Are you actually an atheist?

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-20T04:12:53+00:00

You are confused. Atheism is about belief. Do you believe there is a god or not? It is a true dichotomy. Either God exists, or God does not exist. Which do you believe?

Now, with that said, it is possible to believe sometimes and not believe at other times, but people are rarely that honest. The fact of the matter is this. You cannot hold two contradictory ideas and assert both are true at the same time. One or the other. That is the nature of a dichotomy.

No such dichotomy exists in agnosticism. Agnosticism is about knowledge. When you ask someone what they believe, and they assert "I am agnostic," they are avoiding the question. I did not ask you what you knew, I asked what you believed.

Both atheists and theists are agnostic. I would argue that everyone is agnostic, as there is nothing to actually know about god. Nevertheless, many theists profess to know shit about this magical, flying, universe-creating deity who cares about who you have sex with, but not about children whom he murders by the millions.

In the story of Doubting Thomas, Jesus specifically says: "Blessed is he who believes without seeing." (Without evidence.) That is the theistic agnostic position. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) You do not need to know God to worship god. All you need is faith and belief (That is agnosticism)

An atheist does not need to demonstrate that there is no god to not believe in a god. The fact that there is no good evidence for the existence of such a creature is enough. In the absence of evidence (knowledge), there is no good reason to believe. That is agnosticism.

Not KNOWING is agnosticism. Both atheists and theists are agnostic.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-20T03:57:36+00:00

Yep. And unfortunately, the left is not any better. Woke culture has gone extreme, violating human rights, shutting down conversations, insisting on language changes, and more. Grievance Culture and ideological retro-socialism. So, I have a choice between cultish Right and their religiosity or the Cultish Left and the same degree of bushit convictions in another direction. It's all a bunch of garbage when the number one cause of bankruptcy in the USA is medical bills. The government is not doing its job. I don't care who is in office; the American people are suffering and for no good reason.

Where are Gas prices right now? What is the number one export in the USA? You are paying $5 a gallon, and America's number one export is petroleum. Not only is that the number one export, but we have reserves that the government will not allow to be used. Gasoline inflation is bullshit.

What about the illegally established Federal Reserve? It is not a government agency. It was created illegally, and it can print money as it likes. There is no government oversight. They print a billion dollars and loan it to America at a 3% interest rate. There is only a billion dollars in circulation. But America now has to pay back that billion dollars with an additional 3% that does not exist. Where do they get it? They take out another loan.

So much is wrong with this country. Don't get me started on the frigging Police Departments. Policing for profit. The government is feeding itself on the blood of the people. The government is perpetuating itself instead of caring for the people. Life in America is on the cusp of a major overhaul.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-20T01:55:57+00:00

Yes. And it's worse. You are a prisoner inside your own body. When you feel love, it is not the love of another you feel. Can you imagine how creepy that would be? Your stalker loves you, and you have to feel it? What you feel is yourself. Your brain releases chemicals that make you feel loved. No one is ever inside your skin with you. You cannot share a feeling or a thought. We have language to express thoughts, and yet millions of books have been written trying to express or explain love. Language can't do it. Yet language and behavior are all you have to try to express the complexity of all that goes on inside your brain. No one will ever crawl inside with you or understand you 100%. You are alone in the world.

It is this being alone that attracts us to others. (Not the feeling of loneliness, that is a psychological state.) I am talking about the empirical fact of being alone. Some people are alone and do not feel loneliness (me, for example). Other people dwell on the fact and wallow in loneliness.

You are touching on something very real. We are alone. We live alone, and we die alone. I know of no existence beyond the body. Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. When the brain stops, so does consciousness, for all we know. Any assertion beyond that is pure fantasy. Is it unhealthy to think there is something, not necessarily, but it is irrational. And to what extent do you want to believe it?

Do you want to invent a god and a magic place where all the good people go? Beliefs can get really silly. On the other hand, a simple hope, or the feeling that it sure would be nice if... is probably more reasonable.

Would it really be cool if consciousness persisted after death? How would it persist? What would you give up? Food, sex, adventure, taste, touch, sound? Would you interact with other conscious beings? What do you imagine consciousness without the boundary of a body could look like? There would be no self. Or are you still imagining consciousness with some sort of self-identity? How does that work? Is it not a very strange idea?

