The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Atheists: Come out, come out, wherever you are
starboardlight:
--- Quote from: Impish on July 12, 2006, 10:46:21 am ---Let me ask you: did you ever get the chance to read the "Covering" book?
--- End quote ---
Not yet. I kept waiting for the copy at my library to become available, but who ever has it checked out has kept it for months now. Either that or there's a long long line of people on the waiting list ahead of me. I decided to simply order it, and finally got around to it. It's in the mail and on it's way.
I do appreciate your book recommendations. I probably don't read as much as you do, time being a luxury I don't often have, but I do enjoy reading. I will check out Harris's book eventually. I like what his writing, from you've posted. I think I'll also recommend the book to my brother. I think he'll find Harris's insight interesting.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on July 12, 2006, 10:17:59 am ---Not to steal TexRob's thunder, but I've been called an existentialist, too. The Wikipedia definition leaves me kind of cold. The way I see it, being an existentialist is being someone trying to find meaning in a godless world. The existential dilemma is trying to decide what is right and what is wrong in a world where no one will ultimately judge us for our actions - i.e., since there is no God, if I can get away with it, what's to stop me from lying, stealing, killing? I don't think it's an accurate moniker for me now, because I have found meaning and I do know what's to stop me - my own conscience. The existentialist believes he or she exists separately from all other individuals (and from God) and doesn't need anyone else for anything.
--- End quote ---
Hmmm. See, that doesn't really describe me at all. I don't think one needs to believe in a deity to have a strong sense of right and wrong. (I'm probably a secular humanist, too. Well, mostly. I steal ideas from lots of non-theistic philosophies... and I'm not above stealing from people who believe in deities, too. I like the Wiccan saying "And ye hurt none" as a guide for right and wrong, for instance. I think a lot of religions have good ideas about how to get along with other people, if you skip past the parts where they tell you to kill everyone who doesn't agree with you.)
Back to existentialism: this friend used the description after reading a story that I had written for a creative writing class in high school. The main character, in the end, wasn't able to get out of the pattern her life fell into, even though the pattern was clearly messed up. (I recently told another friend about the story, and she laughed and said: "Ennis.") So I'm wondering if the connection has to do with being trapped by inaction, or something. That doesn't seem to have much to do with whether or not someone believes in a deity, though.
isabelle:
If I may jump in...
"Existentialism is a form of Humanism" by Sartre was the first philosophy book I was made to read in high school (we do philosophy as a set subject in France).
I do not remember all of it, but basically, it said that man alone is responsible for the way he leads his life: he has nothing to expect from God as none exists, nothing to expect from an after life as there is none. He must take responsibility for his actions. This means that determinism, whereby you are supposed to become a delinquant because you come from a rough area or family and things like that, is not acceptable either: you CAN break free from vicious circles.
And what stops you doing evil is ethics, for which you don't need Gods. The idea too that you should behave the way you wish everybody would behave. I think this is a good guideline.
Impish:
Thanks Isabelle!
That was my basic understanding of it, but you said it much more clearly.
I remain confused about TexRob's message tho'... I wonder what he meant when he said (paraphrasing) "not all existentialists are atheists" ?
mvansand76:
Atheist here!
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