QualiaSoup: Lack of belief in gods

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QualiaSoup: Lack of belief in gods

By Slumbering Behemoth Stinks

Religion • October 2010 • Views: 1,365

Video

Don’t really have much to add to this, except perhaps a link to QualiaSoup’s YouTube channel.

QualiaSoup Religion

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6 comments

philosophus invidius Oct 18, 2010 5:57:54pm

Pretty good …

But the argument for atheism is not so good. What theist thinks that God needs to be worshiped? They think instead that we owe God worship but that God needs nothing at all. The guy who made this video is obviously not very familiar with the views of serious theists.

my pet machine Oct 18, 2010 7:02:10pm

re: #1 philosophus invidius

I would think the vast majority of theists think that god(s) need to be worshipped. If they didn’t need to be worshipped, why does every god demand obeisance and obedience of humankind in their holy scriptures? Indeed, the god of Christianity and Islam threaten mankind with eternal torture for failing to worship. And I think those are all things that “serious” theists would agree with. Or maybe the vast majority of theists are not “serious,” whatever that means.

Having viewed many of QualiaSoup’s videos in the past, I think he probably had a pretty good grasp on the general currents of god-belief.

philosophus invidius Oct 18, 2010 9:09:57pm

re: #2 my pet machine

I’m quite certain you are wrong. By a “serious” theist I mean: not some ordinary folks you might know or be related to, but rather the great thinkers who have thought through these issues along with the ordinary people who are familiar with this tradition. I would include here almost all priests, pastors, rabbis—and probably imams too (though I know less about their views).

But it doesn’t really matter what percentage of theists deny the premise that God needs to be worshiped. All that I need to undermine the argument is to show that that premise can be denied. Since the argument purports to makes a conceptual claim about God’s nature being one that needs our worship I can show that particular argument for atheism is unsound if I can coherently deny that the God of the Bible is one that needs to be worshiped, one that lacks something unless we worship Him.

Of course theists do think that God needs to be worshiped in the sense that it is necessary for us to worship God. But it would be an equivocation to rely on this fact to prove that God is lacking something unless we worship Him.

philosophus invidius Oct 18, 2010 9:41:45pm

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.

Isaiah 58:5-8

riggbeck Oct 19, 2010 8:45:07am

I wonder how many theists, agnostics and atheists actually think their positions through to the extent demonstrated in this brilliant video. For most of us, the calculation is probably much more quick and dirty.

As an atheist, this is my rule of thumb. Since the existence of the gods cannot be either proved or disproved, I should logically be an agnostic. Since there’s no evidence for the gods, however, I prefer to think they don’t exist. This still leaves open the possibility that one or other of the likely candidates will stick its head through the clouds and prove me wrong. But I am, for all practical purposes, an atheist.

I say this in the knowledge that there are fundamentalist agnostics out there - I’ve met a few in the Guardian comments section - who have tried to prove that my position is untenable. And of course they’re right if you want to split hairs. But that doesn’t stop me thinking of myself as an atheist.

Most of us probably use such rough and ready categories. I doubt that a major ‘conversion,’ one way or the other, depends on a finely-honed argument. It’s more likely to be an existential epiphany, based on a growing cognitive dissonance.

First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Oct 20, 2010 6:07:42pm

How did I miss this? philosophus invidius has supplied us with a fun game of Count The Fallacies.

Two in the very first response: False dilemma and No True Scotsman, along with a healthy dose of pinning the “argument for atheism” to one specific flavor of theism. Post number three starts off with a textbook example of appeal to authority that arises directly from the No True Scotsman in the first post. Then we have a strawman paragraph, followed by paragraph that essentially concedes that the preceding arguments were ultimately pointless.
Then we’re treated to… well, I don’t know what, exactly.

There may be more. Where’s Waldo?

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