Brian, you are the best. I like your term, "apathytheist." After being raised blindly in my parent's religion (Lutheranism), I spent the first 14 years of my life blindly going through the motions. I thought I "believed" even though I had never even given it a thought. When, I started questioning things, I didn't find any answers and lost my interest and belief in god. I'm happy as a non-believer and don't fear going to hell...because hell doesn't exist.
I was very excited when in one of your past videos you announced these 'God Distraction' series. I loved the main idea very much. I became sad as the project didn't see light for so long, I thought you abandoned the idea. Now you have proven me wrong, and I am extremely happy about it! Great job, Brian, keep up the good work!!
Holy Mackerel . . . that's some compelling testimony from a former hard core follower of religion. Perhaps some of the viewers still trapped in religious beliefs can finally take the step that will bring them into the realm of scientific knowledge and common sense. Nice to hear that the faithful can break out of the darkness of religion to see the light of scientific reason and knowledge. Enough said.
I'm simultaneously very happy that someone is FINALLY making an effort to talk about this, and very surprised that no one has done it yet (at least not prominently). It seems to me that more than half of arguments in favor of religion X, Y, Z are simply arguments for the existence of some kind of unknown god-thing. It's almost a bait to argue about whether "a god" exists, and many "atheists" have fallen for this, spending much of their time (or even most of it) on something which DOES NOT MATTER. I put "atheists" in scare-quotes because like you, I don't care if a god exists, and I would not have decided to label myself as an atheist if that label were not given to me. Most "atheist arguments" are actually just anti-religion arguments, or more accurately, anti "claims of knowledge about God's nature and will" arguments. Because THAT is what religion is. THAT is what matters. THAT is what has an effect on the world. And THAT is what is extremely easy to debunk, unlike generic God claims, which tend to be more "sophisticated" (obfuscated).
You are SO on the right track with this argument, AND your "Atheist Fundamentalist" piece. Exquisitely finding another weakness in the apologist's armor!
This series will definitely be one that I recommend to the next fanatic who comes at me. It's a perfect combination of hard logic and conversational wit. Love it!
At 3:05 your self-effacing "Fight! Fight! Fight! (In that exact wimpy voice!)" had me rolling on the floor, as well as convinced of your lack of pretense. Bravo! Apart from an obsession with RUclips debates, we aren't as much distracted by God, it seems to me, as we are by religion, and its unseemly influence on the political process. Were we all deistic theists, how many of us would be campaigning on God's behalf, as self-appointed executors of his will?
I'm looking forward to the next video. I love the "big foots hair color" reference. I've often said that discussing, with a theist, the existence of god is like having a serious discussion, with a 4 year old, about what color underwear Santa Claus wears and why.
Hi Brian I'm a long time young atheist antithesit, but a relative neophyte to your work. I love mr. Diety and all the characters as well as way of the Mr. Thank you and all of your crew for helping me to laugh in these troubled times.
Very well done, articulate and witty as ever. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Keep up the good work! You are a true champion of free thinking.
I have to say this does seem like an interesting start to a series. Excellent video by the way. Can't wait to see more of what you got in store for us.
You really said a mouthful there Brian. This looks like it will be good. In 91 I was a strong believer with faith in God, family, country, and Truth. It was the year I went into the army. My journey was long and slow. Truth got knocked down to truth and my faith in it got knocked down to trust but it was the only thing to survive the journey. Looking forward to hearing your story.
Terrific! One of your best, Brian; I look forward to watching the series, and forwarding it to my (atheist) twin daughters. Keep up the good work, and God ble---urp! ;-)
To add to what you said. How do we even know that the god is a "he" As a friend said, "He, she, it or they." Many religions have multiple gods and/or goddesses. To name a few: Isis, Aphrodite, Gaea, Venus, Artemis, Freya.
I cannot contain my excitement for this series Brian...... Trying....... Trying........ Not going to work....... WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Let's Do This!!!!!
You totally stepped up the quality of your videos. Well done. And what a huge undertaking with this series. Looking forward to it! Also, the spinning silver words are really cool!
+Adrien Piette Thanks for noticing and appreciating. It means a lot to me. This was especially difficult to shoot with a moving camera and no crew. It's just me, and it's exhausting!!! The type is part of Final Cut Pro X's new 3D type. I'm really digging it too. Thanks again!
I always found Neil Peart's lyrics argument compelling. You can choose a ready guide In some celestial voice If you choose not to decide You still have made a choice You can choose from phantom fears And kindness that can kill I will choose a path that’s clear I will choose free will.
WOW! That takes me back. When I was in my teens, I played more Rush than any person should be allowed to play. Somewhere, I have a recording of myself and two friends playing La Via Strangiato. I was 14, and the bass player and drummer were 15. And believe it or not, we killed it. The drummer was amazing! But I would definitely choose free will if I could.
