Soul Conciousness

A lot of the time, people feel they need to be more than what they are. Surely we must be more than simply the sum of our parts. However, a lot of the time that sum is a lot larger than any of us realize. When living organisms are involved, 1 + 1 rarely ever equals 2. Something always multiplies unexpectedly to cause something new and wonderful. To this end, for the first post of this year, we shall look at the greatest sum nature has created for humans.

"What do Atheists think about the soul?"

To be perfectly honest, a lot of us don't think about it at all. There are some that hold an Atheistic religion who believe in the soul, some who are spiritual without religion who believe in a soul of some kind, but a lot of Atheists don't believe in the soul at all. I think the idea of the soul came about from humans trying to understand consciousness and believing that it couldn't possibly have come about through natural means. This is once again humans believing they are more than the sum of their parts.

But how much truth is in that belief? While the soul cannot be proven nor disproven, the consciousness is a real thing, proven 100%. So what makes our consciousness work? We're still working on that one, but I'll give everything I know about it.

Apparently, our consciousness is possible due to the overabundant amount of memories we can hold. Most animals can't hold many memories for great periods of time. Enough to know people and places, but rarely experiences. You'd have to make a big impression on most animals to get them to remember basic situations. That's why you need to give dogs treats to teach them tricks. Receiving a treat from the one they care about most, their owner, is a big event in a dog's life.

So if our memories allow us to be conscious, would we be able to make other animals as conscious as ourselves by improving their memory? As I said earlier, we don't fully understand this ourselves, but we are still working on it. If consciousness really is just the sum of the parts used, we might be looking at some rather large figures. But maybe it's not so mysterious after all? Maybe we should be looking at the smaller, less important parts? Maybe we are missing the real picture by looking for a bigger one?

If the soul is merely our consciousness, it'll take some time to figure out exactly what that is. If not, then there is no way to figure it out at all without knowing first what we are trying to find.

Atheistic Agnosticism

Back in April, I brought up the topic of Agnosticism and the differences between it and Atheism. I said that Agnostics have no idea which side is correct and don't take any side or hold any position. After many debates and lots of researching, I have learned that this is false. As it is a fairly large topic and is visited quite often in debates across the internet, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit this topic and offer a better explanation.

So let's jump right into this and get to me pulling my foot out of my mouth.

"What is the difference between Agnosticism and Atheism?"

(REVISITED)

While it is accurate to say that Atheists are those who do not believe in gods, let's try to refine the categories a little more.

Theism can be loosely defined as:

The belief that a god or gods exist.

Being the opposite of that, Atheism can be loosely defined as:

NOT the belief that a god or gods exist.

The "NOT" is capitalized to add emphasis on the "A" in Atheism. Using the same logic, we can define agnosticism.

Gnosticism:

A strongly held belief that the truth is known of a certain subject.

Agnosticism:

NOT a strongly held belief that the truth is known of a certain subject.

or

The belief that no one knows for sure, regardless of beliefs.

Using the above definitions, it is possible to create four different categories.

Gnostic Theism:

The belief in a god or gods and the belief that it is the absolute truth.

Agnostic Theism:

The belief in a god or gods and the belief that it could be wrong.

Gnostic Atheism:

The disbelief of known gods and the belief that there are none.

Agnostic Atheism:

The disbelief of known gods and the belief that they could exist.

Typically, Atheists fall under the last category. We believe that it is the most open minded position. We also believe that Agnostic Theists are just as open minded. It's when Gnosticism is introduced that we tend to become militant and agressive. When one closes their mind to other options. To settle the question, what the difference is between Atheism and Agnosticism, it is the same as asking what the difference is between "walking" and "fast." They are not in the same category, one modifies the other. Anyone can be agnostic, whether Theist or Atheist.

Which are you?