Since it appears this site is not theist friendly I have a question for non theists but theists are welcome to contribute if they so wish.
Can one believe there is a god and not be committed to that belief? The corollary is of course obvious, it seems to me likely that people can be committed to the belief in god even though the existence of gods is doubtful at the least and their non existence highly likely.
Questioning the conventional wisdom
Everything random... At 3am 😊
musings on the human condition
Telling Authentic Stories For Social Change!!!!!!
The African Environmental Blog site
The world inside my head is beautiful 🌷🌷
Videos of feral cats on the streets, and my own four feral felines at home, feline humor, advice, and gifts for your cat.
Sentiments
My journey to finding love through the sea Fuckboys
A blog by the Global Governance Centre, Graduate Institute, Geneva
Nicole
Cogito Ergo Sum
Sustainable Living & Wildlife Conservation in Kenya Blog
Where The Eagles Fly . . . . Art Science Poetry Music & Ideas
One minute info blogs escaping the faith trap
sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...
Mark and Abbie Jury
Life is intuition woven on fickleness.
Life is a journey. Let us meet at the intersection and share a story.
Random musings about everything.
With(out) Predicates
I call architecture frozen music. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
An online journal celebrating the joys of living bare with pride! This site usually publishes every Monday and Friday. I may be irreverent but I am no way irrelevant! My preferred personal pronouns are he, him, his.
Confessions Of A (former) Young Earth Creationist
An archive for ... my stuff...
Canadian cogitations about politics, social issues, and science. Vituperation optional.
Are you entirely sure that question makes sense?
LikeLiked by 4 people
I concur with John. Not entirely sure what you’re asking. Might just be me, though.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Can one believe evolution is true and still be a creationist? That is, can you know A and still reject it?
LikeLike
Ah, I see what you’re saying. I couldn’t do that. If I KNOW something to be true, even though I may not like it, I couldn’t reject that it is true. I do not think you can reasonably be a creationist but then truly KNOW evolution is true, too. I think creationists simply deny the truth of evolution and say those who believe it are wrong in spite of the evidence in front of them. Cognitive dissonance at work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
you are right on the cognitive dissonance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes.
Can you know A is true and still not be committed to that knowledge?
LikeLike
Can I know the moon exists but not be committed to that knowledge?
See what i mean? I’m guessing I’m missing something.
LikeLiked by 1 person
don’t apply it to natural things but to ideas that can be true or false
LikeLike
But you’re saying God *does* exist, just like the moon exists.
Are’nt you?
LikeLiked by 2 people
god’s existence in my view can be false or true unlike the moon
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK, I think it makes sense when we substitute “god” for something like Panpsychism. I can ‘believe’ it’s true, but because it’s running on a level I (seemingly) can’t access I’m not ‘committed’ to the idea.
So, yes, although i think this is a question for drunk philosophers at their philosopher Christmas party.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hahaha John.
I am not drunk at the moment. This question can be filed under truth and ideology.
LikeLiked by 1 person
subheading: drunk/drinking/soon to be drinking 🙂
LikeLike
soon to be drinking but still sober
LikeLiked by 1 person
Got anything planned for your b’day?
LikeLike
Not really.
You see when you grow up in the village, birthdays are like any other day and it remains with you. Maybe I should just drink myself silly or get some weed
LikeLike
Weed and a bike ride sounds nice.
LikeLike
Ah, I see now! Thanks. Gonna go smoke a bowl and contemplate this more. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haha and tell us the results of your contemplation
LikeLiked by 1 person
The majority of Christians have this issue. They believe in Jesus but they obviously don’t believe Jesus and don’t do anything practical but pray for people. Probably believing because everyone else is believing.
They believe, but doubt the strength of that belief when it comes to using it to perform the extraordinary which is promised. Really, there are no true believers or the Bible lies. Then come the explainers, those that have vested time and haven’t been offered any other options, and those that are zealots that have not yet field tested the words. After they do they’ll be committed to belief but embrace the shortcomings as their own pathetic weakness. “Help me believe”, no kidding. The story needs lots of explaining.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You have not met Ham, i believe? He is a true believer, and an Aussie like John
LikeLike
Can he heal my sick friend from afar like Jesus said? And how much $ up front to i need to send?
LikeLike
Ask John what his countryman charges for such a service. Though I think he is into museum business only
LikeLike
I’d trust a Brazilian Umbanda more than an Christian Aussie. John?
LikeLike
You ought to trust Ham. He is the holiest man around. Believes in literal reading of Genesis
LikeLike
Does he have a WP site?
LikeLike
Ken Ham of the Ark Encounter in Kentucky and Answers in genesis
LikeLike
Ah, I’m a little slow this morning. All the southern nuts come to America to peddle their crap. Kiwi Comfort is another.
LikeLike
Kiwi Comfort is that Ray? Eh
LikeLike
Yes. The banana man. Smart guy
LikeLike
That’s a smart fellow.
Has he any new videos?
LikeLike
I’ve only seen recently one of his failures where he was confronted on the street corner and couldn’t answer outside of the staged productions he does. 🍌
LikeLike
That must have been hilarious
LikeLike
There are five churches within walking distance of where I live. All have window bars, deadbolt locks and monitored alarm systems. Three have security cameras. So much for “in God we trust.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
A friend on Facebook had posted that “the left wants a revolution. Haha. We have 16 trillion bullets” I said, “so, have bullets supplanted faith?” She said no, that this was faith in action.