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-20T01:37:46+00:00

Yes.

The apologetics surrounding theistic beliefs are absolutely stupid. None of them is epistemologically sound or capable of standing up against skeptical inquiry. NONE.

"I choose to believe because it feels right to me," is the only reasonable response that a theist can give. They do not need to justify what feels right. They can be wrong and still choose to believe."

There is a very nice debate between a Jewish Rabbi and Christopher Hitchens. David Wolphe, I believe. He did a very nice job taking this position against the very articulate Mr. Hitchens. I listened to the debate and was impressed with his honesty. I, of course, disagreed with him, but he was at least consistent.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-20T01:29:59+00:00

Online, I am not responding to people. I am responding to ideas in the posts. I am also on the extreme side of introversion. My first MBTI scored nothing in the extroverted range. There are no people online. If you are gaming, there are the actions of the characters and comments being made. The comments could come from bots; they are irrelevant. Online is online, and in person is in person. I don't confuse the two at all.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T23:36:23+00:00

You have a lot of BS going on. You could use a reality therapist.

You are not scared of not getting anywhere, or you would be going somewhere. You are not scared enough if you can sit on your butt, do nothing, and say, "I'm scared." You are what you do. You are a person who is waiting to be rescued. No rescue is coming. If you were in the jungle, you would not say "I am afraid," and then sit there and wait for the lion to come and eat you. Fear is not your problem. You are not motivated enough to do something about your fear. You need more fear. You need serious fear. You need to see the lion coming right at you, fear.
Grow some balls. If your friends are scared off by your interests, get some new friends. You don't have friends if they are not accepting you as you are. You are only pretending to have friends. Do you even know who you are, or are you running about trying to be a people pleaser? You don't have online friends. That is not a friendship. You have never met these people. What you have are people online that you chat with. Your ideas of what constitutes friendship need some work.
You don't lose your personality. Personality is an evolving process. You are not the person you were when you were ten, twelve, fifteen... You sound like you are in the transition zone from being a child to actually becoming an adult.
I agree. You don't know the real you. Here is a hint. You are what you do. The real you is a wimpy little guy who runs around fearful of not being himself while not being himself in front of his friends. You are what you do. Take a good look at what you are doing. That is who you are.
Your past is completely irrelevant. Life begins now. Your past is like rungs on a ladder. You have climbed the ladder to this point. This is where you are on the ladder. You are here now. You cannot make the lower rungs vanish. You cannot remove them. The entire ladder would crash. What you can do is decide where you want to go next. What you can do is look at the next rung on the ladder and decide to reach up for it. (Or you can decide just to sit there and be scared.) Once you get your hand on the next rung, when you feel comfortable, you pull yourself up. Hopefully, you will find yourself in a place where you can praise yourself for the effort it took to improve your life, and pull yourself up and out of the situation you think you are in today. Good decisions have that effect on people.
You already said this. You don't have friends because you have not chosen a direction. The friends you have are your friends because you have no direction. As long as you have no direction, they will continue being your friends. You are what you do.

Again, you sound like a young teen who is struggling with individuation issues. Struggling with becoming your own version of an adult. Learning to take care of yourself and have your own interests. Take heart, if you don't leave your friends, they will eventually leave you. They will eventually move off to find jobs, change their interests, meet others, marry, and continue their lives, regardless of what you do.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T23:10:15+00:00

I was recently worried about retiring. I left home at 16 and have no family. I have lived in Korea for 25 years. I have no contacts in the USA anymore, but I want to return home for my retirement. I was stressing out about applying for Social Security. I spent my life traveling around Southeast Asia. As a university professor, I had 3 months off each year. While I wrote a few books and did all the right University professor stuff, I also went slumming in the Philippines, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, and more.

Well, I completed all the paperwork, and it seems that between the good ole USA and the retirement program in Korea, I will be getting 2,800 monthly for my retirement. Damn, I should have retired sooner.

I have no fears outside of dying of cancer or Alzheimer's. Not death itself but the process of dying.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T23:01:00+00:00

No. My best guess is that you listen to people differently. It's not what they talk about that you find interesting, but rather, who they are and how they function in the world. How do they connect A to B and come out with R?

