Regarding your very last paragraph there (I'm too tired at this point of the evening to reply to everything :-D )... I'm an atheist, and one of the reasons I am one is, when I was a kid, I was never told there was a god(s) or anything supernatural. But of course I was surrounded by people (school, friends, etc) who did believe in these …
Regarding your very last paragraph there (I'm too tired at this point of the evening to reply to everything :-D )... I'm an atheist, and one of the reasons I am one is, when I was a kid, I was never told there was a god(s) or anything supernatural. But of course I was surrounded by people (school, friends, etc) who did believe in these things. When I asked my parents if there was such thing as a god, all they said was "Some people believe there is, some people believe there isn't, you get to decide for yourself."
So for several years, I read books and articles, had lots of conversations, etc. regarding religion, spiritual beliefs, their histories, etc.
In the end, it just made more sense to me that people should believe these things because it made them feel comfortable, safe, special, whatever.
But I also decided that I cared more about what actually -IS- than what makes me feel good.
So the above, combined with the fact that I never really socialized well among my peers, made me feel that the ultimate reality is the reality that I can see confirmed in physical truth, repeatable phenomena, science, etc. I rarely have ever believed something just because it made me feel good, or "part of" something, or "special". At least, no more than the average human does (I'm reminded of the "Total Perspective Vortex" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - humans can't afford "total perspective" or we'd just kill ourselves).
Anyway, all of this makes me feel that I do not determine reality, but then neither does anybody else. Saying something is "so" doesn't make it "so". Belief is just belief - if it's not tied to fact, it has little meaning. And social pressure to change my beliefs from what I see before my eyes is to be resisted as much as possible.
I just told a friend today, "I'd rather see reality as it is, than be happy; obviously I'd rather have both, but if I had to choose one, then reality is more important than feeling good."
Regarding your very last paragraph there (I'm too tired at this point of the evening to reply to everything :-D )... I'm an atheist, and one of the reasons I am one is, when I was a kid, I was never told there was a god(s) or anything supernatural. But of course I was surrounded by people (school, friends, etc) who did believe in these things. When I asked my parents if there was such thing as a god, all they said was "Some people believe there is, some people believe there isn't, you get to decide for yourself."
So for several years, I read books and articles, had lots of conversations, etc. regarding religion, spiritual beliefs, their histories, etc.
In the end, it just made more sense to me that people should believe these things because it made them feel comfortable, safe, special, whatever.
But I also decided that I cared more about what actually -IS- than what makes me feel good.
So the above, combined with the fact that I never really socialized well among my peers, made me feel that the ultimate reality is the reality that I can see confirmed in physical truth, repeatable phenomena, science, etc. I rarely have ever believed something just because it made me feel good, or "part of" something, or "special". At least, no more than the average human does (I'm reminded of the "Total Perspective Vortex" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - humans can't afford "total perspective" or we'd just kill ourselves).
Anyway, all of this makes me feel that I do not determine reality, but then neither does anybody else. Saying something is "so" doesn't make it "so". Belief is just belief - if it's not tied to fact, it has little meaning. And social pressure to change my beliefs from what I see before my eyes is to be resisted as much as possible.
I just told a friend today, "I'd rather see reality as it is, than be happy; obviously I'd rather have both, but if I had to choose one, then reality is more important than feeling good."
For some people though, atheism is akin to religion, they can get aggressive about it, are tribal etc.
Definitely not me. As long as someone isn't trying to use their religion to tell me what to do, I don't care.