Nothing Shaped God

I'm not sure if this video makes any sense at all, or if it truly reflects what I think, but I'm trying to get underneath what I mean when I describe myself as an atheist. One interpretation is pretty straightforward; there are not gods out there in any of the faith traditions that I have come across that I feels confident about believing in, or which even require my beleif. On the other hand I don't feel comfortable calling myself an 'agnostic' since, whilst I have no way of knowing ultimate truths, or even if such things exist, I don't walk through life with a constant sense of bewilderment or consternation. I am only acting in a way which is consonant with agnosticism when I consciously apply it; most of the time I just get on with the business of living with no disquiet at this lack of knowledge. To this extent I must be operating as if there were grounds for this confident inhabiting of a world, a confidence which suggest some kind of belief. Maybe it's the case that, whilst I absolutely do not believe in any of the gods, I must 'believe' in the existence of nothing, but this is the kind of nothing that Beckett spoke about.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• god
• atheist
• atheism
• nothing
• Samuel
• Beckett
• consciousness
• belief
• believe
• believer
• doubt
• agnostic
• agnosticism
• theist
• theism

[vgfmak]

Dhorpatan also touched upon this subject in his "ultimate refutation of all ontological arguments" video.

[conferencereport]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll go and look at it now.

Fred

[2bsirius]

I needed a good dose of ConferenceReport to start my Sunday...

Your summary of your atheism is very much like mine.

The Beckett quote was an exactly what makes me uncomfortable about the whole discussion.

I wanted to recommend a book about how the ancient Greek saw nothingness....But can't find it right now...

Very interesting as usual.

[conferencereport]

Probably not the one you mean but 'Zero' by Charles Seife has some great accounts of the way nothingness has featured within different histories

[OhHelloInternet]

"deferred" or postponed through, to quote Merleau-Ponty here, the "closely woven fabric" of the "real"? And how would Merleau-Ponty's notion of the Visible and the Invisible relate to this matter?

Is this a pretentious youtube comment? I think there's a rule somewhere about putting real in quotation marks.

I think that your channel is great.

[OhHelloInternet]

I'd say Tzimtzum in turn is actually similar to the notion of Maya found in Hinduism and Sikhism, in which the Universe is the concealment of God.. god.

Also, I wonder how that idea would connect with Derrida's method of deconstruction, and his concepts of diachronic processes and différance.

Is meaning forever

[OhHelloInternet]

free will and the known world exist, seamlessly connected to all that is God. Olam, the Hebrew word for "world" or Universe, is derived from a root word which means "concealment".

[OhHelloInternet]

Are you familiar with the Kabbalahistic concept of Tzimtzum? I was reminded of it by this post. The Rabbi Isaac Luria taught that God began the process of creation by "contraction," forming the finite and seemingly independent space of all of (phenomenal) creation. In this "space," which is actually our presence,

[HybridD91]

Religion teachs life comes from nothing. If god was the only thing in existence and nothing else existed but him, what did he created everything from? Nothing. Who created god? Did he create himself from nothing? If god was never created? How does he exist?

[milkeddowncocobrown]

i think too many people r quick to put a label on everything so its easier to put into perspective. God doesnt have to be bound by space and time to exist. What if god is just a lay out of what will happen in the future. And if u could tap into that to change it or understand it. wouldnt that mean a higher power? like god? Im just saying u cant put god in a box and label it one thing cuz we really cant fully understand god or disprove god by marking stuff not god

[milkeddowncocobrown]

ok not enoughball i think your wrong. you cant take a statement like "god is love" and say or think that someone is a atheist cuz they dont come to a single conclusion about their belief. Like love is god can mean that what we understand god and experience it in this form by love. and love can mean many things but thats not to say there isnt a deeper meaning behind it or even a over all connection with one and another to form a higher power. or there could be a god not bound by space and time

[vfIskullangel]

I used to be an atheist then I became a theist.

You don't come off as an atheist to me you sound like someone who's sitting on the fence looking at both sides.

[NeverEnoughBall]

atheism says nothing of ur beliefs. if someone asks if you believe in god and the answer is anything but yes it's "i'm an atheist". you can believe in absolutely anything and be an atheist, just not a god. people who say "god is love and i beleive in god" are atheists, they just dont know wtf they're talking about.