A secular protestant...
— ucarr
It's not always a vacuous culture war out there. — Tom Storm
A secular protestant, lying on his deathbed, in defiance of his own emotional past as a boy raised Catholic, exhorts his parents, wife and children, to their great anguish, not to hold any type of religious services at his funeral. — ucarr
My issue with religion is that it unfortunately offers an opportunity to separate people by drawing firm lines in the sand as to what is demanded of one another in terms of belief and custom. — Hanover
I suppose you need to reformulate what I've written because it's easier for you to knock down strawmen rather than substantively engage my stated positions — 180 Proof
atheism is disbelief in theistic deities (& stories) If the material universe was "created", then an atheist only states "I disbelieve stories of 'the universe created by a theistic deity'" — 180 Proof
“God did not create the material universe.” — ucarr
“ Theistic God did not create the material universe.” — ucarr
“ Deistic God did create the material universe.” — ucarr
As I understand philosophy, "metaphysics" does not consist of factual truth-claims; it's not theoretical and its expressions are not propositional – like poetry – but rather, metaphysics consists of categorical inquiries into reality, insofar as reality both constitutes and encompasses all of our hypothetical inquiries (e.g. formal natural & historical sciences and arts), in order to rationally make sense of – make whole – 'human existence'. The resulting categories, paradigms, criteria, methods, interpretations constitute reflective ways of 'being in the world' (or world-making) but are not themselves demonstrable truth-claims about the world. Thus, for me at least, ucarr, "metaphysical claims", as Witty says, is nonsense.Metaphysical Claim - a declaration of truth ...
My issue with religion is that it unfortunately offers an opportunity to separate people by drawing firm lines in the sand as to what is demanded of one another in terms of belief and custom. As religiosity increases, who can sit with you at the table often shrinks. The same holds true in other contexts, political divisions being the polarization du jour.
It seems to me that if your religion requires exclusion, you heard the sermon, but maybe missed the message. — Hanover
I don't see any "blanks" in what I wrote that need to be filled. — 180 Proof
"metaphysics" does not consist of factual truth-claims... — 180 Proof
it's not theoretical and its expressions are not propositional — 180 Proof
metaphysics consists of categorical inquiries into reality, — 180 Proof
reality both constitutes and encompasses all of our hypothetical inquiries — 180 Proof
The resulting categories, paradigms, criteria, methods, interpretations constitute reflective ways of 'being in the world' — 180 Proof
(...categories, paradigms, criteria, methods, interpretations...) are not themselves demonstrable truth-claims about the world. — 180 Proof
"metaphysical claims... is nonsense. — 180 Proof
Atheism is a 2nd order statement about theism which is a 1st order statement about "god"; the latter is metaphysics (i.e. onto-theology) and the former epistemology / logic. — 180 Proof
Paradigms sever the induction-deduction oscillation. Only statements the resultants of induction are expressed; no reverse reasoning back to empirical details the resultants of deduction. — ucarr
"Atheism Equals Cosmic Solipsism" As far as I know, solipsism is a philosophical thought that proposes that only the self exists, and its experiences such as himself, his place in the world and his perception of the world are either imagined, or else directed illusions.
How does its being cosmic affect this? There is no cosmos in solipsism.
And why would atheism equal solipsism, cosmic or otherwise? There is no reason to believe that. Atheism is a belief there is no god, there are no gods. This is a far cry from solipsism. Solipsism can exist in the philosophy of a theist and equally in the philosophy of an atheist. Cosmic (?) or otherwise. — god must be atheist
As I understand philosophy, "metaphysics" does not consist of factual truth-claims; it's not theoretical and its expressions are not propositional – like poetry – but rather, metaphysics consists of categorical inquiries into reality, insofar as reality both constitutes and encompasses all of our hypothetical inquiries (e.g. formal natural & historical sciences and arts), in order to rationally make sense of – make whole – 'human existence'. The resulting categories, paradigms, criteria, methods, interpretations constitute reflective ways of 'being in the world' (or world-making) but are not themselves demonstrable truth-claims about the world. Thus, for me at least, ucarr, "metaphysical claims", as Witty says, is nonsense. — 180 Proof
The above declarations pertain to human-to-human interactions. What about humanity-the-collective to cosmos-the-totality-of-creation? At this level I assert that atheism is solipsistic.
This so because human consciousness vis-a-vis the totality of creation must first answer the question posed by the interstellar probe Jimmy Carter sanctioned. He asked, "Is anyone out there?"
Let's assume the answer is "yes." Other sentient (hopefully humanoid) beings are out there. Even so, this only dispels the interstellar solipsism of the human collective vis-a-vis other intra-cosmic sentience.
It still doesn't dispel the cosmic solipsism of atheism because the interstellar collective of sentience
vis-a-vis the cosmos is still alone unless the cosmos (and beyond) is sentient as distinguished from the interstellar collective of sentience, a state of being denied by atheism. — ucarr
This is denied by many religions, and may be denied by some atheists; but the only thing that is denied by atheism is that there is a god and that there are gods.the cosmos (and beyond) is sentient as distinguished from the interstellar collective of sentience, a state of being denied by atheism. — ucarr
I don't see any "blanks" in what I wrote that need to be filled. — 180 Proof
Context matters. — 180 Proof
Solipsism excludes community.
Solipsism is not concerned with extraterrestrials.
There is no such thing as interstellar solipsism. — god must be atheist
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