Rarely do I use this meme, but.... ^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^We are incapable of seeing the world as it is, we need to create some form of meaning for events that renders them more comprehensible to us. This is necessary for socialisation, culture, learning, ethics, laws, rights, self-esteem, etc.
Many atheists think that abandoning religion and adopting a rationalistic worldview means they "see the world as it is", but they are simply replacing what system of religious myth for another system of secular myth (ideology).
I'm not even sure what "seeing the world as it is" would entail given we are a bunch of atoms that sentient by chance and live in a purposeless universe which will eventually kill us all off and leave no trace. We have altruism and violence as part of our nature, can cooperate or exploit, be empathetic or cruel, etc.
But our base nature is not a basis for civilisation, that requires creating mutual bonds that bind us together yet don't really exist (like religions, or ideologies).
We have our own sense of identity and value that tells us what kind of behaviours are 'good' or 'bad', yet 'good' for us is 'bad' for others and vice versa.
Secular Humanism as a value system is no more "true" than Buddhism or Islam, it's just different and justified by different myths.
We all rely on these myths/fictions/narratives to mediate the world we live in and try to shape (parts of) it to our ends.
Well put. Exactly what I'm driving at. "But it's not faith, it's not a religion, it's not a worldview..." It all is.
I've shared this story countless times, but for those who haven't heard it, it underscores this. A friend from Bible college days and I were out at lunch years after our graduating together. We were both now atheists. He said to me, "I'm so glad I have the truth now!". I said to him, "I remember both of us saying those exact same words when were were in school believing what we did back then." He paused a bit dumbfounded and then replied, "But the difference is, now I really DO have the truth".
When we are looking out through our eyes, we generally don't recognize that they are actually eyes we are looking through. We mistake the eyes seeing the world, as what the world actually is, as if there were no eyes at all. Willard Sellers calls this the Myth of the Given, I believe. Wilfrid Sellars (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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