Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

I can't be a scientist because I don't believe in God.

created by artfuldodger

(idea) by artfuldodger (4.7 y) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Fri Oct 27 2000 at 19:56:44

If we really want to face the death of God, said Nietzsche, we must not put anything else in his throne.

There is a piece of a matrix of ideas in my head, the tail ends of ideas that are bigger than me, stronger than me, against which I compare my own strength to determine whether I am strong. Against which I determine my own truth or falsehood, guilt or innocence. And if I do not know one or the other, the tails and framgents tell me that the either/or is out there, somewhere. It is in God -- the God we dress up as reason. We may not call it God, but it lives and dies as God lives and dies.

Without this matrix there is no shame. And in my own blind thrashing to escape my shame, I have mortally wounded it. And now I am an Earth unchained from it's Sun.

The verification and enumeration, the exploration of God's beautiful, trustworthy consistencies -- is impossible for me. There is no possibility anymore, for me to live happily as a scientist.

I am happy, now, for me, but I am afraid for us. If everyone made the decision that I have made, there would be no way to hold us together. Does anyone know a way to hold a society together with a truly empty throne?

time_three: aye, how quickly indeed. I know that morality without God is possible, eventually, but I agree with Nietzsche that the interim will be nasty business.


(idea) by tim_three (3.4 y) (print)   ?   1 C! I like it! Fri Oct 27 2000 at 20:25:13

makes some geezer noise then says...well, son... sounds to me like you have a healthier take on this god thing than most of them there so-called Christians. In Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins muses about the Judeo Christian God being created as a way of rejecting the nonrational (yin) aspects of God. The astoundingly stupid irony is that your self-denoted scientists and self-proclaimed skeptics are even more yang than the religion that drove them to it in the first place.

Regarding the empty throne or anarchy, as it might be. You ever notice how kids get along fine until their parents come home? Morality without authority and/or morality without god might just be the sort of thing that allows one to be truly moral. Taking it a step further to consider morality without judgment, I wonder if the whole morality without bundle might be shooting for morality without a rational center.

Both morality and rationality exist, as does society. If you consider society to be important, you then (rationally) have a guideline for your actions. How quickly the structures reassert themselves. (and, by the way, if you keep at it, you'll find that god is one twisted character)

... nihilistic mystics ... kmdfm, megalomaniac

I built a god out of blood, not superiority
... I killed the king of deceit, now I sleep in anarchy
ibid, anarchy


printable version
chaos

The Atheist's Manifesto Blind faith in Science is just as bad as blind faith in Religion Using your tongue to tie a knot in a cherry stem Please stop thanking me for cooling your writeup
My Angst Ate my Suffering in a Void of Meaningless Existential Nihilistic Self-Oppression: An Poem Skinny Legs and All Morality without God Atheists should read The Bible
God is Dead Oh, did you learn to play chess after YOU dropped a barbell on your head, too? Born again Christian megalomaniac
The Professor and the Madman Ayn Rand anarchy The Madman
morality You don't always have to disagree, or agree for that matter World War III The Modern Adventurer's Retrievable Rope Swing
yin atheist outreach slogans Self Injury The only date I never went on
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Look at this mess the Death Borg made!
Atari
Why should the public have to pay for a new stadium for a privately owned team?
Anna
Sal Mineo
Disintegration
An incredibly stupid reason why I got called into the school counselor's office
Decalogue
Sticky toffee pudding
Lady Jane Grey
Thundarr the Barbarian
Wedge-tailed eagle
Footprints is a Gay Black Hippie Jew
Kandahar
New Writeups
rootbeer277
m&m's Ice Cream Treats(review)
Transitional Man
Gus's Chalet(review)
minnow
.410 bore(thing)
shaogo
Phonautogram(thing)
Morkel
Changing your sexuality(idea)
teleny
Baron Samedi(person)
Ouzo
The Great Barbershop Race Wars(log)
Mannerisky
second language(essay)
aneurin
British Monomarks(idea)
FrankThomas
How and why do we (humans) have culture?(essay)
lee_cad
Isaac(person)
kalen
downvota(poetry)
Andrew Aguecheek
Wstfgl(thing)
ncc05
overheard at IHOP(event)
calgon
Bottomless(poetry)
Everything 2 is brought to you by the letter C and The Everything Development Company