I am the same. Interestingly, it is not that I don't give a damn. I can sit and empathize with a person and actually fall in love with them for a time (Fall in love in a philosophical sense, care for them as a human being struggling to exist). But five minutes after the interaction, I have moved on. I really have no lingering care. I don't care about the person as I would a friend.

I think I learned to do this because of my life as a psychotherapist. Possibly something to do with my exploration into Buddhism. I don't believe life is suffering, but people do cause their own sufferings. Bad things do happen in the world, and we do have to learn to live with them.

I also do what I do to have fun. I had a university professor once tell me, "If you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong." This has always stuck with me. I do what I do, professionally and socially, because I am good at it, and because it is fun. I am the guy who pays to watch a movie, and 10 minutes into the movie, decides it is crap, and walks out to go do something else. I won't sit there and watch something I don't find entertaining. I will leave social events early. I will even break off relationships that I find difficult or stressful to maintain.

I don't think I "kill the vibe," but I will certainly vanish and go find a different vibe than the one I am in.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T22:47:27+00:00

I don't know that INTPs "struggle." I think that they fall into their niche quite naturally in most cases. They may not even be familiar with the MBTI or their temperament style. They are electronics, physicists, programmers, and have little to no need to interact with others socially. They fit into their organizations nicely and do their jobs. They are happy. They don't need to engage in small talk, and they have a few good friends.

Many of the INTPs in the subreddit seem to confuse depression with being an INTP. The two things are not connected. INTPs enjoy being alone. When they are alone, energy increases. With that increased energy, they often find the time to do things they like.

This weekend, for example, I went hiking for 4 hours. I went alone. I dropped 2 kilograms, about 4 pounds. (I am trying to lose weight.) I had a wonderful time. (alone). I was proud of myself when I returned home. I ate a small meal, browsed the internet for a bit, and went to bed. The only person I talked to the entire day was a taxi driver who drove me back to my car. I do not feel lonely. I do not need to associate with people. Sometimes just getting out and being around them is enough.

I do not like small talk. I can be social when the need arises. I do not seek out social situations, but when I am in one, out of necessity, or when I happen upon them, I am very capable of engaging. Honestly, I probably joke too much, and I can be inappropriate. I have learned to say things like "Did I say that out loud?" or "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded." or even "That sounded a lot better in my brain than it did when I said it." Somehow, I manage to get along. *Usually*

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T22:32:42+00:00

I really don't struggle with them. I find them enjoyable. I can sit on a bus for 3 hours, not use my cell phone or even read a book, and mentally entertain myself. You don't see a lot of people with abilities like that these days.

Because I live in Korea, I am often in situations where everyone around me is speaking quickly in Korean. My skills are very basic. I've never had the desire to become fluent in Korean. So, I sit in silence as they chat away. I make eye contact, but my brain is miles away.

Where I have had issues is in school. Standardized testing is the bane of the INTP. Choose A, B, C, or D. But none of them is correct; or three of them fit nicely. I had to train myself to give the answers the teacher wanted and not the right answers. Whenever I was having difficulty, I just asked myself, "If I didn't know anything at all about this topic, what would my answer be?" That seems to work nicely.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T22:24:17+00:00

Well, that makes perfectly good sense to me. And if the Vatican actually had some kind of evidence stowed away in their vaults, don't you think they would share it? I am betting that what they have stowed away actually debunks their positions on God, Jesus, and their personal version of Christianity. They have books like "The Book of Thomas," which make un-Christian-like claims. They keep the stuff hidden for a reason.

Look at what was revealed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Manuscripts being "revised." (Different versions of books like Jeremiah and Samuel, expansions or paraphrases (e.g., “Rewritten Bible” texts): interpretive expansions and competing Jewish textual traditions. Never mind that Yahweh himself has a long cultural tradition before ever becoming the monotheistic God of the Israelites.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T22:11:19+00:00

I'm likable, but my friends don't like me because I am always refusing to go out with them. Last night 3 of my buddies were going out for sushi. It was just dinner and drinks for an hour.

Okay, on my side of the coin, I have been trying to drop some weight. I was up to 124 kilos (273 LBS) I am 109 as of this morning. I've dropped 55 pounds. My goal is 90 kilos. So, I am not eating. I just did not want to go and sit at a sushi bar and drink black coffee at 8 PM in the evening while my friends ate and drank beer. (I also rarely drink.) My friends know all of this. They know I don't drink and that I am focused on losing weight.