@@misterdeity No such thing as playing too much Rush. ha ha! Back in the day we had to rebuy vinyl because we couldn't afford the kinda needles that didn't pit the albums. I think we are contemporaries. Born in the same year as Obama, John Stewart, and George Clooney.
A superb introduction. I anticipate a fascinating series. Why even care about a supposed entity for which there is no evidence? Why worship and pray to such a supposed entity when there will be no benefit?
Your experience is similar to mine. Once I honestly looked at the "evidence" for god, I could no longer believe. And I was as committed a believer as I knew how to be.
+misterdeity The only criticism is the audio levels changed with the different shots. Normalize that and you'll be a superstar (more than you currently are).
+God Was Bored I'm so annoyed by that. I always do a pass where I do nothing but listen and watch the meters. It's fine in FCPX. But when it gets converted by RUclips, it's all over the place. I actually adjusted stuff based on what RUclips did, and re-uploaded. Then, it lowered other segments randomly. WTF?!!!
Good summary of the god problem. I struggled with that question growing up. One of many issues I had was the problem of faith. The ability of human brains to figure stuff out and improvise human existence is very much at odds with faith. If there is a god why would he want us to use faith rather then knowledge to determine if he exists and how to lead our lives?
Left no stone unturned. I did everything you did. Except making a christian music album. But one thing you didnt mention that I did was to search inside. I searched through my entire psych for any evidence of a divine being. All I found was the influences of man. I searched and searched for even the slightest evidence but there was nothing that didnt come from the indoctrination trauma and the other religious traumas. That was the moment I knew I was an atheist. Then over time, under this focus, I began to realize just how toxic religion is. I began to understand that I am more than an atheist, I am as you are. An anti theist and an apatheist. If you are honest about yourself, honest about what you perceive as reality and only wish to know the best truth we can comprehend, you will be an atheist.
Sounds great! I hope this series goes into detail regarding facts and supportive evidence. Too often we see promises of great series that fail by simply skating over claims with no justifications for them.
+MrAudienceMember This series is a bit more philosophical. I'm making the point that even IF God exists, our inability to know anything about Him, his character, and his will makes him irrelevant -- and actually harms us as we presume to know things with don't about... morality, the afterlife, reward and punishment, etc... There are others who have already done what you're looking for, and quite well. This series is about ending the debate about God's existence and rather assuming it in order to then say, "so what?"
While most children are natural apatheists, they are taught to think the grownups "know best". I was an apatheist while attending church involuntarily, and the choral singing was the only part of it I was not apathetic about. I silently thought about these issues a lot. No grownup ever discussed their alleged faith with me, nor offered to. I wondered if faith must be way too "profound" an experience for the big people to talk about with a mere ignorant child. This conflicted directly with Jesus's speech that "ye must be as little children". Didn't that mean I was already so "good" and "innocent" that I was ready for "faith" and "salvation"? I was so confused. Was I supposed to pretend I believed and be a hypocrite? The concept of god, salvation, saviour, and faith all meant nothing to me and I just could not pray to or about something that meant nothing. I thought maybe I needed to study the Bible for about 20 years (i.e. "eternity" to me then) to acquire faith. I even thought all religious grownups had done that. Since I could find little of interest looking through the Bible, and doing that made not one bit of difference, 20 years of study of that mostly boring book sounded impossible to ever achieve. I hoped for a "magical" experience of faith to happen, which never did.
It would be interesting to see the rough draft of that book you were going to write about god. Also, if the people watching this know any religious friends/family, maybe this God Distraction series will help with that. Just two suggestions!
My take on the Kalam argument. 1. There are two kinds of things. Those that require a cause and those that don’t 2. Let’s call everything that requires a cause the Universe and everything in it. 3. Let’s call everything that doesn’t require a cause God, specifically Yahweh, god of the ancient Israelites. 4. Therefore I have just defined God into existence.
+Graham Ariss Thanks! I have to get over there. I have some fans there who have offered me free a room in a Chalet they run (on an Island no less!), and I think I could finally manage to get there if I prep some extra videos to launch while I'm gone.
+misterdeity Yes Sweden has many small islands as well as Lakes, its very beautiful although I never tell my Swedish friends that (I tell them its a mosquito infested swamp and how I miss the Shires in the UK). If you are coming to the Gothenburg area on the West Coast I would be happy to show you the city. Keep up the good work in the colonies ;-)
This is such an important matter. Believers go to extraordinary lengths to prove 'The Existence of God' or the validity of a particular religion. But in the end all their arguments are mere opinions which, ironically, are often in conflict with the arguments put forth by their brethren..
