3 ms·

I am both an atheist and a strong proponent of individualism without disagreeing with your comments on how this naturally comes with responsibility, more than m

I am both an atheist and a strong proponent of individualism without disagreeing with your comments on how this naturally comes with responsibility, more than many spiritual constructs do where you can pass some of your responsibility to a third party such as fate or God or karma. Collectivism is a shared brain, individualism is a hivemind. To not believe in an afterlife is also a belief. We cannot know. The truth is we don’t know.

krageon 1y ago
> We cannot know You are an agnostic, not an atheist.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  I am a strict atheist, but we cannot know. I faithfully believe that, finding no proof whatsoever, and the existence of a metaphysical/spiritual world coexisting with ours incredibly unlikely without some evidence, there is no god. But, just like my faith in the supremacy of the speed of light, that's just my opinion, man... based on the combined knowledge of the human race and thousands or millions of experiments.
  - MarkusQ 1y ago
    That's pretty much the definition of "agnostic". The gnostics literally claim to know and the agnostics say "Nope. Do not. In fact, we can't." Agnostics can play the odds and base their actions on what they find more plausible precisely _because_ they haven't pre-committed to a specific answer.
- 47282847 1y ago
  I believe in the nonexistence of God, which in my understanding makes me an atheist, and at the same time I do not claim to know about the existence or nonexistence of an afterlife. There may well be one without necessarily including a God.
ang_cire 1y ago
> Being religious doesn't intrinsically make one more or less collectivist or individualist, it all depends on the philosophy of the religion (or non-religion).
- 47282847 1y ago
  I like to distinguish between religion and spirituality, where religion is the organized form where you are either a member or not. Religion requires certain beliefs which are externally prescribed, so in joining a religion I hand over authority to somebody else than myself when it comes to values and rules. This in my eyes makes it inherently more collectivist than individualist. https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/spirituality-vs-religion https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/spirituality-vs-...

krageon 1y ago

> We cannot know You are an agnostic, not an atheist.

IAmBroom 1y ago
I am a strict atheist, but we cannot know. I faithfully believe that, finding no proof whatsoever, and the existence of a metaphysical/spiritual world coexisting with ours incredibly unlikely without some evidence, there is no god. But, just like my faith in the supremacy of the speed of light, that's just my opinion, man... based on the combined knowledge of the human race and thousands or millions of experiments.
- MarkusQ 1y ago
  That's pretty much the definition of "agnostic". The gnostics literally claim to know and the agnostics say "Nope. Do not. In fact, we can't." Agnostics can play the odds and base their actions on what they find more plausible precisely _because_ they haven't pre-committed to a specific answer.
47282847 1y ago
I believe in the nonexistence of God, which in my understanding makes me an atheist, and at the same time I do not claim to know about the existence or nonexistence of an afterlife. There may well be one without necessarily including a God.

ang_cire 1y ago

> Being religious doesn't intrinsically make one more or less collectivist or individualist, it all depends on the philosophy of the religion (or non-religion).

47282847 1y ago
I like to distinguish between religion and spirituality, where religion is the organized form where you are either a member or not. Religion requires certain beliefs which are externally prescribed, so in joining a religion I hand over authority to somebody else than myself when it comes to values and rules. This in my eyes makes it inherently more collectivist than individualist. https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/spirituality-vs-religion https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/spirituality-vs-...