Why Is Anybody Convinced There Is A God?

Aug 22, 2017 11:50:21 GMT Terrapin Station said:

The post you're quoting from me above doesn't have anything to do with belief in God particularly.  We'd moved on to more general ideas.  And I was interested in your "illusion" comments, because I want to teach you something about that sort of view. 

Re this comment:

* All beliefs are subjective.  That's because "subjective" refers to something being a mental phenomenon, and belief is a mental phenomenon.

* Most people have reasons for believing something like "There is a God."  Not everyone does have a reason, but I thinkthat most do, even if it's "It just feels right to me" or something like that.  In that case, that's their support for their belief, it's what they consider a good (enough) reason to believe it.

* No empirical claim is provable.  Empirical claims are only falsifiable at best (but often, in practice, they're not falsifiable, either, for reasons more or less described by the Duhem-Quine thesis).

* If you assign meaning to something, then meaning exists.  Meaning is simply a mental phenomenon.  As long as that mental phenomenon obtains, then meaning exists.

* What does "intellectualizing" something refer to in your usage?

* What I want to get to is your reasons for believing this: "Even if I am in your presence and we are occupying the same space, it is still all projected illusion."  But it doesn't seem like you'll allow yourself to be led to giving your reasons for believing it. 

Thanks for attempting to teach me, but I haven't really asked you too.

* Belief is of course subjective and representative of the ego mind, mental phenomena or not. They also create confusion and conflict.

* The reason is still an attempt to find meaning in something that is meaningless.

* What is proof, but a projected illusion of what is believed to be true. It might well be a consequence of an action, but if something is perceived as empirical, it doesn't mean that it isn't valid or authentic.

* If you assign meaning to something, then perhaps one could be limiting themselves. The meaning is not going to be the same for everyone and where does this meaning exist? It is just a thought\belief of the ego dominated mind. Show me where these meanings are?

* Intellectualizing, is using learned knowledge in an attempt to make a logical point about something, when in this case regarding the existence of God, it can't possibly be proven due to differing and conflicting beliefs that lacks monistic understanding. Intellectualizing, is an attempt to convince others with what one knows by also wanting to impress with the knowledge they have amassed, when perhaps they are misguided, being pretentious and perhaps even pompous. Is the knowledge getting to the core heart of it?

* EVERYTHING is a projected illusion of your own God space. If you don't want to believe it, I can't convince you, you have to feel it and be it for yourself. How on earth can you get to my reasoning for the truth, when you don't buy into it? You are the God force.