Theism or Atheism? If you awoke with amnesia tomorrow...

unshackled

...and therefore had to start from scratch, do you think you'd arrive at your same current stance on belief or non-belief in God? Why or why not?

cyberjesus

it all depends in your thinking abilities at the moment

As a hypothetical, you're thinking abilities would remain the same, just your memory would be wiped. Left to explore and ponder the existence of a god or not again. Would you arrive at the same conclusions all over? Or not neccessarily because our past memories and experiences lead us?

miseryloveselders

With the accessibility of information available at my fingers via the Internet, libraries, and book stores, I know one thing for sure........I wouldn't fall for the WT/JW nonsense. No way in the world they'd suck me into their lie.

unshackled

Agreed, misery. Being a born-in JW I didn't have much choice. But figure there's no way I'd fall into that trap on my own.

I'd like to think, using the same rational thought process that have arrived me at non-belief in a god, I'd do it all over again. But I wonder about believers, would they come to the same conclusions? Do past memories/experiences lead them to belief in god.

SweetBabyCheezits

Great thread, Unshackled. That's the crux of a question that led me to my current non-theistic view: Based on a completely clean, neutral slate, but empowered with logic and reason, what would I believe?

I realize we can't completely eliminate bias but I think it can be suppressed through critical thinking. That was my goal a couple of years back when I still held on to some fragments of faith.

I dunno. I'm guessing I would be at a slightly different place, philosophically, than I am right now but I feel pretty sure I would still reject the claims of the Bible originating with a higher source.

I think a human who awoke in our scientific age - without religious bias ingrained in him - would have a distinct advantage and see right through the low hanging bunk of religion. To me, the biggest problem is getting past early presuppositions. (In fact, I'm wondering what else I should be questioning or what else I've missed that's right in front of me.)

These two quotes, to me, fit perfectly here:

"Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed." - Mencken

“The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.”
- Schopenhauer

cyberjesus

SBC is my spokesperson... or I am just lazy here :-D

cyberjesus

ok I am gonna write.... I will not have a belief in a God whatsoever.... if being biased towards the belief in a God, the search of him lead me to not un-belief.... well then instead of switching sides in a 3 days it would ve taken a couple of hours.

unshackled

I think a human who awoke in our scientific age - without religious bias ingrained in him - would have a distinct advantage and see right through the low hanging bunk of religion. To me, the biggest problem is getting past early presuppositions.

Agreed, with the amount of information easily available today, if research is done with unbiased, critical thinking the conclusions would be no evidence for a god. That said, both you and I feel that way because we currently don't have god belief and see it as irrational. But believers don't think it is irrational. So I'm guessing if a believer posted their answer they'd probably say they'd believe all over again. I'm hoping Tammy, for example, stops by and offers thoughts on this. Interesting to get the other side of the coin view.

tec

Does the nature of a person change if they have amnesia?

Indoctrination is different than belief in a creator.

Put it another way. If the entire world woke with amnesia... would no one seek out or believe in a creator?

Tammy

Theism or Atheism? If you awoke with amnesia tomorrow...

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