Out of the park. Hell, out of the county. That quite possibly has a better chance of getting through to believers that any other message I've encountered.
Apatheist, what a wonderful discovery! (I don't go out much) The only way I'd found to describe how uninterested I was was: ''I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic, I just don't care.'' Apatheist is much shorter, and I was starting to lose some keys on my keyboard... Nice talk, thanks. When I was about ten, my family just stopped going to church, I had it easy, we just stopped. Cheers.
@Naukumaija Mau-mau Atheists say there is no god, agnostics say they don't know and apatheists just don't care so if I'm an apatheist I cannot be the others as well and honesly, I couldn't have a discussion about religion with a believer, I have no point to make. That wouldn't stop me from having believers as friends, as long as they don't throw their faith in my face.
Feedback/constructive criticism: in the video, at your mention of "0", music began playing; I found this distracting. I'm telling you this because I have been a fan of yours since my first viewing and I want you to improve. Thank you for your diligence and humor! I look forward to your next installment.
Well done, Mr. Dalton. I love it when you're funny laced with smart (Mr. D, WoTM). love it too when, as here, you're smart laced with funny. In the future, The Atheist Channel will totally be a Thing. And, after theyve mined out Dawkins and Hitchens, they'll do this guy's bio. And they will call it, I hope, the Life of Brian.
Looking forward to this new series! Despite your seeming off-hand dismissal, I do hope you will also address belief in a priori knowledge of deities/magic. oh, and Bigfoot is a natural blonde. She just dies her hair for camouflage.
misterdeity I'm honored by the question, and fairly confident that you have the right idea, but just to confirm: I was referring to the Kantian idea, as laid out in his _Critique Of Pure Reason,_ that as a prerequisite foundation for any empirical knowledge to be acquired, the concept of knowledge itself has to exist in our minds without having been learned or experienced. Theists commonly refer to this synthetic pseudo-knowledge as "the witness of the holy spirit", or similar woo. As William Lane Craig put it: _"The way in which I know Christianity is true is first and foremost on the basis of the witness of the Holy Spirit, in my heart. And that this gives me a self-authenticating way of knowing Christianity is true wholly apart from the evidence. And therefore, if in some historically contingent circumstances the evidence that I have available to me should turn against Christianity, I don't think that that controverts the witness of the Holy Spirit. In such a situation I should result re.. ah.. regard that as a result of the contingent circumstances that I'm in, and that if I were to pursue this with due diligence and with time, I would discover that the evidence - If I could get the correct picture - would support exactly what the witness of the Holy Spirit tells me."_ (Translation: "If it don't fit, use a bigger hammer.")
Excellent. I'll stay tuned. I've been making a similar argument that we don't know God's properties (and presume some pretty major ones!). Disappointed that the Kalam Cosmological Argument is pretty much the argument from universal causation. I was hoping it was something I hadn't yet heard.
Clear, concise and well-reasoned. An impressive presentation which will, sadly I think, have almost no impact on the religiously inclined. That being said, though, if it only influences a single Believer into some self-examination it is worth the effort.
Good video. As a non-believer in "god" I hope you'll also keep in mind that we humans need more than dry scientific answers to have life's questions. I hope wisdom will have some place in this because because as the philosopher Scott Samuelson has pointed out: "I believe that wisdom is compatible with any number of traditions, religious and otherwise. For wisdom is not so much about the position of right beliefs (though it involves dodging the worst of them) as finding a way to relate to our beliefs in such a way that the good part of us is liberated. Wisdom isn't about doctrine: it's about style." I think it's about what Abraham Lincoln and Steven Pinker have referred to as "the better angels of our nature." OMG I did go on in this comment, did it?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: _If you've got the truth, you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it. _*_Show_*_ people._ -- Robert A. Heinlein The day that genuine, testable evidence for any kind of deity shows up, I won't have to worry about belief; I'll KNOW that it exists. That day has been a long time coming, and my suspicion is that it'll be a whole lot longer.
