Congradulations on coming out of materialism. Scepticism can be healthy, but I find that many materialists/atheists are sceptical about everything *except* their materialism/atheism. About which they can be amazingly dogmatic! I think your instincts are really good to be suspicious.
I bounced around in many philosophies, and finally have settled in the last place I would have dreamed… Catholicism. For me, I found it to be the only philosophy that can answer all my Qs with a straight face.
You might like some of Fr. Barron's youtube videos. (perhaps try a search for Fr. Barron stephen hawking) He has a very balanced and reasonable approach from the side of religion. He knows philosophy, and can get down to the root issues without polemics and yelling.
I wish you all the best in your search… wherever it may lead. As Socrates said: The unexamined life is not worth living.
I do like how certain Catholic institutions encourage the study of philosophy. I don't have a problem with Catholics, or people of any faith, (including Materialism :D).
I am glad that you found your path. I am still on mine, and may not settle for any religion. I prefer to be an individual.
I want to say that you are brilliant. I am glad that I found your videos and I enjoy watching them. I do agree with your opinion on debates – actually all your views on the debates.
1 Im looking forward to part 3 on this.
2 Can you leave the names of the ppl you mentioned in the discription/comments
3 Non locality:if i understand the concept of NL correctly then non-locality is the exact reason why i am not an atheist(!)
4 Does it suprise you that i have one hardcore-atheist friend and that hes an intj(¿)
5 (guess im rambling here):Atheists- or religious-Purists are boring ppl
666 the number of the beast(ok now i did wrong)#6 🙂
7 <3
Regarding materialism/naturalism and spirituality check out; Religious naturalism, and Carl Sagan. Like Sam Harris points out there's nothing stopping an atheist from meditating, or cultivating personal growth – but what they tend not to do is make unverifiable claims about the nature of reality. Atheism only tells people what we don't believe, not what we do believe. Many atheists and naturalists are also humanists and religious naturalists.
I understand that atheists can meditate and cultivate personal growth. I disagree with you about atheists not making unverifiable claims about the nature of reality. The claims of materialism are unverifiable; i.e, that matter is the fundamental reality, that the foundation of morality is determined scientifically, etc. A lot of materialists believe in scientism and this itself is a self-refuting epistemology.
I want to believe what is true; not what others decide is irrational based on fear.
Atheism is not what I have a problem with. I have a problem with specific atheists and materialists who ridicule spiritualists and fringe scientists as delusional because they fundamentally disagree about the nature of reality.
This debate does represent the mindset and debate tactics of all materialists, yet it does reveal some of the cheap tricks and fallacies used in arguments about God and the nature of reality.
OK. I'm an anti-theist. IME of deconverting from Islam, humour helps create emotional distance so people feel free to question their beliefs. I began to question my religion, but stopped after I became paralyzed by fear of hell. One day I came across a comedian who made me cry with laughter about religion, after that I re-gained courage. IME debates only benefit 3rd parties, regardless of subject I've never witnessed any participant change their fundamental position.
Ok! So I saw both of your video and being atheist myself, I was never kind of materialist. I mean we still know very lil abt nature of reality. All I can say is science is best method we have. On the other hand, I was quite shocked as you stated telepathy, ans saying it was always there… I mean believing in telepathy opens the floodgates for all kind of psychic BS and superstition and we have no ACTUAL evidence whatsoever that it works.
conclusion? I really think that if there was any truth in telepathy, we would now have theories and intense experiments going on. Actually experiments are conducted never leading to any conclusive outcome only leading to disappointment. What makes me non materialist is that I don't think that there is anything specific what we can call material plus this abstract world we have in our heads and consciousness.
Odd you claim atheists are the hostile ones. I just ran into my first anti-naturalist on facebook yesterday and he certainly wasn't a humble opened minded monk. He asked me why I am "stupid enough" to be an atheist. I responded by saying I don't accept claims without substantial evidence. He then resorted to calling me everything from a "dipshit" to an "asshat" and pretty much everything you can think of running on to be around 800 characters long of a comment consisting of nothing but the most juvenile ad hominems I have ever seen. I told him that I refrain from debating with hostile people. Then he told me science proves God exists because materialism has been disproven. I asked him if he could cite this proof and disproof and also asked him where he got the idea that atheism depends on materialism. He never replied.
It seems that your idea that atheists are a cult of closed minded insolent bigots is not only unfair, but false. Your group is no more humble, and certainly no more open minded or friendly. I am a very open minded person and I am always open to new discovery but I have yet to meet a theist who can same the thing. Perhaps we should quit basing our beliefs or lack of beliefs on the behavior of those who share them and don't. Correlation does not imply causation.
By the way, accepting a naturalist world view was in no way emotionally driven, in fact I LOVED being a pagan more than anything and it took two years to find peace after deconverting from supernatural beliefs. I'd love to see proof that my old beliefs were true, but I have not found any. I am always open to new proof.
You should not assume you know every atheist's psychology
You have never had a telepathic experience. Why don't you explain what you thought was a telepathic experience, then maybe someone can explain to you what really happened.
Chopra isn't discredited because he is a "snake-oil salesman" Chopra is discredited because his claims are unfounded and crazy. It takes a severe ignorance of quantum physics to claim quantum consciousness; such a particle simply cannot exist, since the particle needs to be pretty strong, but since it needs to be pretty strong we would have found such a particle in LHCs.
Congradulations on coming out of materialism. Scepticism can be healthy, but I find that many materialists/atheists are sceptical about everything *except* their materialism/atheism. About which they can be amazingly dogmatic! I think your instincts are really good to be suspicious.
