Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
I have always found secular humanism a little stuck up, so I can agree with that.
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Egoistic beliefs?
- Thread starter Jeremiahcp
- Start date
I have always found secular humanism a little stuck up, so I can agree with that.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
I agree with you: Micah 6[8] He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
It seems similar to me. Believing that could, again, be simply accepting what one has been taught by a tradition. I'd wager that's the standard cause. Just speaking personally, when I used to believe that was the case as a child (in the context of an "immortal soul"), it was because that's what the adults said was so. It wasn't at all about ego. I was listening to what my elders and teachers were telling me and simply accepted it.
In fact, come to think of it, it was the rejection of those teachings that was an exercise in egoism. It didn't take me long to start questioning the stuff I was being taught by adults. I spat upon their authority and started believing I knew better than them or I could figure it out all by myself. Starting to build my own religion before age ten and rejecting the authority of adults was definitely egotistical of me in retrospect.
ThePainefulTruth
Romantic-Cynic
IF the universe was created by God (the evidence either way doesn't exist, only the God, if It exists, doesn't interact in the universe), then the fact that it spawned creatures with full self-awareness and thus free will in the absence of the knowledge for or against the existence of God, THEN it stands to reason that God did so because it wanted us--a form of love. And as we know, if you love something, you must set it free. An omnipotent God could have done anything else other than creating creatures with free will, instantly.
The apparent fact that the universe is a giant quantum computer, indicates that the part of the program that records our personality (soul) is part of its infinite ROM.
That is blind faith, yes. But I wish that the people who are so willing to push this truism, would recognize that it's also true that we can't know truth through socialist blind faith.
**Feel free to reasonably define things in your context and add other beliefs you feel may be egoistic.[/QUOTE]
Do you mean do not?
Yes typo
Yes and what is reductionism if not egotisticly driven when fundemental?
Why would they be egoistic unless you also believe that you are special in that regard with respect to everyone else.
If one believes:-
1) A supreme being loves everyone including you
2) Everyone, including you, have an immortal soul
3) You, and everyone else can know spiritual truths
Then they cannot possibly be egoistic beliefs.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
They could be, but not necessarily. The one thing they do have in common is that they are irrational beliefs.
It could also be expressed as "thinking you're God's gift to humanity," which is so egoistic that it's the cliché for egoism.
1) "I - along with the rest of humanity - am God's gift to the universe."
2) "I - along with the rest of humanity - am too special and important to just stop existing when I die."
3) "I'm so smart I've got the universe figured out."
You have two separate issues there:
(1) You are defining your belief with a statement of what you don't believe.
(2) Others are labelling your belief system based on a statement you have made.
Both issues relate to what is true and what is false.
Neither issue necessarily relates to ego, but they could do.
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Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
So what I am gathering is some believe the quality of being egotistical has a relationship with how many people are involved.
Not working. You phrased it in a waY that clearly shows that the belief holder considers that the rest of humanity is just a secondary afterthought. The proposition I was arguing for is not that such beliefs can't be egoistical, but whether they are necessarily that way.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
"(1) You are defining your believe with a statement of what you don't believe."
Now those type of arguments I do find egoistical. You can't deal with the fact people don't believe in the same manner you do, so you have to pretend a lack of belief is a faith based belief. If you are the one with faith, own it, accept it and stop pretending everyone must think in the same manner as you do.
"Other are labelling your belief system based on a statement you have made."
You mean like telling someone their lack of belief is belief? Instead of just accepting the fact they simply just don't believe.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
"rejecting the authority of adults was definitely egotistical of me in retrospect."
At age 10 yes I would agree but, as far as I am concerned, adults 25 and over have a fully developed brain and now have a responsibility to question what they learned as a child.
It goes along with that famous Socrates' quote.
It is a statement about ego, and how we must question what we think we know. This would include the idea of an immortal soul.
To be honest, I find the idea of an immortal soul to be the most egoistical belief of them all. Everything passes and we are not outside this truth.
...or you are projecting.
A belief that something isn't true is still a belief. Whether either of us accepts each others differences is an entirely different matter.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
"A belief that something isn't true is still a belief."
I am sorry but going around and telling atheists how they believe is incredibly egotistical, and I don't care how you try to slice it.
FunctionalAtheist
Hammer of Reason
Of course they are! Along with the following egoistic beliefs;
I am an individual!
My name is important!
Taller people like me can reach more things than shorties!
I will be missed when I am gone!
If we exist as sentient beings, and all knowledge is subject to our sensory input and accumulated over many years, isn't every thought we have merely a subjective reflection of the objective reality? How can I possibly have a thought that isn't filtered through my ego? I'm not saying that IS the case, but I just don't currently see any other mechanism for describing objective existence than going through the subjective individual.
Other egotistical beliefs, green is a color. We know that color does not exist in objective reality, it is merely an subjective, mental interpretation. To further demonstrate the point, I'm chromatically challenged (color blind is our word!!!!). I do not see red, therefore purple does not exist to me, I see blue. Green on the other hand can look like any color of the rainbow;
A green light, looks white;
St. Augustine grass, looks red;
Green articles of clothing, I have thought were yellow, red, blue, black, brown, etc.