Here's a slightly annotated version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument: 1. [Based on our limited empirical experience,] whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence. 2. The universe began to exist [depending on your definition of "universe" and assumed to be true because humans aren't comfortable with the idea of an infinite regress]. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause [unless, of course, the universe is a special case of something that began to exist without having a cause, or unless the universe didn't actually have a true beginning as would be the case if it were part of a multi-verse or in an eternal cycle of expansion and contraction]. An argument that appears to be valid is only "sound" if all of its premises are actually true. The first premise is based on empirical evidence of how things we currently observe behave, but isn't necessarily true for all cases everywhere. Perhaps the universe is the exception to this general rule. As to the second premise, the Bible states that God created the universe out of nothing. That's not what science says, however. The Big Bang theory doesn't explain how the universe was created but simply describes the expansion of the known universe from an seemingly infinitely dense and infinitely small singularity that presumably contained within itself all matter and energy. Where did that singularity come from and what caused it to expand? Nobody knows, but there are numerous theories that do not require any sort of intelligent causation. Since the first two premises are not necessarily true, the conclusion is not justified. But even if it were justified and somehow proved that the universe had a cause, it still doesn't say anything about what that cause was. Could the universe be its own cause? Could it be part of a multiverse or an ongoing cycle of expansion and contraction that operates automatically according to laws of nature? Why does it have to be an intelligent being? What justification is there to imagine the possibility of an intelligent being that can live outside of time and space and is not composed of matter or energy? And what justification is there to imagine that intelligent being just happens to be the God worshiped by your particular religion and not that of your neighbor? My favorite part of watching people argue for the existence of their particular God using the Kalam Cosmological Argument is when they get to the end and are inevitably asked how they know that this "first cause" God is their particular God. And then you invariably get answers along the line of "Because Christ came to me and spoke to my heart" or "that's where faith comes in" or "the Koran is the most demonstrably true book ever written", etc.
+godzillatemple This is very well-said! I'll be looking at Kalam in the next video and showing how -- even if sound -- it really tells us nothing meaningful. Again, zero knowledge content.
+godzillatemple You know that next time you talk to an overconfident and overly ambitious theist he/she will trod up this old tired mare of an argument to "make you see the light",don't you? Refutation of a clearly fallacious argument is not likely to dissuade them from trying to use their version of logic to convert you into what was supposed to be a happy,clappy Mormon.Theistic argumentation springs from a sense of imagined loneliness and an emotional approach to fear of death-in my opinion. That is why I'm never surprised when (while talking to a theist) I get the impression of a "forced" logic being in use...words that seem to imply a logical chain of thought are tainted by the believer's unbelief in the very method he is trying to use on me.Like talking to an alien who just learned a human lingo and is not really convinced what all this sound coming out of the mouth thingy is...
As a fellow apatheist, I'm really looking forward to this series.
As an ordinary viewer, I'm looking forward to it too. :)
Thanks for teaching me a new word, apatheism, and for the interesting background on how you got started in the whole anything-but-theism business.
Just wonderful.
You are a living treasure.
Brian, you are the best. I like your term, "apathytheist." After being raised blindly in my parent's religion (Lutheranism), I spent the first 14 years of my life blindly going through the motions. I thought I "believed" even though I had never even given it a thought. When, I started questioning things, I didn't find any answers and lost my interest and belief in god. I'm happy as a non-believer and don't fear going to hell...because hell doesn't exist.
Looks interesting. Can't wait.
I was very excited when in one of your past videos you announced these 'God Distraction' series. I loved the main idea very much. I became sad as the project didn't see light for so long, I thought you abandoned the idea. Now you have proven me wrong, and I am extremely happy about it! Great job, Brian, keep up the good work!!
Holy Mackerel . . . that's some compelling testimony from a former hard core follower of religion. Perhaps some of the viewers still trapped in religious beliefs can finally take the step that will bring them into the realm of scientific knowledge and common sense. Nice to hear that the faithful can break out of the darkness of religion to see the light of scientific reason and knowledge. Enough said.
I'm simultaneously very happy that someone is FINALLY making an effort to talk about this, and very surprised that no one has done it yet (at least not prominently). It seems to me that more than half of arguments in favor of religion X, Y, Z are simply arguments for the existence of some kind of unknown god-thing. It's almost a bait to argue about whether "a god" exists, and many "atheists" have fallen for this, spending much of their time (or even most of it) on something which DOES NOT MATTER.
I put "atheists" in scare-quotes because like you, I don't care if a god exists, and I would not have decided to label myself as an atheist if that label were not given to me. Most "atheist arguments" are actually just anti-religion arguments, or more accurately, anti "claims of knowledge about God's nature and will" arguments. Because THAT is what religion is. THAT is what matters. THAT is what has an effect on the world. And THAT is what is extremely easy to debunk, unlike generic God claims, which tend to be more "sophisticated" (obfuscated).
Every now and then I am compelled to write this: THANK YOU. Thank you for this fine video full of reason and also entertaining. Bravo sir.
What an irony! There was an ad for a TV Bible drama series DVD playing before you video. Looking forward to the rest of the series! Thanks, Brian.
Beautiful. Looking forward to the rest of these.
You are SO on the right track with this argument, AND your "Atheist Fundamentalist" piece. Exquisitely finding another weakness in the apologist's armor!
This series will definitely be one that I recommend to the next fanatic who comes at me. It's a perfect combination of hard logic and conversational wit. Love it!
At 3:05 your self-effacing "Fight! Fight! Fight! (In that exact wimpy voice!)" had me rolling on the floor, as well as convinced of your lack of pretense. Bravo!
