Is “God” an emotion? (atheist, reincarnation, quote, God)
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Personally I think it's more of a 'need' people have because they simply can't mentally accept the idea of a universe without it having been created by something. But then for some reason they are fine with the idea that nobody created the creator.
Here’s a hypothesis: “god” is actually an emotion, not a person who lives in the sky somewhere.
It would explain why so many people believe in “god” even though there is no evidence for an actual person known as “god.”
So there is anger, fear, love, hate, happiness, and god.
How’s that for a working hypothesis?
I don't believe that makes any sense. Emotions such as anger, fear, love, hate and happiness typically have an ontologically real source or object. We don't just go around being angry and hateful in a vacuum.
Your statement that there is no evidence is simply false. Many people have religious experiences that are highly evidential to them. Many people believe in a god as the best explanation for very large bodies of evidence, scientific and otherwise.
Personally I think it's more of a 'need' people have because they simply can't mentally accept the idea of a universe without it having been created by something. But then for some reason they are fine with the idea that nobody created the creator.
This can easily be turned around: many atheists cannot mentally accept a universe with moral accountability to a creator whose notions of morality don't mesh with their own. People are religious and irreligious for myriad reasons, but I have seen virtually no evidence of the need you hypothesize. Other psychological needs, yes.
The uncreated creator or uncaused cause is a deep philosophical concept and the foundation of one of the so-called proofs of the existence of god. The question isn't whether one is fine with it but whether it makes the most sense philosophically and scientifically and has the greatest explanatory power.
No. And that's partly because there are very un-emotional people who sense God's presence. They also see God in nature, the complexity of living creatures, the universe, etc.
Some look for the effects of God, rather than the personality himself/itself. Like looking for the effects of wind, rather than the wind itself.
Maybe putting a name out there might be a stumbling block. Maybe it's just better to just acknowledge an intelligent presence, perhaps a force, that we can't fully understand, due to being so different than us. Once you start giving it or him a name, you start falling down the road of assumptions, trying to humanize it/him.
Dp a mental experiement.
Try as hard as you can, to imagine yourself not existing. Before you were born or, after death.
Just do your best.
can't can you? Impossible.
So that innate feeling of immortality in us makes us seek one, that gives that immortality, that assures it.
Here’s a hypothesis: “god” is actually an emotion, not a person who lives in the sky somewhere.
It would explain why so many people believe in “god” even though there is no evidence for an actual person known as “god.”
So there is anger, fear, love, hate, happiness, and god.
How’s that for a working hypothesis?
Meh, it doesn't work for me as an explanation.
There's certainly can be an emotional response to the concept of god, and strong feelings associated with transcendent experiences from the so-called "god spot" in the brain -- feelings that can be elicited with an appropriately placed electrode just as well if not better than via certain religious practices.
But some people just don't feel all that much, too -- and some of them bemoan that, thinking there's something wrong with them -- yet they still believe in god.
The key question is whether you believe in a thing (regardless of what it is) because you need or want it to be so, or because it is actually demonstrably so. The answer is that most people affirm what they want / need / wish to be true, without actually determining what's true in the first place. That's true of god, religious or political views, assumptions or stereotypes about other people or groups ... the list is pretty much endless. What is truth and how does one legitimately come by it? For a lot of people the answer is that it "feels truthy" to them in some way, not that they've looked into it and determined what's actually so. It is based on group consensus and expectations, snap judgments that never get re-examined, stuff like that.
Dp a mental experiement.
Try as hard as you can, to imagine yourself not existing. Before you were born or, after death.
Just do your best.
can't can you? Impossible.
So that innate feeling of immortality in us makes us seek one, that gives that immortality, that assures it.
be well
I hav eno problem imagining that. My days are numbered. I will soon not exist. Unless reincarnation is true after all.
This can easily be turned around: many atheists cannot mentally accept a universe with moral accountability to a creator whose notions of morality don't mesh with their own. People are religious and irreligious for myriad reasons, but I have seen virtually no evidence of the need you hypothesize. Other psychological needs, yes.
The uncreated creator or uncaused cause is a deep philosophical concept and the foundation of one of the so-called proofs of the existence of god. The question isn't whether one is fine with it but whether it makes the most sense philosophically and scientifically and has the greatest explanatory power.
I see you haven't been around here for long. You see virtually no evidence for it?
I've seen plenty of evidence for it. It's one of the most common reasons people have for their belief: that they can't visualise a universe without a creator.
Stick around for a bit, it'll come around.
As to morality, it depends which god you are referring to. There are many versions of god. You'll have to be more specific.
I think God is a metaphor. People use that in all kinds of ways especially if taken literally.
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