All the Gods are Belong to Us

Blue Berry Flavor is Best

I do not believe that I can eat an entire 747 jumbo jet no matter how small each bite is and how much Diet Coke I have to wash it down. By the testimony of evidence, I can change my mind immediately after I down the last bite. The last bite falsifies my provisional belief (Popper) or starting hypothesis (Bayes). I would like to believe that all my beliefs are similarly based on observed facts about the world and my interaction with the world.

This is all there is.

The world and the stuff in the world are all built from the elements manufactured by second generation stars. That is, the inward pull of gravity versus the outward pressure of electromagnetic radiation in first generation stars - the stars that formed first - after the big bang 13.72BYA. The gravity crushed H and He atoms into carbon, nitrogen and the other elements that make up the planets in our solar system. The 747 comprises these elements, primarily Al, as I do. We are both natural objects in the natural world. This describes my belief in the natural world that I have checked with experts in the sciences and have in turn continuously improved my hypotheses about the natural world.

Sam Harris states that the minute Jesus descends from the clouds (can Jesus appear on a cloudless day?), we can begin collecting evidence for a Theory of Jesus. My unmotivated belief that Yeshua ben Yoseph did not die  - or for that matter never lived - is not a belief that I can possibly falsify absent the newly emerging Science of Jesus.

If I say that John has learned that Dewey defeated Truman or discovered that the moon is made of green cheese I am strictly wrong. If I say I think there is a Jesus or I heard that there is a Jesus I am at least justified in holding a provisional belief that these may be true pending my usual skeptical inquiry. Knowing, learning and discovering are called factive verbs. These are bounded by observable and reproducible facts about the world. I do not accept bald or unconditional belief. I usually say that I have provisional beliefs about the things that I have little or no supporting evidence for. I use factive verbs about places, people and events with a chain of evidence demonstrating a determined effort to plow through a sea of established fact. Theories embracing most of the facts are falsifiable. Beliefs about the supernatural world are not falsifiable. Beliefs about the 10000000 gods are not falsifiable. In fact, most statements about the gods have been disprove. There is not any more evidence for Yahweh than for Zeus or Odin. Science did not discover or learn that Odin was completely discredited because of discoverable news about Yahweh.

My Double Bromance

I have a provisional belief that no supernatural beings of any sort have any effects in the real world. If an episode of the TV show Supernatural unfolds around me I will change my provisional belief that no supernatural happenings have ever occurred to a new Theory of the Supernatural. I have waited 54 years for the evidence to emerge and I am happy to wait patiently for another half a century. Further, other people - all the other people - that regale me with stories about 'things that go bump in the night' often mis-use the language. These folks tell me that they have discovered facts about Jehovah. The fact that all ancient texts make conflicting claims is completely demonstrable.

A Jesus sighting is a positive exception to my Theory of Nature. That is, none of my rules of fact production about Jesus predict any fact finding about Jesus. Jesus on Doppler radar would be a real or positive presentation of a new fact. The belief statements about Jesus are negative exceptions to the Jesus Myth. None of the predictions from this theory have ever been observed. There should be a body of evidence about a divine Jesus but there is not.

I claim that I am an atheist because I have as yet not seen evidence of theos. The spirit in my spirituality is Yeat's Spiritus Mundi or Hobbs mortal spirit of Leviathan. When I jump into Barton Springs I experience sublime ecstasy and spiritual uplift. Gaia does this by cooling the clear water to 68degF so that I can feel the natural world in all its forms before 9am when the swim is free.

That's how this atheist rolls.