Apart from an obsession with RUclips debates, we aren't as much distracted by God, it seems to me, as we are by religion, and its unseemly influence on the political process. Were we all deistic theists, how many of us would be campaigning on God's behalf, as self-appointed executors of his will?
+Positivist Nullifidian Great point!!! So true.!
Indispensable work for all of humanity!! All must watch! Excellent! Thank you 🙏 7 billion people need to watch this dose of evident reality. 👍🏽
I'm looking forward to the next video. I love the "big foots hair color" reference. I've often said that discussing, with a theist, the existence of god is like having a serious discussion, with a 4 year old, about what color underwear Santa Claus wears and why.
Hi Brian I'm a long time young atheist antithesit, but a relative neophyte to your work. I love mr. Diety and all the characters as well as way of the Mr. Thank you and all of your crew for helping me to laugh in these troubled times.
+Frank B Marra You are welcome. You're exactly the person I do this for. I'm heartened!!!
+misterdeity wow you rock! science bless
Very well done, articulate and witty as ever. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Keep up the good work! You are a true champion of free thinking.
I have to say this does seem like an interesting start to a series. Excellent video by the way. Can't wait to see more of what you got in store for us.
Good, good, good! Thank you for this undertaking! As always, your prose is hard-hitting and on point! Looking forward to the rest!
I love Marc Maron's bit on this: "I don't know if there is a god or not, I just don't know why I'm supposed to _care!_"
Love this, can't wait to see the future installments.
Thank you for your open discussion of what you went through. It must have been very difficult and I can empathize with much of it.
Looking forward to the series.
This is going to be a fantastic series! Well done!
Love this Mr D. Looking forward to more!
Great video! Thank you. I look forward to the continuing series.
Fantastic. Can this video be subtitled to every major language?
You really said a mouthful there Brian. This looks like it will be good.
In 91 I was a strong believer with faith in God, family, country, and Truth. It was the year I went into the army. My journey was long and slow. Truth got knocked down to truth and my faith in it got knocked down to trust but it was the only thing to survive the journey. Looking forward to hearing your story.
Terrific! One of your best, Brian; I look forward to watching the series, and forwarding it to my (atheist) twin daughters. Keep up the good work, and God ble---urp! ;-)
To add to what you said. How do we even know that the god is a "he" As a friend said, "He, she, it or they." Many religions have multiple gods and/or goddesses. To name a few: Isis, Aphrodite, Gaea, Venus, Artemis, Freya.
Really looking forward to this series.
I'm looking forward to the rest of this series!
Excellent series! Thank you.
Looking forward to this series. A very promising start!
Nice vid, Brian. Looking forward to the next one
Brian Dalton, you are my hero.
Always a pleasurable experience. Thank you.
I cannot contain my excitement for this series Brian...... Trying....... Trying........ Not going to work....... WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Let's Do This!!!!!
You totally stepped up the quality of your videos. Well done. And what a huge undertaking with this series. Looking forward to it!
Also, the spinning silver words are really cool!
+Adrien Piette I thought they were platinum words. AFAIK, platinum is more precious than silver, or even gold. ;)
+RustyTube gold looks tacky
+Adrien Piette Thanks for noticing and appreciating. It means a lot to me. This was especially difficult to shoot with a moving camera and no crew. It's just me, and it's exhausting!!! The type is part of Final Cut Pro X's new 3D type. I'm really digging it too. Thanks again!
Das Carlin Yes.
How sincere, you put a lot of time and thought in your videos. Thanks I watched it a few times it was done very well. I hope this gets many views
I always found Neil Peart's lyrics argument compelling. You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will.
WOW! That takes me back. When I was in my teens, I played more Rush than any person should be allowed to play. Somewhere, I have a recording of myself and two friends playing La Via Strangiato. I was 14, and the bass player and drummer were 15. And believe it or not, we killed it. The drummer was amazing! But I would definitely choose free will if I could.
@@misterdeity No such thing as playing too much Rush. ha ha! Back in the day we had to rebuy vinyl because we couldn't afford the kinda needles that didn't pit the albums. I think we are contemporaries. Born in the same year as Obama, John Stewart, and George Clooney.
I'm super looking forward to this
A superb introduction. I anticipate a fascinating series. Why even care about a supposed entity for which there is no evidence? Why worship and pray to such a supposed entity when there will be no benefit?
Your experience is similar to mine. Once I honestly looked at the "evidence" for god, I could no longer believe. And I was as committed a believer as I knew how to be.
You have come a long way since I listened to you in Charleston. Keep up the great work.
+Dane C. Sorensen Yeah, it was nearly 3,000 miles back to LA.
