why do so many non-religious people seem to completely reject the mere possibility of an after-life, or even just a soul, or some kind of spiritual energy connecting lifeforms?
why do so many non-religious people seem to completely reject the mere possibility of an after-life, or even just a soul, or some kind of spiritual energy connecting lifeforms?
Atheism means you don't believe any deities. It doesn't mean you reject the possibility altogether, and it doesn't have anything to say at all about souls, afterlifes, or spiritual energies.
Not to go all internet logic guy on you, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot is a good explanation of why atheism encompasses a lot of agnosticism. Or in other words why somebody who says "I don't know if X is true" (agnostic) is often very comfortable also saying "I don't believe that X is true." (atheist)
Yeah to elaborate, part of the point of the teapot example, is that nobody feels the need to litigate and re-litigate epistemological arguments about anything mundane like "is a teapot in a very unlikely place" - they only get twisted into knots over the afterlife because they really hate dying.
If our lives depended on the teapot, suddenly people would start arguing about whether we can really know, with our brains, if there wasn't a Roman space program or something.
Oh and also we would have vast theoretical discussions about the internal politics of the Roman Space Force and its motivations for creating a clay teapot and launching it into space. Maybe a symbolic dedication to Roman craftsmen. Maybe the emperor was clowning on a senator who wanted to send an astronaut. Maybe it was some crazy mixup!
If it was a mixup, now let's think about the logistical peculiarities of a system that could have created such a teapot mixup, how certain archelogical sites lend credence to one framework or another, and how those theoretical logistical systems could have affected history without showing up in the archaeological records. How does the teapot scenario suggest we should carry ourselves socially, culturally, politically today? What are the lessons there?
Not joking - if we needed the teapot, this would be just a tiny fragment of the trillions of words, hundreds of billions of hours and entire professions dedicated to the teapot. The teapot stuff would wind up causing brutal genocides and centuries of immiseration.
definitely the romans, not the chinese. who actually drank tea and fucked around with gunpowder in that same period.
definitely the romans.
russels teapot was put there by the ancient chinese, you stupid fucking piece of racist shit. prove me wrong.
Ugh I'm tired of these Reformist Baptist Teapotist Congregationalist Council of 1907 heretics always showing up in the chat.
fuck you, im eastern orthodox teapotists you stupid western traditional teapotist heretic piece of shit.
you [pople should all be wiped off the face of the planet for what you did to the traditionalist russelites (even though they're wrong and heretics and deserve to burn), and your doctrinal support of slavery. maybe you should just fukcing kill yourself if that's what you believe.
Ever heard of Seleucid oil fields? Try finding a reliable helium source near the Han dynasty. Or fill a rocket with fucking gunpowder and light it under your ass. You're gonna be charcuterie for the devil
OH, WOW, SO THERE'S NO OIL ON THE ENTIRE FUCKING ASIAN CONTINENT!? THEREFORE FRENCH PEOPLE ARE PROPERTY!?
GREAT FUCKING BELIEF SYSTEM YOU GOT THERE YOU PEICE OF SHIT
EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT NECESSARY PRECURSOR TECHNOLOGIES THE ROMANS HAD THAT MAKE THIS POSSIBLE. ILL FUCKING WAIT. BERTRAND RUSSEL AND THE ENTIRE SPECIES OF JACK RUSSEL TERRIERS WOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOU!
Wow when the facts aren't on your side pound the table huh
MAYBE I JUST ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN THE SHIT I BELIEVE IN! MAYBE I'VE FUCKING READ MY HOLY BOOKS/DOGS! MAYBE I HAVE ACTUAL FUCKING FEELINGS ABOUT ACTAUL HUMAN SUFFERING ANd EXTRA TERRESTRIAL POTTERY
That's true. But, as a tangential point, we do actually affirm this line of thinking with actions as well as words, even for important things. For example, just like the teacup and (from an agnostic's point of view) God, I have no reason to think there's an axe murderer hiding in my closet, but I also can't rule it out. And the result of that is that I act exactly the same as I would if I was sure there wasn't an axe murderer.
So even when my life depends on being right, I act exactly the same for "I don't know if X is true" as "I don't believe X is true".
Yeah great point. If we treated daily life like we treat the concept of a god, we would be fucking diving left and right all day to avoid snipers or something.