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I Wasn't Born Again Yesterday

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So please don't try to save me.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So there is no savior for me to accept.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So my tongue is fully under my own control.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So laying on of hands will only make me giggle.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So I will never expect to be cleansed of my sins.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So there is no tithing to be done.

I wasn't born again yesterday.
So I will find my own way.

Note: The music to this song is adapted from (Don't) Stand By Your Man.

In the U.S., a study has recently been published by the University of Tennessee, based on a survey of 1,153 American atheists. it is biased towards the south-eastern states.

That study concluded that there are six distinct types of atheists:.

1. Intellectual (aka Cultural) Atheists

2. Anti-Theistic Atheists

3. Non-Theistic Atheists

4. Ritual Atheists

5. Seeker Atheists

6. Activist Atheists

Without any prompts or help from above, can you critically think as to what each type's beliefs/characteristics may be?

After having done so (or foregoing that exercise), you can go the source, er, I mean the article which provided the definitions for those types of atheists.

Just Google Andrew Brown's Six Types of Atheist and it should be the first link to appear.

If you are an atheist (or agnostic as some of the types relate also to agnostics), do you think that you are any of those types?

I found the descriptions of the "Anti-Theists" and "Ritual" to be quite interesting, although neither describe myself.

As one of me mentioned a while back, I find it beyond belief that some theists are of the opinion that atheists and agnostics are the "same" because they do not believe in any god.

Which randomly got me thinking if any agnostics, atheists, deists or freethinkers think that Muslims and Jews are the same because they believe in one god? Or for that matter what about Catholics and Protestants?

Hopefully, A/A/D/Fs see the light on that matter and acknowledge the parameters of theistic diversity no matter how alien theism may be to them.

“The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.”
― Anton Chekhov

“Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.”
― Ernest Becker

“I took a test in Existentialism. I left all the answers blank and got 100.”
― Woody Allen


Ontology is the branch of philosophy which studies existence/reality. It explores whether numbers/properties/propositions/material objects/supernatural entities, etc., exist.

Questions in the study of philosophical (as opposed to mathematical)
ontology would include:

What is existence?
Is existence a property?
Which entities are fundamental?
How do the properties of an object relate to the object itself?
What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental, attributes of a given object?
What is a physical object?
Can one give an account of what it means to say that a physical object exists?
What constitutes the identity of an object?
When does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing?
Why does anything exist rather than nothing?

Yet, if one spends a millisecond or an entire lifetime in pursuit of divining these ontological questions vis-a-vis the supernatural realm, it all may have been for relative naught if as some believe "you cannot prove or disprove an existential negative because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

Hence, perhaps Naturalistic Atheistic Agnosticism (NAA) is the path to unknowing enlightenment.

Please think about it????????

Another branch of philosophy that is utilized in the discussion of "universal questions" is logic. Logic is the study of patterns of reasoning dividing them into those that are valid and invalid with respect to a set of given rules.

Revisiting (I think, therefore it is, I think) Syllogisms at RT

Dating back to Aristotle and the Megaric Stoics in ancient Greek philosophy, syllogisms are a form of logic that stem from deductive (proceeding from general to specific) reasoning. They are formal arguments consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion.

AN ATHEISTIC SYLLOGISM

All gods are created by Man.
Yahweh (Jehovah) is a god.
Yahweh (Jehovah) was created by Man.

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "existentialism is a catch-all term for those philosophers who consider the nature of the human condition as a key philosophical problem and who share the view that this problem is best addressed through ontology."

