AronRa, a strongly convinced atheist, has created a number of powerful YouTube videos explaining why theism is a delusion.
BUT what is strange and baffling is that I, a strongly convinced theist, actually, agree with a fairly large number of his central points!
For instance, I completely agree with AronRa's opposition to "creationism" being taught in public schools. The religious concept is a delusion! It has been proven over and over by countless scientific evidence that earth wasn't created about 6-10,000 years ago.
Creationism is fallacious, anti-scientific and contrary to biology, genetics, anthropology, physics, etc.
As a former teacher, it deeply troubles me that millions of Americans still call for "creationism" in its various forms to be an option in public education! And that the government of Turkey has decided to eliminate the teaching of evolution in its schools!
Etc.
In one of AranRa's almost humorous, tongue-twisting, exact phrases he states that his atheism represents--
"secular, humanist, skeptical, rational, scientifically literate, intellectual..."
Without going into a lot of detail, based upon AronRa's videos it appears that I am by his definitions--
secular
humanist
skeptical
scientifically literate
intellectual
!
So, then exactly how is it that he and I have completely different central worldviews and lifestances toward reality?
According to his central definitions of atheism, theism, and religion, I am an "atheist"!
(This isn't all that new. In 2017, a number of atheists claimed that I was really an "atheist."
At about the same time, a famous Christian leader emphasized--as no doubt many others would--that I was NEVER a Christian in my 55 years as a devout, dedicated Christian, not even when I was a liberal Baptist youth minister, elder, mission worker, Bible teacher, etc.)
YET, I am intellectually convinced theist.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!
Here's one example of why definitions of terms are vital.
One point I especially appreciate about AronRa is that he, carefully, explicitly defines his words, even in his short popular videos.
Consider this:
"Anti-theist Answers to Slick Questions" by AronRa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6qRT6MjjSs
1. How do you define atheism?
"Atheism is a lack of belief in a deity...
“a deity being defined as a magical anthropomorphic immortal”
--AronRa
Lightwaveseeker (my response):
Baffling! Confusing and Bemusing.
In at least 61 years of my 70-year-life, I NEVER believed in "a magical, anthropomorphic immortal."
What I believed before I was about 7 or 9 years of age, I don't remember, but probably whatever I was told by my parents, others, and books. All I do remember is having been born with a "why" in my throat, always asking questions about life, until it often drove my parents to tell me to stop asking, to just accept...
That I refused to do.
However, by the time I was about 9 years of age, when I often tried to conceive of "God," I thought of God as like oxygen--real, invisible, everywhere, and necessary for life:-)
To my knowledge, as a child, I NEVER thought God was "magical,"
and NEVER thought God was "anthropomorphic,"
and certainly didn't think so as a teen, a university student, a thinker, mental health worker, educator, etc.
If one defines theism as belief in "a magical anthropomorphic immortal," then I've never been a theist as long as I've been a thinking, questioning, doubting seeker.
Of course, most of my adult life I have viewed "God" as defined by Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in its opening definition:
God "1 capitalized : the supreme or ultimate reality:"
I don't recall ever using the term "immortal" to describe "u.r.", however, I did think the ultimate nature of reality was everlasting or eternal, which are synonyms of "immortal."
So in the last word, guilty as charged.
AronRa also thinks there are moral absolutes, that there are human rights, and so forth.
Heck, AronRa and Lightwaveseeker have a lot more in common than one would first suppose.
Wonders never cease;-)
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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