Neither of us have ever believed in an anthropomorphised higher power responsible for the universe.
We were not significantly exposed to theism, spirituality or religion in early childhood, as neither of our families are religious.
I only significantly began to be exposed to religion in secondary school, as the school had an official religion and some religious practices. Immediately, I began to grow resentment for it.
At age 14, I made several posts on an autism forum expressing my shock at how many people on the forum believed in God or the paranormal and stated how I’d ‘always thought it was my Asperger syndrome that made me think logically enough to not believe in these things’ (which ended up being true at this severity).
By the turn of age 16, I was heavily antireligious. I wrote about religion and engaged in such communities online. This engagement lasted only a year or so.
During my historical research of age 17 onwards, I rapidly came to understand more about how certain religions originated, and my frustration towards religion decreased. I continued to not understand theism or belief in a higher power, however, and as late as age 19, I had got into an argument with someone over the ‘simulation hypothesis’.
However, theism was rarely a topic of discourse with my friend or a source of frustration, because we were not greatly exposed to it in everyday life. By age 21, I had finally fully understood theism with the creation of this site.
At age 18, I stated, ‘There are all the traditions surrounding Christianity that are easier to understand [in terms of their adoption and transmission], because they’re more cultural, but theism is deeper.’
At age 18, I stated:
‘There’s an imaginary list of things I never understood and would get pissed off at. Some things have been slowly checked off. I’ve checked off a good portion of religion; it doesn’t annoy me like it used to, because I understand it more.
I even feel like I understand theism more, but other things, like pets and pet-talk, or alcohol and smoking: they have prominent places on that list.’
At age 20, I stated:
‘I came to a realisation a little while ago that the simulated-universe theory is just another form of theism as permitted by the social mindset. It’s not technological or scientific at all; it’s pure theism.
That’s why it was pointless for me to argue with it, because it was like arguing with religion, like arguing about makeup. You’d never get anywhere, because the belief in it is inherent and structural in the brain.’
My friend replied, ‘It’s permitted by a thin-boundary mind where those things are possible or feasible, heavily encouraged by their emotional attachment to film plots, because they haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about.
Computers were man-made, for fuck’s sake.’ I replied, ‘Yes.’
At age 20, I stated:
‘I give a bit of leniency regarding people who believe in the multiverse theory, because at least it means they’re thinking about science, but ultimately, it comes down to a reflection of their perspective on free will, and when you have one like mine, multiverse becomes redundant.
It’s essentially the question of whether they believe in free will or not.’
At age 20, I sent a YouTube video titled ‘Do All Atheists Think The Same? | Spectrum’,[1] in which 4 out of 6 of the ‘atheists’ stood in ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ for the prompt ‘I am open to some supernatural or spiritual ideas’, and stated:
‘Just proves what I’m saying in my document, that theism and supernatural beliefs are tied with the social mindset, that even most atheists can’t resist them.
At age 21, I sent a YouTube video titled ‘Do You Believe In God?’[2] and stated:
‘Watching these is hilariously confirming everything I knew, watching them now after I used to get angry about religion back in 2010–2015 then did the research about the social mindset.
So I’m basically knowing and predicting how every person is going to respond, and so many of them said no but that they believe in a higher power, exactly as I predicted – can’t help themselves – and there are so many past-atheists-turned-theists.
I also looked at theory-of-evolution versions; it was practically the same, those who didn’t believe religion by a book still proclaiming that a higher power was involved in evolution.’
At age 20, my friend sent the quote ‘I sort of pushed God aside in my 20s and 30s but he kept coming back into my life so I eventually gave in’ and stated:
‘Says a woman who’s now training to become a vicar. She’s got piercings and blue hair dye. Essentially, they are the people that the girl I was speaking to is defending over me, whereas I’m labelled as delusional and insulted for insulting them. Sad.
Basically, [it’s] calling those people normal but you [and other animals] having a personality disorder. Absolutely insane.’
At age 21, I responded to excerpts from the Wikipedia article for deity:
‘”The Greek philosopher Democritus argued that the concept of deities arose when human beings observed natural phenomena such as lightning, solar eclipses, and the changing of the seasons.”[3]
Well, he was right.
“Later, in the third century BCE, the scholar Euhemerus argued in his book Sacred History that the gods were originally flesh-and-blood mortal kings who were posthumously deified, and that religion was therefore the continuation of these kings’ mortal reigns, a view now known as Euhemerism.”[3]
This is also right.
