Heather I loved your take on goddess/god. It mirrors mine. To your take I would add my two cents. I had/have a problem with all faiths because they are full of petty hypocrisies, unfriendly to women, and have caused great destruction often carried out in their name.
But some of our richest myths, literature, music, beauty and art also comes from faith. So I stand like Trishanku trying still to figure it out. > On 2 May 2024, at 9:30 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > Send Silklist mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Silklist digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Can you change your mind, really? (Alaric Snell-Pym) > 2. Re: Can you change your mind, really? (Heather Madrone) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 17:22:10 +0100 > From: Alaric Snell-Pym <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Silk] Can you change your mind, really? > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > On 01/05/2024 12:33, Manar Hussain via Silklist wrote: > >>>>> About the existence of a God. I'm an atheist. >>>> >>>> What would count as "sufficient evidence" for you in this context? > [...] >>> I suppose if I define God as an agent with the power to perform magic, >>> then I could be convinced of His (or Her or Their) existence, but that >>> might fall well short of a desire to offer worship. >>> >> >> What convinces you to be an atheist as opposed to agnostic? >> > > Well, if I may butt in... > > As a dedicated fence-sitter and avoider of strong beliefs about > anything, I am indeed agnostic: sure, there could be some kind of god > out there, nobody can prove otherwise. > > However, in practice, that is effectively an atheistic position; it's > basically saying that there's no evidence of a god existing in any way > that might affect me (otherwise, that effect would be evidence), so if > there is a god they're (currently / so far) irrelevant to my life, so > I'm living as if there's no god. > > In practice, I think the difference between an agnostic person > (...agnostist?) and an atheist is zero, until a god (or indirect > evidence thereof) turns up, at which point the agnostic goes "Huh, > interesting, OK" and the atheist goes "Noooooo!". > > -- > Alaric Snell-Pym (M0KTN ne? M7KIT) > http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/ > > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc > Type: application/pgp-signature > Size: 665 bytes > Desc: OpenPGP digital signature > URL: > <https://mailman.panix.com/pipermail/silklist/attachments/20240501/9819278a/attachment.bin> > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 11:41:15 -0700 > From: Heather Madrone <[email protected]> > To: Intelligent conversation <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Silk] Can you change your mind, really? > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > Alaric Snell-Pym via Silklist wrote on 5/1/24 9:22 AM: >> On 01/05/2024 12:33, Manar Hussain via Silklist wrote: >> >>>>>> About the existence of a God. I'm an atheist. >>>>> >>>>> What would count as "sufficient evidence" for you in this context? >> [...] >>>> I suppose if I define God as an agent with the power to perform magic, >>>> then I could be convinced of His (or Her or Their) existence, but that >>>> might fall well short of a desire to offer worship. >>>> >>> >>> What convinces you to be an atheist as opposed to agnostic? >>> >> >> Well, if I may butt in... >> >> As a dedicated fence-sitter and avoider of strong beliefs about >> anything, I am indeed agnostic: sure, there could be some kind of god >> out there, nobody can prove otherwise. > > Or there may, as I once read on an explanatory plaque at an ancient > Hawaiian heiau that now lies under lava, be an infinite number of gods. > > I didn't really understand the belief in gods until I saw Kilauea erupt. > After that, I understood the belief in Madam Pele at a gut level, and > came to see the whole notion of gods as convenient mental shorthands for > forces beyond human ken. > > For the Hawaiians, caught between the volcano and the open ocean, seeing > their world as existing as a battle between Madam Pele and her sister Na > Maka made a huge amount of sense. > > I don't believe there are literal, concrete gods anywhere, but I feel > free to use the metaphorical gods any time they are convenient. If I'm > in San Francisco traffic looking for a parking place, the "Hail Hypatia, > full of grace, help me find a parking space" prayer might not do > actually do any good, but it does calm me down. > > I find it useful to view the Sun, the Moon, major hurricanes, and > earthquakes as gods and address them in poetry and song. > > If gods are a creation of the human brain, I can posit as many as I need > to work with the god-shaped hole in the human psyche. They might not do > a single thing about the objective world out there, but millennia of > culture have given them a huge amount of psychological power in the > human animal. > > > -- > Heather Madrone ([email protected]) > Blog: http://www.knitfitter.com/category/personal/ > http://sheltershock.thecomicseries.com > > The Goddess moves mountains -- bring a shovel. > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > > > ------------------------------ > > End of Silklist Digest, Vol 16, Issue 2 > *************************************** -- Silklist mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
