Quote:
Originally Posted by lagtight
How can one believe (or not believe) in God "a little bit?"
I'm not arguing or disagreeing with your answer; I'm just trying to understand what your answer means.
Thanks.
Because he’s not playing the faith “all-in” game. If someone asked him if alien life forms exist somewhere in the cosmos, you would completely understand if he said some version of, “Well, part of me believes … yada, yada yada.” Only when religious faith is demanded does this type of self-hypnosis (which your question presumes) attempt to convert uncertainty into absolutism. Regarding any other mystery, you would completely understand his mixed thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Not with religion, where compartmentalized irrationality reigns supreme. It isn’t god that’s behind any of the thousands of religions, it’s obviously this kind of belief.
What do we need god for (by “for” meaning to explain)? Not for electrons, not for chemistry, not for biology, not for cosmology. We need “him” (an inane formulation obviously arising straight from anthropomorphism, male chauvinism, ignorance, superstition, and projection) to judge the human race … we need “him” for hell, for salvation, for donations, for faux certainty about what life is. Not for anything on the level. Religious epistemology does not belong in philosophy class. On every other mystery under the sun you know why he has degrees of belief. But not on this one where the whole trick is just to believe it into truth.