“Sigmund Freud suggested that God concepts are a projection of one’s father.”[3]
This is wrong.
“Children are naturally inclined to believe in supernatural entities such as gods, spirits, and demons, even without being indoctrinated into a particular religious tradition. Humans have an overactive agency detection system, which has a tendency to conclude that events are caused by intelligent entities, even if they really are not. … This may have developed as a side effect of human social intelligence, the ability to discern what other people are thinking.”[3]
This is right [aside from the terminology].
Was mildly impressed by their awareness.’ My friend replied, ‘When the bottom one puts it like that, you know you’re on to something. It makes it non-personal to you.’
I replied, ‘I didn’t need to see that to know what I knew about theism, though. It’s different for the brain regions [involved]; I did need to see that, but when it comes to social-mindset features, it’s just a given. It’s automatic that I know which ones are and which ones aren’t [because we lack them].’
At age 21, my friend stated:
‘That’s what they’ve done with nature; it’s like they see humans there instead or, at least, are thinking about it in context of other humans and that it’s been created by a human for the human.’
I replied, ‘Well, it’s because they actually anthropomorphise nature, i.e. relate it to themselves, actions/deciding.’ My friend replied, ‘Yes. How did that leap to being created by a god, though?’ I replied, ‘There’s no leap. Theism is all sorted out for me.’
At age 21, I sent a screenshot of the Wikipedia article for ietsism, or “somethingism”, the Dutch concept of an unspecified belief in an undetermined transcendent reality, and stated:
‘Exactly the stuff I plan to dismantle on my site. “The name derives from the Dutch equivalent of the question: “Do you believe in (the conventional ‘Christian’) God?”, a typical ietsist answer being “No, but there must be something”, “something” being iets in Dutch.”‘[4]
My friend replied, ‘Yes. That’s what [your girlfriend] said: “There must be something.” Why “must”? I replied, ‘The one I remember is her mentioning “higher power”. Don’t remember her saying that.’
My friend replied, ‘Scary that they’re so definitely convicted. It just goes to show that when I’m saying “must” about something, or when I appear to have a conviction, it’s not taken seriously, because look; that’s their conception of “must”.
They’re convicted about something when they know they know nothing about it and where it can change at any time, so they assume that’s the case with me.
I don’t think I could emphasise my point more than this. This is where it’s going wrong for them when they attempt to deal with me. They think I’m as confused or as open as they are and, indeed, absolutely everyone they’ve ever seen is and their conception of the whole of society.’
At age 21, I stated:
‘Believe it or not, there were people on a Quora question[5] adamantly claiming [that the simulation hypothesis] wasn’t theism; expected to see that, though. They associate it with science and that rather than religion. All it is is theism compatible with the scientific age. Not all [claimed it wasn’t theism] though lol, which I was glad about.
Honestly, it’s as if you’re put back amongst Christian psychos when you see all these simulation-believers. It’s like you thought science progressed us a bit, but the same old mechanism just came back in another form. It proves how it can never leave as long as you have the social mindset.
Hearing about that does make me go a bit crazy, to be honest, seeing what I saw on that Quora answer, seeing the Elon Musk, seeing how not even the most progressive of scientists can escape it, the arguments that would arise over their simple brainstem-signal connection that they’re not fucking aware of.’
At age 21, my friend stated:
‘We no longer discuss theism, because it’s been done and dusted, whereas everyone is still stuck on that square-1 debate, which is why they’re incompatible, because it’s like joining a year-3 class and trying to make friends and trying to have intelligent discussion, and of course, they’re screaming and jumping up and down at me, saying, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
Now, that is why I don’t approach people to make friends. It’s like observing a toddler doing that and then approaching them to discuss and pioneer the origin of existence, thinking it would be a good idea.’
References
- ^ Jubilee (2019-11-13). "Do All Atheists Think The Same? | Spectrum". YouTube.
- ^ CBN - The Christian Broadcasting Network (2015-03-16). "Do You Believe In God?" YouTube.
- ^ a b c d "Deity". Wikipedia. 2020-09-28.
- ^ "Ietsism". Wikipedia. 2020-07-17.
- ^ "Is believing we live in a simulation a theistic argument? - Quora". www.quora.com. (Archive version from 29 October 2020.)
- ^ CBN - The Christian Broadcasting Network (2015-03-16). "Do You Believe In God?" YouTube.