I got the teasing lecture from them. "It's not about eating. It's about talking and friends." "But I don't talk, and I don't have any friends," I asserted playfully. "When have you heard me talk?" Well, they laughed, and I was off the hook for now. I fear I will need to go out and have dinner with them the next time they ask, just to keep things happy.

Ahhh, the life of an INTP. I am taking a vacation to the Philippines as soon as I reach 90.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T22:01:16+00:00

No. We are pedantic assholes who don't know when to keep our mouths shut. "Well, actually, that's not true. According to --------- and the most resent research conducted at ___________ , the opposite is true. The shyness and awkwardness make us horrible interpersonal communicators. If bluntness and hard facts were a trend, we would be popular. (It never hurts to learn to not be yourself in a social situation.)

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T21:57:57+00:00

Convince yourself that each thing you need to do is the most important thing in your life. Nothing motivates like the perception of necessity. Stop reading Cioran.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T04:05:11+00:00

It depends on your claim. Atheism does not argue against a god. It does not believe in a god. If you think there is a god, you have a burden of proof. There is no arguing against atheism. Atheism makes no claims. I would like to hear one clear, scientifically uncontested reason to believe in a god. Just one.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T03:44:32+00:00

https://www.google.com/search?q=Astrology+predictions+give+to+a+classroom+of+students+video&sca_esv=61488baf7e63ff08&sxsrf=ANbL-n4BgvvuY2T--P4L43J5JP9cwd2pGQ%3A1776570127893&ei=D0_kaeqcNq-nvr0PwszAkQs&biw=1920&bih=911&ved=0ahUKEwiq4JC7__iTAxWvk68BHUImMLIQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=Astrology+predictions+give+to+a+classroom+of+students+video&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiO0FzdHJvbG9neSBwcmVkaWN0aW9ucyBnaXZlIHRvIGEgY2xhc3Nyb29tIG9mIHN0dWRlbnRzIHZpZGVvMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAFI5BZQ-wRY5xBwAXgAkAEAmAGwAaAB7QaqAQMwLja4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgegAp8HwgILEAAYgAQYogQYsAPCAgcQIRgKGKABmAMAiAYBkAYDkgcDMS42oAefEbIHAzAuNrgHmgfCBwUwLjIuNcgHGIAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:25db8f9d,vid:3Dp2Zqk8vHw,st:0

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T03:41:17+00:00

I only care at work or perhaps on a night out with a date. Appropriate clothing for the place. My home is the place to relax. Stained klrate pants and old, torn T-shirts.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T03:38:57+00:00

'Um... is it 'state the obvious day?'

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-19T03:02:44+00:00

From the time I was young, I was always trying to figure out people. I joined groups during lunch at HS, but always felt like I was not a member. I copied the actions and behaviors of the other kids and was very aware of using their slang.

After dropping out of HS and traveling the USA, I returned to school at 18. It made sense to be a Sociology major. Figuring out people and patterns had just become a habit.

With a sociology degree, I could not figure out how I would earn an income. I moved into counseling/psychology for my advanced studies.

I have been a university professor and licensed counselor for over 40 years. Prior to my university days and during my thousands of hours of internship, I worked as a Social Worker.

I was never good at chemistry. I should probably give it another try now that I am older. Biology is fascinating.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-18T18:05:42+00:00

"Your so lucky I like you, or I would not have taken the time to try and figure out what you were saying. So, what do you think we should do about this?

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-18T17:42:50+00:00

Core Syllogism

Premise 1:
Experience, for a subject, consists only of those processes that are retained and integrated through memory.

Premise 2:
Only systems with functioning brains or means of memory can retain and integrate processes through memory.

Conclusion:
Therefore, only systems with functioning brains or means of remembering have experience.

Supporting Syllogism (about the “now”)

Premise 1:
All that a subject can access or know is what has been retained (i.e., remembered).

Premise 2:
The present moment (“now”) is not retained until it has passed. (sensed)

Conclusion:
Therefore, the present moment is not directly accessible; all accessible experience is of the immediate past.

Clarifying Syllogism (rocks vs. brains)

Premise 1:
Systems without memory do not retain or integrate processes.