Major Existentialist Philosophers include:

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)

Without, I hope, an overdose of angst, the following are some more of my favorite existential quotes-note the emphasis on freewill and freethinking:

“Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.”
― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

“I rebel; therefore I exist.”
― Albert Camus

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness

“Man is free, in so far as he has the power of contradicting himself and his essential nature. Man is free even from his freedom; that is, he can surrender his humanity”
― Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology 2: Existence and the Christ

“Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“Obviously, all religions fall far short of their own ideals.”
― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

“To choose not to choose is still a choice for which you alone are responsible.”
― Gary Cox, How to Be an Existentialist: or How to Get Real, Get a Grip and Stop Making Excuses

“The supernatural is not as it claims, for it is inherently unnatural; it seeks to separate us from our natural world.”
― Joe Iacovino, In the Shadow of the Sun

“Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity

To paraphrase JFK in a existentialist sort of way, angst not what the fates have in store for you- angst how you can self-deterministically actualize your own destiny.


“I think therefore I am.” Though reduced now to the level of cliché, Rene Descartes’ famous maxim sums up perfectly the philosophical underpinnings of existentialist thought.

Yet once a person reaches the I am stage of existence, don't they really exemplify I am therefore I think?

Un Otro Philosophical Random Thought

From Investopedia the following is a Definition of Utilitarianism:

"A philosophy that bases the moral worth of an action upon the number of people it gives happiness or pleasure to. A utilitarian philosophy is used when making social, economic or political decisions for the "betterment of society". In utilitarianism, an action is considered to have utility only to the extent that it contributes to the overall good.

From M-W.com is another Definition of Utilitarianism:

"Ethical principle according to which an action is right if it tends to maximize happiness, not only that of the agent but also of everyone affected. Thus, utilitarians focus on the consequences of an act rather than on its intrinsic nature or the motives of the agent."

With a show of hands, how many of you think that agnostics, atheists, deists and freethinkers are more likely (or not) to follow utilitarian precepts than theists. If so, why or why not?

English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is credited with being the founder of Utilitarianism (along with being one of the earliest advocates for animal rights.

His student, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is the best known of the Utilitarian philosophers.

The following are some of my favorite quotes of those two English philosphers:

Jeremy Bentham

"The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."

"He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn."

"Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure - they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm."

"Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet."

"The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day's time they will have turned it into a Hell."

John Stuart Mill

"To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality."

"One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests."

"No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study, and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think."

"A person may cause evil to others not only by his action but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury."

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men."

"Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained."

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."

"Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt."

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.”

Certainly there are elements of hedonism in classical utilitarian philosophy as pleasure is the goal as opposed to pain. Yet, moral/social utilitarianism with its emphasis on the greater societal "good" should not be confused with egotistical/materialistic hedonism which does not factor in the"greater good" (unless the gg is selfishly interpreted as being more more more pleasure for me me me alone).


However, there is an element in society which solely equates utilitarianism with egotistical hedonism and by extension equates atheism with utilitarianism.

In an article in the Belle Church of Christ bulletin (from what I can surmise, the BCC is a non-denominational fundamentalist church) titled "Implications of Utilitarianism 3," the argument being made is specious at best.

"In our last study we saw that one of the implications of “Utilitarianism” is that it negates the existence of God. If man is governed solely by pain and pleasure then he is not governed by God and if this be the case then there is no God. In seeing the truthfulness of this one only look as far as those professing this doctrine. Almost everyone of them are atheistic in belief.
There are, however, some who propose Christianity who hold to the utilitarian belief... However, most of those who hold to the doctrine of utilitarianism are atheists... Religious people
who hold to this doctrine are just one step away from atheism..."

"Utilitarianism and God are not compatible. Either utilitarianism is right and man is governed solely by pain and pleasure or God exists and man is to live in accordance with his word. There is no middle ground. You cannot choose to be neutral or in the middle. You are either for him, or you are against him. In looking at what we have already seen, we can see that the doctrine of 'utilitarianism' implies evil teachings; teachings that go contrary to the will of God."

Oh my God,er, I mean goodness!!!
If the preachings of the BCC are to be believed, then hedonism is synonymous with heathenism.

If that were the case (which it obviously isn't!), then the world has for more heathens than anyone would care to admit!!!

Yet, any rational person would admit that moral/social utilitarianism
and egotistical hedonism are not the sole or only domain of atheists/agnostics/deists/freethinkers.