidence for a knowable super-universal power whether conscious being or no?

But the question then is why? I don't know if Taoists believe in super-powers, universal or not. We needn't develop terms of opposition for every nuance in belief. Atheist differentiates between thos with a god belief and suffices to do just that. I cannot speak for others but the practicality of having a word that expresses my disbelief or even lack of belief in a god is handy.

Regarding your question which is more divine, I would suggest you are unnecessarily playing with words. A determinist may believe in something akin to fate but that is not to say they believe their is some god that wields such power. Is fate that is more divine than Fate?

 

[sealchan]

But the question then is why? I don't know if Taoists believe in super-powers, universal or not. We needn't develop terms of opposition for every nuance in belief. Atheist differentiates between thos with a god belief and suffices to do just that. I cannot speak for others but the practicality of having a word that expresses my disbelief or even lack of belief in a god is handy.

Regarding your question which is more divine, I would suggest you are unnecessarily playing with words. A determinist may believe in something akin to fate but that is not to say they believe their is some god that wields such power. Is fate that is more divine than Fate?

The OP expressed God in terms of an abstraction rather than a personality. God is a "unifying connection" having to do with the fact that "we all came from the same big bang and share a common future". My questions are meant to explore that in terms of other less personal understanding of the "ultimate" from recognized religions.

I have been reading a bit about Jediism as another example. My own exposure to Star Wars as a child was one of my first experiences of a self-conscious sense of spirituality. The Force, like the Tao, is an abstract intuition that can be correlated with ones experience of conscious awareness and the character of the Universe. The Star Wars stories show a the Force to be able to grant effectively magical or mentalistic powers for their practitioners whereas this is not claimed by those who practice Jediism.

I'm currently watching the TV series Star Trek Deep Space 9 which explores the very fine line between faith and science. The last episode of Season 1 and the first episodes of Season 2 deal directly with concepts of faith, science, legend and political needs. I find that in this milieu there is plenty of room for belief to play a role where political power forms up into divisional forces and a symbolic relationship to human potential can become a motivating force for social unity. Belief in a symbol of human moral ideals whether a played by a fictional God or another fictional human character whether perfect or not or even just ideal human character traits while not literally true are often motivationally profound. Does such a belief support an unjustified belief in something unproven? Is it worthy of an atheists rational scorn?

 

[ecco]

I try to follow the teachings of Jesus,

And it is this concept of "God" which I believe compels us to care for one another as ourselves. I

Am I an atheist?

No.

 

[LuisDantas]

Am I an atheist?

Your call, and no one else's.

There is no objective standard to decide what "counts" as a deity, nor to establish whether your conception of same should be considered "belief".

 

[Curious George]

The OP expressed God in terms of an abstraction rather than a personality. God is a "unifying connection" having to do with the fact that "we all came from the same big bang and share a common future". My questions are meant to explore that in terms of other less personal understanding of the "ultimate" from recognized religions.

I have been reading a bit about Jediism as another example. My own exposure to Star Wars as a child was one of my first experiences of a self-conscious sense of spirituality. The Force, like the Tao, is an abstract intuition that can be correlated with ones experience of conscious awareness and the character of the Universe. The Star Wars stories show a the Force to be able to grant effectively magical or mentalistic powers for their practitioners whereas this is not claimed by those who practice Jediism.

I'm currently watching the TV series Star Trek Deep Space 9 which explores the very fine line between faith and science. The last episode of Season 1 and the first episodes of Season 2 deal directly with concepts of faith, science, legend and political needs. I find that in this milieu there is plenty of room for belief to play a role where political power forms up into divisional forces and a symbolic relationship to human potential can become a motivating force for social unity. Belief in a symbol of human moral ideals whether a played by a fictional God or another fictional human character whether perfect or not or even just ideal human character traits while not literally true are often motivationally profound. Does such a belief support an unjustified belief in something unproven? Is it worthy of an atheists rational scorn?

We all, in theory, originate from the big bang. We again originate, in theory, from a single organism. Now if you want to call those things, (the big bang or DNA/rNA) gods you are free to do so. If you want to take abstract concepts like "order," "fate" or time and label them gods you are again free to do so. However, know that these are different than the god concepts that most people use. When you say I believe in god that attempts to communicate something.

What do you think that communicates? Many might answer something vague like "that i believe in a higher power." But what does that mean? We work with labels and abstractions to help us grasp concepts but we when we are questioning the labels and abstractions names we are in effect questioning communication, not the concepts themselves.

A person saying the Sun is a god when meaning nothing more than the sun is a sun only serves to obscure their actual beliefs.