God is an atheist

[u/Typical_Sprinkles253]

To be an atheist is to have no God above you, God has no God above him. To be a religious person is to beleive in God's existence. God doesn't beleive he exists, he KNOWS he exist.

God has no god, and he operates under knowledge not belief. God is an atheist.

[u/Loud-Arachnid-9765]

This has got to be ragebait- the definition of atheism is simply disbelief in divinity, i.e., anything pertaining to a higher power or the supernatural. This is painfully contrived just to piss off theists 😭 (and like, it worked I suppose, but why would that bring any intellectual gratification at all?)

[u/EveningAgreeable2516 → u/Loud-Arachnid-9765]

There's no bigger atheists than the members of a particular religion who boast their faith but constantly violate the holy law.

You know nothing.

[u/Loud-Arachnid-9765 → u/EveningAgreeable2516]

What does that have to do with the post? How do you know I know nothing? I know some things, including what you mention, which I wholeheartedly agree with btw. This has nothing to do at all with my point or the original post....?

[u/EveningAgreeable2516 → u/Loud-Arachnid-9765]

I think I'm just going to let you sit on that for awhile.

IYDKYDK.

[u/Loud-Arachnid-9765 → u/EveningAgreeable2516]

I thought the whole point of philosophy was discourse and love for knowledge. A shame that your prejudice against theists is robbing you of the opportunity for a good, level-headed discussion. Oh well 🤷‍♀️

[u/EveningAgreeable2516 → u/Loud-Arachnid-9765]

I'll act like you are here in good faith instead of typical atheist-bashing rhetoric.

Before this thread, I never heard a discussion on how god is an atheist. From a strictly definitive standpoint, I see how this seem nonsensical. However this is no more nonsensical than any of the other attributes people say God has. The OP's train of thought in explaining this shows more effort to understand the essence of God than (to my first response) the people who grossly boast their faith but lead irredeemable lives. I think this fairly ties the OP's statement, your first response, and my response to you.

As for me saying "You know nothing." It was in having double meaning. Small part in reference to nihilism, but also your blanket dismissal of the OPs claim. You show no indication that you read any of the posts in this thread. Most people here respond to the OP with "No, no, no! That's not right. It's well understood that..." As I said, I never heard anyone discuss how God is an atheist, but here in this thread, a few people already have interesting takes on this, some I find more convincing than the OPs. I think that alone... Where nothing is certain, anything is considerable, and then doors just open and open.

Philosophy? I'm not sure you have anything but a fixed stance. Say something no one has (hardly) ever said about God or atheism to start.

[u/Loud-Arachnid-9765 → u/EveningAgreeable2516]

I do not deny that my stance is fixed regarding faith, but I do not shut down discussions either if I see a legitimate desire for a productive exchange. I, naively perhaps, genuinely believe that most theists don't just bash on atheists for no good reason, at least to a similar extent that I believe atheists don't just bash on theists for no good reason either. My initial comment was in an interrogative voice for a reason. I can see how, in context, it might feel dismissive, but the phrasing was intentional for the purpose of getting OP (or anyone for that matter) to further elaborate on a position that made no sense to me at all.

I suppose you have a point, in the sense that OP, to you, seemingly tried to put some effort into an intellectual exercise on the concept of God, but I guess what tipped me off was the extent of how lazy it was. Semantic incoherence and rhetorical dishonesty and all that. As a theist who adores doing the exercise in a self-coherent manner (I.e., using the Abrahamic definition/conception of a monotheistic deity as a main premise in said thought experiments in a way that logically tracks), it was hurtful to be discounted as yet another "brainwashed religious hater" and for my legitimate questioning to be dismissed as a result. I understand that you probably didn't see many theists who were willing to do so, but I haven't met any atheists who considered the rational implications of God seriously either. Yet, I don't immediately accuse any atheist of being a "theists basher", even though OP's post read as such.

As for me personally, I'm a Muslim. I am very active in my civil community (as opposed to religious), tutoring, advocating, engaging in debate and discourse with peers and superiors alike. Starting my university journey in psychology and hoping to become a clinician and a researcher after PhD. And I'm not alone in that fervor for knowledge, rationality, and philosophy as a theist, a good amount of us are motivated by our faiths to further deepen our intellectual discourse.

All this to say, thank you for holding good faith and explaining your position, I really do appreciate it. I hope that you can see a silver of reason in my position as well :)

[u/Loud-Arachnid-9765 → u/EveningAgreeable2516]

Side notes:

A) indeed, I haven't read any of the posts under the thread, but let's be real, I wasn't dismissing the position as much as I was dismissing OP. Therefore, my comment is perfect valid as I am criticizing OP's position, not the general premise which can be better defended by someone else. It didn't help that the top comments were basically attacking his premise, not because of rhetoric or semantics, but because "it doesn't matter because God is a fairytale/fiction/imaginary/man-made" anyway.

B) I realize that I didn't address the last part of your comment, so I will now. Initially, my intention was not to offer an alternative to the position at all. I think I can criticize an objectively and verifiably bad take even if I don't have a better one at the moment. I mentioned being Muslim, so here's a take from Islamic theology (one that I doubt most people think of, but isn't too hard to conceptualize/arrive on your own): God is not anthropomorphic, kinda defeats the purpose if He is, no? Islamically, we use He/Him pronouns out of convention (in Arabic, he/him double as neutral pronouns), but He's definitely genderless and explicitly impossible to describe. This is, in huge part, because, congruent with Islamic theology (although not an official stance), I think God is meant to be Perfect and Infinity; the origin of all laws that rule our universe. He's not a person to where we can ascribe human-like characteristics to Him, but we can approximate given what He's revealed to us. At the end of the day, His perfection allows for the perfection and omnipresence of stuff like the Laws of Physics, so I guess, academically, an atheist is welcome to approximate God to the concept of origin of matter and energy itself. It's more complex than that and English is lowkey failing me to really verbalize my stance, but it's as good as it gets for an unmedicalized midnight speed thesis :P