| Alistair.J.L.Maclean@googlemail.com 2008-01-16, 6:56 pm |
| On 15 Jan, 10:35, tim Josling <tejgcc_nos...@westnet.com.au> wrote:
> It would be interesting to do a similar analysis of non-believers. I would
> suspect some just don't care about other people's opinions, some feel they
> can succeed without playing the game, some just don't think the evidence
> stacks up, others have never thought about it.
You missed a category here: those who do not believe because they have
personal experience which causes them to lose faith in a 'loving' god.
My grandmother died (painfully) of cancer when my mother was 10 years
old. Result: my mother does not believe that a loving god would allow
such pain and misery and hence can not bring herself to believe in
god.
>
> Some people don't have much of a spiritual impulse. I remember reading
> about Temple Grandin (who has Aspergers syndrome) in the book "An
> anthropologist on mars". She does did not understand what people are
> talking about when they stand at the top of a mountain at sunset and feel
> something special or spiritual.
My last near-spiritual experience was when walking between the pyla at
the temple of Karnakh. There are places and views that can engender
spiritual feelings even in atheists.
> Perhaps that sort of ultra-g /
> semi-aspergers brain does not have much room for religion for some reason.
> There do seem to be a lot of gs who espouse atheism. In my experience
> gs are very honest people (generally) so maybe it's partly that fewer
> of them are fake adherents than in the general population.
>
Dunno 'bout that. I'm a g and an atheist. My atheism grew from
being told, at the age of 11, how the miracles really were not all
they were cracked up to be. From there to opening my eyes during
prayer (where was Jesus? he certainly wasn't walking around near me
when I was praying. Kids can take things so literally) And finally to
becoming hooked on science, space and the natural world.
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