To thine own self be true! WTG Mr. Deity! Honest research leads to Atheism!
+JONATHAN KISER
That's why so many Christians don't read the Bible.
Wow, really great! But not surprisingly so -- great was expected! Congrats on the new series.
_this_ is super interesting, well written, and entertaining. Looking forward to more!
Wow cant wait to see chapter 1, I need a few pointers on some of these subjects that I myself haven't taken the time to research.
Excellent camera work. Amazingly well produced, with such a great message. I applaud you and all you do.
+fowlfables And, I assume, are a Patron...(fingers crossed)?
misterdeity I am now. :)
+misterdeity The only criticism is the audio levels changed with the different shots. Normalize that and you'll be a superstar (more than you currently are).
+God Was Bored I'm so annoyed by that. I always do a pass where I do nothing but listen and watch the meters. It's fine in FCPX. But when it gets converted by RUclips, it's all over the place. I actually adjusted stuff based on what RUclips did, and re-uploaded. Then, it lowered other segments randomly. WTF?!!!
+fowlfables woohoo!!!
Ahhhh, yes! A new series that I have been awaiting, has arrived!
Great stuff, can't wait to chapter 1...
Excellent - looking forward to the series.It's great to hear clear, frank speech unclouded by undue respect for religion - thanks.Peace.
Good summary of the god problem. I struggled with that question growing up. One of many issues I had was the problem of faith. The ability of human brains to figure stuff out and improvise human existence is very much at odds with faith. If there is a god why would he want us to use faith rather then knowledge to determine if he exists and how to lead our lives?
Left no stone unturned. I did everything you did. Except making a christian music album. But one thing you didnt mention that I did was to search inside. I searched through my entire psych for any evidence of a divine being. All I found was the influences of man. I searched and searched for even the slightest evidence but there was nothing that didnt come from the indoctrination trauma and the other religious traumas. That was the moment I knew I was an atheist.
Then over time, under this focus, I began to realize just how toxic religion is. I began to understand that I am more than an atheist, I am as you are. An anti theist and an apatheist. If you are honest about yourself, honest about what you perceive as reality and only wish to know the best truth we can comprehend, you will be an atheist.
Brilliant, looking forward to the next one.
this looks very interesting I look forward to seeing the series. Thank you
Great video, looking forward to seeing more
Hell ya I'll see ya next time! love your videos.
Well, there is a reason I care about opinions about gods: the people around me vote.
+Michael Dann FOf course. That's why series like this are important
I eagerly await the next video!
Sounds great! I hope this series goes into detail regarding facts and supportive evidence. Too often we see promises of great series that fail by simply skating over claims with no justifications for them.
+MrAudienceMember This series is a bit more philosophical. I'm making the point that even IF God exists, our inability to know anything about Him, his character, and his will makes him irrelevant -- and actually harms us as we presume to know things with don't about... morality, the afterlife, reward and punishment, etc... There are others who have already done what you're looking for, and quite well. This series is about ending the debate about God's existence and rather assuming it in order to then say, "so what?"
+misterdeity That'll do as well. Thanks for clarifying that which I should have picked up in the introduction.
Painter, singer and now thinker. Nice to see this side of you Rolf.
Excellent! I like where you're going with this.
Excellent.
That cut after theology was great.
excellent as always. love your stuff.
While most children are natural apatheists, they are taught to think the grownups "know best". I was an apatheist while attending church involuntarily, and the choral singing was the only part of it I was not apathetic about. I silently thought about these issues a lot. No grownup ever discussed their alleged faith with me, nor offered to. I wondered if faith must be way too "profound" an experience for the big people to talk about with a mere ignorant child. This conflicted directly with Jesus's speech that "ye must be as little children". Didn't that mean I was already so "good" and "innocent" that I was ready for "faith" and "salvation"? I was so confused. Was I supposed to pretend I believed and be a hypocrite? The concept of god, salvation, saviour, and faith all meant nothing to me and I just could not pray to or about something that meant nothing. I thought maybe I needed to study the Bible for about 20 years (i.e. "eternity" to me then) to acquire faith. I even thought all religious grownups had done that. Since I could find little of interest looking through the Bible, and doing that made not one bit of difference, 20 years of study of that mostly boring book sounded impossible to ever achieve. I hoped for a "magical" experience of faith to happen, which never did.
Dorothyellen w
Very interesting reflection.
I liked the way you present this video And most importantly, the message.
It would be interesting to see the rough draft of that book you were going to write about god.
Also, if the people watching this know any religious friends/family, maybe this God Distraction series will help with that.
Just two suggestions!
Very nice Brian!!
My take on the Kalam argument.