I guess bars on the windows somehow is an exercise in faith, but I’m not of the mindset to figure out how.
LikeLiked by 1 person
this is doing your part and letting god do hers
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some folks on the far right seem to forget the 2nd Amendment doesn’t just apply to them. I know a few far lefties who are gun hoarders who are preparing for said revolution. I guess God will be sending bullets from both sides of the aisle should said civil war ever come.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No doubt there are plenty of guns to go around. And really, they place way too much importance on their guns. There are three scenarios really when total shit hits the fan. You kill your hungry neighbors and their kids so you can survive only to die later and face the lord for you murders and greedy self importance, or shoot at the military convoy and just see what happens, or, go into hiding in the hills with fifty million others who are going to “live off the land” and there won’t be a living animal for a thousand miles within a week. No, were stuck in societal living or death. We should start acting like it, but we won’t.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I agree. We truly have lost the ability to talk and LISTEN to each other and come up with compromises on how to live together as a group. We learn to do this or we die. Sadly, as you stated, we’ve NOT been doing this. At all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But who in these groups ever thinks this far ahead?
LikeLiked by 1 person
churches in nairobi have metal detectors at the door. i think they are not giving the devil any room to sneak in
LikeLike
Flat-earthers who fly around the world are one example. Christians who have health and life insurance are another. Belief isn’t immune from people who hedge their bets.
LikeLiked by 3 people
And people who believe in a glorious heaven, but become sad and angry when someone dies, rather than happy for them.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s a selfish thing, Mary. They’re more centered on themselves than they are the one who died.
Perhaps it’s because they “know” that person is now “among the angels” while they’re still here fighting with us non-believers. 😈 ❗
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or somewhere deep inside, they know the person is simply gone
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or they know that heaven is not guaranteed
LikeLike
Because they believe in a terrible hell, they are never sure where their loved ones have ended
LikeLike
I think Christians with help insurance have argued that god helps those who put effort
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am a theist, a non abrahamic theist to be clear but a theist in my belief. I believe in Goddes or divinity whatever you want to call it but I also believe in evolution. Belief in one does not exclude the other.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are theists who believe their particular deity set evolution in motion. Is this how you understand it or do you go the whole hog? That evolution is a result of natural processes
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. When I think about the origins of life, I see the great Mother Goddess setting evolution into motion.
LikeLike
Yes, I think some people can compartmentalize their beliefs. I have met many nonreligious and marginally-religious people who say things like “something MUST be out there” (i.e. supernatural or extra-natural beings) but who normally live in the practical world. I suppose it’s a question of how strongly a person feels about ideas which are ambiguous and empirically unknown. For me, the concept of god(s) is completely irrelevant. For others, such as religious fanatics and their philosophical adversaries, the concept is of paramount importance.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think you summed it up quite well, Robert!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, I have a friend who doesn’t follow any religion, but thinks there still must be something “out there”.
I can see thinking there is something, but also thinking that humans can’t really understand it, because we spend so much time disagreeing about what it is and what it wants. And that if it’s not interested enough in humans to clear up the confusion, then there’s no point in changing your life to try to suit what such a being supposedly wants, or worrying about it too much. I guess that’s kind of a deist sort of position.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is some way to put it.
LikeLike
To me it seems most people believe there is some particular god, but are not really committed to that belief. The majority of people have even as their identity to belong to one religion, or a nother, but they do not act accordingly. So, what is the level, or value of their commitment?
I have no right to declare who is a true Muslim, or true Christian, or true whatever, but I certainly am able to recognize when people do not pay any heed to their holy books. Only a small minority of Christians for example have followed the most direct and ardent commands the Jesus character gives in the New Testament to all his followers – to sell all their property and give the funds to the poor and needy, or not to have any children. Yet, all the Christians I know of express (and seem to do it sincerely) a commitment to the teachings of this Jesus character and to the divine authority they assume to be behind his words.
If one actually believed, that the Bible was a message from the creator entity to the mankind, that (even possibly) included some fairly complicated rules about how one should act in order to awoid eternal torment, would one simply rely on the words of others and not read the damn book? Especially so, when there are so many mutually exclusive interpretations of what the alledged god demands from us in the book. Most Christians I know, however, have never bothered to read the book. It is not because they could not have read it, but because they are not very committed to it and the (honestly) fairly silly and unlikely promises the book is generally known to make. They are not really concerned about the truth, they proclaim the book represents. They simply expect themselves to be lucky enough, that they have been born into the religious culture, that out of the thousands of varying interpretations, simply happens to have the one and only correct one.
LikeLike
mate, this is good.
and i like this
LikeLike
I am fond of saying there are as many gods as there are believers.
They may subscribe to the same sect, may go to the same church, and likely agree with much amongst themselves, but on some level they all stray outside of their teachings/doctrines. But it’s all acceptable to each and every one of them because they just know they are good with their God no matter how devious or mundane their sins.
If people can do that and present a straight and honest air amongst themselves, then they can sure as fuck think God and evolution can coexist. Or God and racism, or God and an occasional bank robbery, or god and a just killing, etc etc etc are just fine.
People are messed up.
LikeLike
this is true more than you realize. people have different ideas about what their god is, can do and all.
LikeLike
I can relate…. I keep asking myself the same question, like playing safe just in case.
LikeLike