hamilcarr

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Posts by hamilcarr

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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

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  hamilcarr

  I never said it was. :-P

  That's true. Sometimes you gave me the impression though that this non-scientific evidence could only be used to promote theism. I think it can also be used in favour of non-theism.
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

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  2. 
  3. 
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  hamilcarr

  Or perhaps that he gave you exactly what you needed in your life at that time.

  Anecdotal evidence for or against the existence of the divine can always be used in both directions. That's why it's no scientific evidence.
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  23

  Life on Mars to be announced today?

  by SixofNine in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is exciting, if only for the cognitive dissonance it has to cause jws.

  and since a "worldy" member of my family worked as an engineer on a spectrometer going into the pheonix mar's lander, i get to make sure my witness family partakes in that cognitive dissonance.. .

  source: news australia.

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  hamilcarr

  I like the song by David Bowie.
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  hamilcarr

  Yes I agree. Or I would simply say, if this means the same thing, it is harder to leave the Witnesses if you don't have another belief system (any belief system from Christianity to militant atheism to Mormonism for that matter) with which to oppose it and replace it.

  Exactly. I don't have such a substitute set of beliefs and I feel that many on this board, like me, are struggling against the temptation to find such a hold. I hope that's just a temporary situation.

  Mind you nothingness is perhaps a sort of belief system in iteself. I sometimes wonder about that. But even if it is it seems to me to lack the necessity to demonstrate Witnesses wrong.

  Leads me to a basic related philosophical question: is the rejection of metanarratives itself a metanarrative.

  If Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong, they are no more wrong than everyone else in my view.

  Interesting point of view. Is it possible from a "nothingness" perspective to distinguish between more and less wrong metanarratives?
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  hamilcarr

  you may just find someday that you have outgrown Jehovah

  Definitely a point of no return.
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  hamilcarr

  So I might call myself post-dualist rather than anti-dualist.

  Excellent idea . Being a postdualist means 'going beyond' both dualism and anti-dualism. Similar to posttheism which goes beyond atheism and theism. Maybe it does describe our current situation rather well, despite your avid opposition to the overuse of the suffix -post. Maybe we agree that it's more difficult to leave JWs when you're a postdualist rather than when you become a anti-dualist.
• 
  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  hamilcarr

  Are you quoting Nathaniel Merrit - or yourself perhaps? It sounds a bit New Age for me.

  I see I forgot to add the author. No, it's a quote by the German writer Hermann Hesse. His point, I think, is that a traditional dualistic belief (JWs are a very good example) prevents humans from seeing the other half. Leaving Jehovah, therefore, means gaining a broader perspective instead of losing a focused one (unless you feel good with it).
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  hamilcarr

  How come my world became utterly meaningless from that time on and I have been drifting, I know not where, ever since? I don't think God was a word to me, he was the lens through which the whole world, consisting of words, could be understood and acted upon.

  But doesn't that lens narrow the view?

  What do you think about this quote:

  I have no objection to worshiping this God Jehovah, far from it. But I mean we ought to consider everything sacred, the entire world, not merely the artificially separated half! Thus alongside the divine service we should also have a service for the devil.
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  76

  Invisible Things of Him... are Clearly Seen, Being Understood by the Things That are Made

  by Perry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  .

  an image of the core of the whirlpool galaxy m51 (ngc 5149) taken by the hubble space telescope.. the heavens declare the glory of god; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

  psalms 19:1.

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  hamilcarr

  Actually, I think I'm in favour of the atheism-pacify and theism-terrify word pairs, certainly when the suggestion is given by theists themselves. Makes me think of the recent UK atheist bus campaign:
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  50

  Anecdotal evidence for atheism

  by hamilcarr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  believers on this board repeatedly claim subjective experience as a major source for their belief.

  this anecdotal evidence can't be checked by science because it falls outside the empirical realm.. what about atheism?

  would it be possible that an atheist too has had a personal experience that convinced him of the non-existence of god?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  hamilcarr

  Does that count?

  Probably dreams are not vague enough to become a born again (dare I say spiritual) atheist. Moreover, they are examined by science.