Non-Theists: Why Do You Suppose Theism Exists?

[logician]

Originally Posted by stephenw

mmm, No.

Let's see, not a theist, not an atheist, and not an agnostic.

You need a special category, "none of the above".

[crystalonyx]

Originally Posted by logician

Let's see, not a theist, not an atheist, and not an agnostic.

You need a special category, "none of the above".

It seems he believes in nothing - nihilist?

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by logician

Let's see, not a theist, not an atheist, and not an agnostic.

You need a special category, " none of the above".

Or, perhaps.... "non-theism".

[Aupmanyav]

Originally Posted by fantôme profane

I think the human brain has developed very sophisticated ways of understanding other human beings and interacting with other minds.

Group psychology, group benefits, survival; that is why we have religions, countries, etc.

[rojse]

I think that theism exists because people are naturally dualists, and having God is an extension of dualism.

[mball1297]

Originally Posted by rojse

I think that theism exists because people are naturally dualists, and having God is an extension of dualism.

How do you see God as a necessary extension of dualism?

[Alceste]

I think belief in a religious mythology (meaning, belief the myth is a fact) is the result of a culturally generated narrative seed that is planted in one's mind during their early youth and upbringing. To grow to full flower it needs a healthy dose of the loneliness and alienation resulting from emotionally non-responsive or outright abusive parenting. Sprinkle with fear of death, impermanence and the unknown, and you are a prime candidate for a loving God to enter your life. He offers the same stern but loving, simple, authoritarian guidance your parents did, but you get to snip off all your parents' imperfections in your mental concept of God, and you get to make sure God directs his abuses at others, not at you (because he loves you). He can explain all the inexplicable things you fear and provide a false sense of permanence and continuity in a chaotic and threatening world. In essence, with the single concept of God you create a mental barrier between your conscious awareness and everything mildly disturbing that happens in your subconscious mind. Now all you need to do is stamp out or suppress the constant reminders of the unknown, death, chaos, complexity, diversity and mystery with which you are confronted daily by heathens, homosexuals, feminists, scientists and atheists...

That's one reason. I'm sure there are others.

[rojse]

Originally Posted by mball1297

How do you see God as a necessary extension of dualism?

A superficial examination of our world would lead some people to think that the world has some sort of underlying order, because of how dependent we are on fairly innocuous facts of nature.

Now, one way (whether this solution is correct or not) to reason why this is all so is to state that this order would make sense if a being existed whom imposed that order.