1. There are two kinds of things. Those that require a cause and those that don’t
2. Let’s call everything that requires a cause the Universe and everything in it.
3. Let’s call everything that doesn’t require a cause God, specifically Yahweh, god of the ancient Israelites.
4. Therefore I have just defined God into existence.
Hi
Great work, looking forward to your next video.
Best wishes from Sweden
+Graham Ariss Thanks! I have to get over there. I have some fans there who have offered me free a room in a Chalet they run (on an Island no less!), and I think I could finally manage to get there if I prep some extra videos to launch while I'm gone.
+misterdeity Yes Sweden has many small islands as well as Lakes, its very beautiful although I never tell my Swedish friends that (I tell them its a mosquito infested swamp and how I miss the Shires in the UK).
If you are coming to the Gothenburg area on the West Coast I would be happy to show you the city.
Keep up the good work in the colonies ;-)
This is such an important matter. Believers go to extraordinary lengths to prove 'The Existence of God' or the validity of a particular religion. But in the end all their arguments are mere opinions which, ironically, are often in conflict with the arguments put forth by their brethren..
Out of the park. Hell, out of the county.
That quite possibly has a better chance of getting through to believers that any other message I've encountered.
Apatheist, what a wonderful discovery! (I don't go out much) The only way I'd found to describe how uninterested I was was: ''I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic, I just don't care.'' Apatheist is much shorter, and I was starting to lose some keys on my keyboard... Nice talk, thanks. When I was about ten, my family just stopped going to church, I had it easy, we just stopped. Cheers.
@Naukumaija Mau-mau Atheists say there is no god, agnostics say they don't know and apatheists just don't care so if I'm an apatheist I cannot be the others as well and honesly, I couldn't have a discussion about religion with a believer, I have no point to make. That wouldn't stop me from having believers as friends, as long as they don't throw their faith in my face.
@Naukumaija Mau-mau Okay, thanks.
Feedback/constructive criticism: in the video, at your mention of "0", music began playing; I found this distracting. I'm telling you this because I have been a fan of yours since my first viewing and I want you to improve. Thank you for your diligence and humor! I look forward to your next installment.
Well done, Mr. Dalton. I love it when you're funny laced with smart (Mr. D, WoTM). love it too when, as here, you're smart laced with funny.
In the future, The Atheist Channel will totally be a Thing. And, after theyve mined out Dawkins and Hitchens, they'll do this guy's bio. And they will call it, I hope, the Life of Brian.
+Bruce Baker I agree he's not the messiah, but is really naughty enough to be considered The Brian
Looking forward to this new series! Despite your seeming off-hand dismissal, I do hope you will also address belief in a priori knowledge of deities/magic.
oh, and Bigfoot is a natural blonde. She just dies her hair for camouflage.
+First Name Last Name Can you elaborate so that I know exactly what you're talking about (I think I do, but clarification would be nice).
misterdeity I'm honored by the question, and fairly confident that you have the right idea, but just to confirm:
I was referring to the Kantian idea, as laid out in his _Critique Of Pure Reason,_ that as a prerequisite foundation for any empirical knowledge to be acquired, the concept of knowledge itself has to exist in our minds without having been learned or experienced. Theists commonly refer to this synthetic pseudo-knowledge as "the witness of the holy spirit", or similar woo. As William Lane Craig put it:
_"The way in which I know Christianity is true is first and foremost on the basis of the witness of the Holy Spirit, in my heart. And that this gives me a self-authenticating way of knowing Christianity is true wholly apart from the evidence. And therefore, if in some historically contingent circumstances the evidence that I have available to me should turn against Christianity, I don't think that that controverts the witness of the Holy Spirit. In such a situation I should result re.. ah.. regard that as a result of the contingent circumstances that I'm in, and that if I were to pursue this with due diligence and with time, I would discover that the evidence - If I could get the correct picture - would support exactly what the witness of the Holy Spirit tells me."_
(Translation: "If it don't fit, use a bigger hammer.")
+First Name Last Name *dyes
Brian, I can relate. Eating babies is an acquired taste.
Hmm 🤔 somehow I did miss this series, let the binge watch commence!
😋🍿
Ken Ham has this book...
Beautiful..as always
Your story is very similar to mine. I was (as you know from emails) a pastor married and with child:)
JM
All I know about fairies is that they wear boots. You gotta believe me, I saw it.
Were they dancing with dwarves? Were you smokin' and trippin' again?
Charles Trulear, I see you quote the Pastor Ozzy, for that too is my favorite quote of his. As Pastor Rupaul would say "Ahhhh Men."
I saw it with my own two eyes
The term is "abeliefist".
Most excellent!
SO well done. Thumbs up!
Excellent. I'll stay tuned.
I've been making a similar argument that we don't know God's properties (and presume some pretty major ones!).
