I've often been accused to choosing to not believe in gods or supernatural phenomena. My general response in a haughty tone is that my mind is NOT that shallow, and that I cannot force myself to believe or not believe in anything, that only the evidence will convince me. Do I stand by this? Maybe. I'm starting to question half of the statement more and more.
I absolutely feel that I cannot force myself to believe something. Whether or not this only applies to me or people like me is another question which I will not delve into at this time. I have been in enough situations in my life to realize that I truly cannot accept things on peoples words. Once upon a time I was quite gullible. Much embarrassment as a result of said gullibility has hardened me into a hardcore skeptic. This has produced both positive and negative results in my life. In one way I am a much more reasonable and rational person when it comes to matters that aren't close to my heart. In another way I am untrusting and tend to test people and things which are close to me. What is clear is that I don't believe things simply because I'd like for them to be true.
On the other hand, upon having a conversation with my best friend the other day, I began to question whether I may choose to NOT believe things. I certainly choose to not believe them until some sort of proof is furnished. Confused? Let me go into more detail.
Most people would consider proof seeing something with their own eyes. Often other atheists say "If God were to appear before me and prove he existed, then I would have no choice but to believe". Other more hardened skeptics, myself included, admit that if God were to appear before them that their first instinct would be that they were having some sort of mental break, a delusion, and would be to seek psychiatric help. By being this skeptical, by holding a preconceived notion that god is not real and cannot exist, am I not setting myself up to reject any evidence that may come my way? True, there are many things that can be proven with evidence that cannot be dreamed up or imagined, but what of the things that cannot? Afterlife, ghosts, deja vu, gods?
Once again my non-belief has led me to questions that I cannot answer, and causes more confusion than clarity when I seek to answer the questions.
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