Are you an atheist?

Great stuff, all around.

padraig (u.s.) said:

but I understand it to be basically that God is synonymous with not with Nature but with the infinite potentiality of expressions of matter - that is, modes - by the natural forces of the universe - what we would now call gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear force.

Click to expand...

Really interesting points - the forces hadn't even entered my mind. From your position, how does something like the standard model stack up with what could be the absolute cosmic fundamentals? Primarily interested in your opinions, no need for technical knowledge (although it is always welcome, in my mind).

@version you mentioned, in the Prynne thread, a list of things to bear in mind when reading Prynne, and one of them was about the difference between what language does, and what language can do.

Its like the "potentiality of expression" is qualitatively different from the actuality of expression, and that we somehow confine ourselves to the latter - its being empirical and all.

Linebaugh said:

So I guess I've reframed the question around where spirituality begins and ends, and in this frame of reference the ontological God question becomes a question about infinity. Whats my understanding of infinity? whats my relationship to infinity? and are/how these spiritual concerns? That all probably makes me a cowardly agnostic

Click to expand...

If you don't mind elaborating, what is your understanding of infinity? If nothing else, I find the topic fascinating.

But I'm with you, in that this is where any question of theos/theology seems to lead - to some conception or articulation of infinity.

Consider the signified of "infinity" - what comes to mind?

For me, its like static noise on a television. Infinity means infinite complexity, which registers as chaos to us who are bound to some finite cognition, no?

I've only a cursory understanding of photography/lens, but a class I took mentioned an "infinity point" - the maximum focus distance for a lens (?). That is, you can focus the lens to 20 meters, to 30 meters, to 50 meters, to 100 meters - but that is where it caps off. So anything past 100 meters appears to you as being in focus?

As I get older I find the idea of acting *as if* there is a God, or more accurately Gods more and more appealing.

Celebrating the main 8 pagan festivals. Rituals. Divining manifestations of the goddess with luka and shiels. Etc.

I'm not sure this a matter of believing in god, but those kinds of practices seem more important. Even if it's all an elaborate fiction I'm still into it, still find it nourishing

constant escape said:

Great stuff, all around.



Really interesting points - the forces hadn't even entered my mind. From your position, how does something like the standard model stack up with what could be the absolute cosmic fundamentals? Primarily interested in your opinions, no need for technical knowledge (although it is always welcome, in my mind).

@version you mentioned, in the Prynne thread, a list of things to bear in mind when reading Prynne, and one of them was about the difference between what language does, and what language can do.

Its like the "potentiality of expression" is qualitatively different from the actuality of expression, and that we somehow confine ourselves to the latter - its being empirical and all.




If you don't mind elaborating, what is your understanding of infinity? If nothing else, I find the topic fascinating.

But I'm with you, in that this is where any question of theos/theology seems to lead - to some conception or articulation of infinity.

Consider the signified of "infinity" - what comes to mind?

For me, its like static noise on a television. Infinity means infinite complexity, which registers as chaos to us who are bound to some finite cognition, no?

I've only a cursory understanding of photography/lens, but a class I took mentioned an "infinity point" - the maximum focus distance for a lens (?). That is, you can focus the lens to 20 meters, to 30 meters, to 50 meters, to 100 meters - but that is where it caps off. So anything past 100 meters appears to you as being in focus?

Click to expand...

here is Prynne in person and in his dotage babbling on about infinity with the ever irritating keston sutherland

I am an atheist.

john eden said:

I am an atheist.

Click to expand...

u dun dmt tho bro

shiels said:

u dun dmt tho bro

Click to expand...

In fact I have not. I did interview Terence McKenna once though. He was great. It is bad that 2012 will be remembered for the London Olympics rather than the kind of cosmic event he had in mind.

I do believe in the interconnectedness of everything. But not the literal existence of machine elves.

i believe in heaven

I grew up in a staunch C of E household which is arguably a form of atheism anyway. If you want an experience completely divorced from the divine then I would recommend spending every Sunday of your formative years with the Alternative Service Book.



Let's just say that my sister went evangelical and I got into Psychic TV.

john eden said:

I grew up in a staunch C of E household which is arguably a form of atheism anyway. If you want an experience completely divorced from the divine then I would recommend spending every Sunday of your formative years with the Alternative Service Book.

View attachment 4133

Let's just say that my sister went evangelical and I got into Psychic TV.

Click to expand...

I choose to believe this is the Bible of Anti-Social Behaviour.

I was raised atheist, very strict atheist but I've taken too many drugs to have been able to hold onto that position. I've mentioned before my dad was raised Plymouth Brethren, horrible upbringing, mad beliefs and freeing himself from that system as a child was an intellectual and emotional achievement he remained very proud of all his life. And when you have that background atheism is a kind of constant struggle. You never stop fighting in a way.

Mr. Tea said:

I choose to believe this is the Bible of Anti-Social Behaviour.

Click to expand...

It certainly inspired many acts of anti-social behaviour in my case.

As for the beliefs I hold now, they're much the same as corpseys

luka said:

I was raised atheist, very strict atheist but I've taken too many drugs to have been able to hold onto that position. I've mentioned before my dad was raised Plymouth Brethren, horrible upbringing, mad beliefs and freeing himself from that system as a child was an intellectual and emotional achievement he remained very proud of all his life. And when you have that background atheism is a kind of constant struggle. You never stop fighting in a way.

Click to expand...

That does sound quite rough. I'm very keen on the idea of the secular rites of passage teeangers have. Drugs is definitely one of them and fits in with that ancient shamanistic stuff of communing with the divine/the universe as a gateway to adulthood.

Aleister Crowley also escaped the Plymouth Brethern of course (and did lots of drugs). My guess is that Luka's family have fared slightly better with it all.

my mum went the other way. Raised atheist and went Christian in her 50s for some reason. Seems harmless enough though, it's Johns version where you don't actually believe in God per se.

The church seems more community centre than place of ritual and worship.

john eden said:

That does sound quite rough. I'm very keen on the idea of the secular rites of passage teeangers have. Drugs is definitely one of them and fits in with that ancient shamanistic stuff of communing with the divine/the universe as a gateway to adulthood.

Click to expand...

wish I had the eloquence to frame it this way when my parents were peeling my limp, vomit covered body off the living room carpet after a night of WKD orange, bongs and fingering

A lot of baby boomers would have been the first in their families to make the break with God and I suspect they would feel very disappointed even betrayed to find their children drifting back towards irrationality

But it says a lot about the persistence of belief that that is exactly what is happening