Disappointed that the Kalam Cosmological Argument is pretty much the argument from universal causation. I was hoping it was something I hadn't yet heard.
+Uriel238 Yeah, it's basically just Aquinas' first cause argument. But they've used the fact that the Universe had a beginning to spruce it up.
Pure excellence!
Clear, concise and well-reasoned. An impressive presentation which will, sadly I think, have almost no impact on the religiously inclined. That being said, though, if it only influences a single Believer into some self-examination it is worth the effort.
Good video. As a non-believer in "god" I hope you'll also keep in mind that we humans need more than dry scientific answers to have life's questions. I hope wisdom will have some place in this because because as the philosopher Scott Samuelson has pointed out:
"I believe that wisdom is compatible with any number of traditions, religious and otherwise. For wisdom is not so much about the position of right beliefs (though it involves dodging the worst of them) as finding a way to relate to our beliefs in such a way that the good part of us is liberated. Wisdom isn't about doctrine: it's about style."
I think it's about what Abraham Lincoln and Steven Pinker have referred to as "the better angels of our nature."
OMG I did go on in this comment, did it?
+2b Sirius Absolutely. That is well-said.
misterdeity Thanks...Hope you talk about this in this series. If I were more eloquent, it would be a subject I'd explore here.
"The power of reason compels you!"
Excellent, as always.
I hope this gets turned into a book/audio book/DVD at some point!!
An interesting, slightly Boghossianeseque take on atheism. I'm definitely looking forward to more of these.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
_If you've got the truth, you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it. _*_Show_*_ people._
-- Robert A. Heinlein
The day that genuine, testable evidence for any kind of deity shows up, I won't have to worry about belief; I'll KNOW that it exists. That day has been a long time coming, and my suspicion is that it'll be a whole lot longer.
Here's a slightly annotated version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument:
1. [Based on our limited empirical experience,] whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
2. The universe began to exist [depending on your definition of "universe" and assumed to be true because humans aren't comfortable with the idea of an infinite regress].
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause [unless, of course, the universe is a special case of something that began to exist without having a cause, or unless the universe didn't actually have a true beginning as would be the case if it were part of a multi-verse or in an eternal cycle of expansion and contraction].
An argument that appears to be valid is only "sound" if all of its premises are actually true. The first premise is based on empirical evidence of how things we currently observe behave, but isn't necessarily true for all cases everywhere. Perhaps the universe is the exception to this general rule.
As to the second premise, the Bible states that God created the universe out of nothing. That's not what science says, however. The Big Bang theory doesn't explain how the universe was created but simply describes the expansion of the known universe from an seemingly infinitely dense and infinitely small singularity that presumably contained within itself all matter and energy. Where did that singularity come from and what caused it to expand? Nobody knows, but there are numerous theories that do not require any sort of intelligent causation.
Since the first two premises are not necessarily true, the conclusion is not justified. But even if it were justified and somehow proved that the universe had a cause, it still doesn't say anything about what that cause was. Could the universe be its own cause? Could it be part of a multiverse or an ongoing cycle of expansion and contraction that operates automatically according to laws of nature? Why does it have to be an intelligent being? What justification is there to imagine the possibility of an intelligent being that can live outside of time and space and is not composed of matter or energy? And what justification is there to imagine that intelligent being just happens to be the God worshiped by your particular religion and not that of your neighbor?
My favorite part of watching people argue for the existence of their particular God using the Kalam Cosmological Argument is when they get to the end and are inevitably asked how they know that this "first cause" God is their particular God. And then you invariably get answers along the line of "Because Christ came to me and spoke to my heart" or "that's where faith comes in" or "the Koran is the most demonstrably true book ever written", etc.
+godzillatemple This is very well-said! I'll be looking at Kalam in the next video and showing how -- even if sound -- it really tells us nothing meaningful. Again, zero knowledge content.
+misterdeity Thanks. I guess that philosophy degree from BYU is worth something after all... :)
+godzillatemple You know that next time you talk to an overconfident and overly ambitious theist he/she will trod up this old tired mare of an argument to "make you see the light",don't you? Refutation of a clearly fallacious argument is not likely to dissuade them from trying to use their version of logic to convert you into what was supposed to be a happy,clappy Mormon.Theistic argumentation springs from a sense of imagined loneliness and an emotional approach to fear of death-in my opinion.
That is why I'm never surprised when (while talking to a theist) I get the impression of a "forced" logic being in use...words that seem to imply a logical chain of thought are tainted by the believer's unbelief in the very method he is trying to use on me.Like talking to an alien who just learned a human lingo and is not really convinced what all this sound coming out of the mouth thingy is...
Excellent script, well presented!
God is a difficult habit to break, I'm glad my parents were so apathetic about my religious indoctrination.
love your videos!! you are amazing!