I bounced around in many philosophies, and finally have settled in the last place I would have dreamed… Catholicism. For me, I found it to be the only philosophy that can answer all my Qs with a straight face.
You might like some of Fr. Barron's youtube videos. (perhaps try a search for Fr. Barron stephen hawking) He has a very balanced and reasonable approach from the side of religion. He knows philosophy, and can get down to the root issues without polemics and yelling.
I wish you all the best in your search… wherever it may lead. As Socrates said: The unexamined life is not worth living.
Peace to you.
David
I do like how certain Catholic institutions encourage the study of philosophy. I don't have a problem with Catholics, or people of any faith, (including Materialism :D).
I am glad that you found your path. I am still on mine, and may not settle for any religion. I prefer to be an individual.
I am glad there is someone who will fight for his/her beliefs without a screaming match. Sure, I'll check it out, why not? 😀
The Socrates quote is genius. Thanks.
Justina
I want to say that you are brilliant. I am glad that I found your videos and I enjoy watching them. I do agree with your opinion on debates – actually all your views on the debates.
All I can say is a warm thank you. 😀
1 Im looking forward to part 3 on this.
2 Can you leave the names of the ppl you mentioned in the discription/comments
3 Non locality:if i understand the concept of NL correctly then non-locality is the exact reason why i am not an atheist(!)
4 Does it suprise you that i have one hardcore-atheist friend and that hes an intj(¿)
5 (guess im rambling here):Atheists- or religious-Purists are boring ppl
666 the number of the beast(ok now i did wrong)#6 🙂
7 <3
Fr. Barron makes good stuff.
I believe firmly in God. In Islam we have our daily religious practices to keep us connected. By the way, Ramadan is very soon
Regarding materialism/naturalism and spirituality check out; Religious naturalism, and Carl Sagan. Like Sam Harris points out there's nothing stopping an atheist from meditating, or cultivating personal growth – but what they tend not to do is make unverifiable claims about the nature of reality. Atheism only tells people what we don't believe, not what we do believe. Many atheists and naturalists are also humanists and religious naturalists.
I understand that atheists can meditate and cultivate personal growth. I disagree with you about atheists not making unverifiable claims about the nature of reality. The claims of materialism are unverifiable; i.e, that matter is the fundamental reality, that the foundation of morality is determined scientifically, etc. A lot of materialists believe in scientism and this itself is a self-refuting epistemology.
I want to believe what is true; not what others decide is irrational based on fear.
Atheism is not what I have a problem with. I have a problem with specific atheists and materialists who ridicule spiritualists and fringe scientists as delusional because they fundamentally disagree about the nature of reality.
This debate does represent the mindset and debate tactics of all materialists, yet it does reveal some of the cheap tricks and fallacies used in arguments about God and the nature of reality.
OK. I'm an anti-theist. IME of deconverting from Islam, humour helps create emotional distance so people feel free to question their beliefs. I began to question my religion, but stopped after I became paralyzed by fear of hell. One day I came across a comedian who made me cry with laughter about religion, after that I re-gained courage. IME debates only benefit 3rd parties, regardless of subject I've never witnessed any participant change their fundamental position.
Ok! So I saw both of your video and being atheist myself, I was never kind of materialist. I mean we still know very lil abt nature of reality. All I can say is science is best method we have. On the other hand, I was quite shocked as you stated telepathy, ans saying it was always there… I mean believing in telepathy opens the floodgates for all kind of psychic BS and superstition and we have no ACTUAL evidence whatsoever that it works.
"we have no ACTUAL evidence whatsoever that it works." – Are you serious?
What leads you to this conclusion?
conclusion? I really think that if there was any truth in telepathy, we would now have theories and intense experiments going on. Actually experiments are conducted never leading to any conclusive outcome only leading to disappointment. What makes me non materialist is that I don't think that there is anything specific what we can call material plus this abstract world we have in our heads and consciousness.
Love became a bargaining chip in my marriage, secondary to materialism. I could not live with that and filed for divorce. : (
Odd you claim atheists are the hostile ones. I just ran into my first anti-naturalist on facebook yesterday and he certainly wasn't a humble opened minded monk. He asked me why I am "stupid enough" to be an atheist. I responded by saying I don't accept claims without substantial evidence. He then resorted to calling me everything from a "dipshit" to an "asshat" and pretty much everything you can think of running on to be around 800 characters long of a comment consisting of nothing but the most juvenile ad hominems I have ever seen. I told him that I refrain from debating with hostile people. Then he told me science proves God exists because materialism has been disproven. I asked him if he could cite this proof and disproof and also asked him where he got the idea that atheism depends on materialism. He never replied.
It seems that your idea that atheists are a cult of closed minded insolent bigots is not only unfair, but false. Your group is no more humble, and certainly no more open minded or friendly. I am a very open minded person and I am always open to new discovery but I have yet to meet a theist who can same the thing. Perhaps we should quit basing our beliefs or lack of beliefs on the behavior of those who share them and don't. Correlation does not imply causation.
By the way, accepting a naturalist world view was in no way emotionally driven, in fact I LOVED being a pagan more than anything and it took two years to find peace after deconverting from supernatural beliefs. I'd love to see proof that my old beliefs were true, but I have not found any. I am always open to new proof.
You should not assume you know every atheist's psychology
You have never had a telepathic experience. Why don't you explain what you thought was a telepathic experience, then maybe someone can explain to you what really happened.
Chopra isn't discredited because he is a "snake-oil salesman" Chopra is discredited because his claims are unfounded and crazy. It takes a severe ignorance of quantum physics to claim quantum consciousness; such a particle simply cannot exist, since the particle needs to be pretty strong, but since it needs to be pretty strong we would have found such a particle in LHCs.