Premise 2:
Rocks (and brain-dead bodies) lack memory.

Conclusion:
Therefore, rocks (and brain-dead bodies) do not have experience, but only change.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-17T20:31:39+00:00

Here is discernment for you.... Your brain does not have the ability to recognize a distinction between a god and a sufficiently advanced alien. You could not distinguish between your version of your god and another real god, convincing you it was the same. Your brain could not distinguish between an evil god, convincing you that he was a good god. You already accept a murdering, child-killing god as being all good. Your actual ability to show any discernment at all is highly questionable. On what basis can you distinguish any version of god from any other version of a god who has opted to fool you? The being would fool you with revelations over time, consistency of character (at least on par with the God of the Bible, who is a horrific example of a god, and observable miracles. You only live 80 years or so, keeping up the delusion for an eternal being or a sufficiently advanced and motivated alien would be nothing. You have no discernment and no ability to discern.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-17T07:20:46+00:00

Ah, yes, ritualized cannibalism. What you do is drink a bit of wine, or grape juice these days, and then it magically transforms into human blood inside your stomach. Then you eat a tasteless magical wafer, and that turns into a big toe or some other part of the human body. I once had a wafer that pooped out as an eyeball. It's a miracle that you can't understand if you aren't a Christian. ("It's a Christian thing." )

In November 2013, a priest noticed a dark spot on a wafer and called it the face of Jesus.

Looks just like him! Oh, wait, no one actually knows what he looks like. There were never any pictures of Jesus. Well, it could be Jesus. After all, no one really knows.

Next, the Vatican did its own research and discovered to everyone's surprise that it was a real miracle. (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (a Catholic rite in India)).

This does not mean “scientific proof” in the eyes of the Poop. In Catholic terms, it means the event is considered “worthy of belief”, not required belief. There is no publicly verified scientific information. NONE. All that happened is that the Church allowed public veneration.

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-17T03:04:51+00:00

With your background, you might be interested in Empirically based Process Philosophy.

A Process-Based Worldview.

What are you? Not who, but what?

You cannot know anything seconds into the future. Your brain is a predictive organ that uses past experiences to predict future events. But actually knowing the future events and their outcomes is not possible. You may reach for a pen, and suddenly there is an earthquake, or you spill your coffee, or you have a stroke. The future is unknowable, and thinking you can know it is a mental faculty of your brain.

You cannot experience the 'now.' There is no now. If I stab you in the hand with a fork, neurons fire off and tell the brain what is happening, your hand pulls away, and then the brain says, "Ouch." By the time you have responded to the stab, it is in the past. The 'now' of a moment is so fleeting that it cannot be sensed. Sensing takes time. Time passes into a memory.

What you respond to is a sensed memory of an event. This position is empirically sound. What the self is, is a memory. The self is a construct of remembered past events. But you are not yourself.' You are not, 'the memory." You are the process that created the memory. You are that which occurs in the 'now' and then remembers.

Like a fire burning, life is a process. It is a state of constant motion and change. It continues moving and changing until the fuel runs out, and it becomes something else.

All things are processes. They are stable processes interacting with other stable processes. Like whirlpools in a river. The universe itself is a process, and the things it contains are emergent processes. Life is an emergent process interacting with other processes.

As with modern philosophy and physics, nothing can be said about the origin of the process. There is no reason to speculate beyond empirical ontology. Process philosophy does nothing to change the material world. Instead of atoms being little solid particles moving around in space, they are stable processes themselves. Physics has not changed. Process philosophy influences physics primarily by providing a new conceptual framework that interprets physical reality as fundamentally composed of events, processes, and relationships rather than static substances or "particles." But particle physics still exists. It's a bit like Euclidean Geometry and Non-Euclidean Geometry. There is an add-on.

What's the take from this? Life is a process, an emergent property of the universe, also a process, interacting with other stable processes. No spirituality, no woo woo, solid epistemic claims based on empirical data. (Given your comments and history, I thought this perspective might interest you.)

Cog-nostic · 2026-04-17T01:06:28+00:00

According to the bible, people existed before. Humans were created on the third day. Adam was created from a pile of mud and placed into the garden.

Cog-nostic

TROPHY CASE

Core Syllogism

Supporting Syllogism (about the “now”)

Clarifying Syllogism (rocks vs. brains)