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I am missing whatever the brain circuit is that makes you understand and believe in religions. I can't even call myself atheist or agnostic, as that would requ

I am missing whatever the brain circuit is that makes you understand and believe in religions. I can't even call myself atheist or agnostic, as that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable. Imagine asking someone with aphantasia to visualize Donald Duck, and then asking them if Donald is wearing pants. What would you expect them to answer?

Thorentis 5y ago
Can you explain further how your inability to imagine the existence or non existence of God, is similar to aphantasia?
- aappleby 5y ago
  I can certainly understand religion in an external, objective sense much as you can understand the various interconnected storylines in something like the Marvel comics/movies, but as soon as you ask me "...but do you _believe_ it?", my brain just fails its saving throw versus comprehension and I can't give an answer based on what I "feel" is correct, because on that particular question I am unable to "feel" anything at all.
  - Thorentis 5y ago
    Okay, but you said: "that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable." What part of this question is incoherent, unmeaningful, and unanswerable, if you are able to understand religion in an objective sense?
    - aappleby 5y ago
      What's a god? How can I meaningfully ascribe any qualities whatsoever to a non-corporeal, non-perceptible entity? What does it even mean to ask if things that are outside of our universe "exist"? Etcetera etcetera. You can't even get past the superficial layers of "Is there a god?" without hitting questions that are ill-formed.
      - theonething 5y ago
        > What does it even mean to ask if things that are outside of our universe "exist"? Maybe I'm missing something but that seems like a straightforward question to me. In a diagram, the universe is a circle. Does anything exist outside that circle?
      - dbrueck 5y ago
        That's fair. FWIW, many people (including myself) believe that God is both corporeal as well as perceptible, though the latter is on His terms (because, I suspect, He wants it to happen for each person individually).
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > What part of this question is incoherent, unmeaningful, and unanswerable, “Is there a god?” > if you are able to understand religion in an objective sense? You (in the general rather than specific sense) are not.
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Thorentis 5y ago

Can you explain further how your inability to imagine the existence or non existence of God, is similar to aphantasia?

aappleby 5y ago
I can certainly understand religion in an external, objective sense much as you can understand the various interconnected storylines in something like the Marvel comics/movies, but as soon as you ask me "...but do you _believe_ it?", my brain just fails its saving throw versus comprehension and I can't give an answer based on what I "feel" is correct, because on that particular question I am unable to "feel" anything at all.
- Thorentis 5y ago
  Okay, but you said: "that would require assuming that the statement "Is there a god?" is both coherent, meaningful, and answerable." What part of this question is incoherent, unmeaningful, and unanswerable, if you are able to understand religion in an objective sense?
  - aappleby 5y ago
    What's a god? How can I meaningfully ascribe any qualities whatsoever to a non-corporeal, non-perceptible entity? What does it even mean to ask if things that are outside of our universe "exist"? Etcetera etcetera. You can't even get past the superficial layers of "Is there a god?" without hitting questions that are ill-formed.
    - theonething 5y ago
      > What does it even mean to ask if things that are outside of our universe "exist"? Maybe I'm missing something but that seems like a straightforward question to me. In a diagram, the universe is a circle. Does anything exist outside that circle?
    - dbrueck 5y ago
      That's fair. FWIW, many people (including myself) believe that God is both corporeal as well as perceptible, though the latter is on His terms (because, I suspect, He wants it to happen for each person individually).
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > What part of this question is incoherent, unmeaningful, and unanswerable, “Is there a god?” > if you are able to understand religion in an objective sense? You (in the general rather than specific sense) are not.

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