Submerge Yourself in the Cold, Clear Flow
I consider myself a logical person. I always have. Which is why, I suppose, even when I was a believer I tried to use logic to explain my beliefs. As a proselytizing missionary I spent countless futile hours reasoning with believers in other faith traditions, trying to get them to see the inconsistencies in their belief system and to demonstrate—with words, with logic, with the force of conviction!—that my beliefs were superior and they should convert to Mormonism. You may or may not be surprised to hear that I rarely got anywhere with these tactics, except to find myself embroiled in endless debates with college students and professors and other people who like to hear themselves talk.
After ditching Mormonism and then Christianity and finally theism altogether, I was still in that mindset. If people only thought about their beliefs, they’d realize they were logically untenable and they’d abandon them! This also rarely (never) worked.
I am an atheist because there’s no reliable, reasonable evidence for the existence of any kind of god, and there’s plenty of evidence against the existence of specific gods. That’s logic. But it’s not convincing to someone who relies on the warm fuzzy feeling in their chest to decide what’s true.
So I’m done doing that. I’m still gonna blog about what I believe and what matters to me, but no more trying to convince people. Because you know what? I’ve stopped believing that I can touch the center of people who rely on faith for decision-making. That I can reason them out of their belief. Because a belief that isn’t supported by evidence cannot be based on logic, and can’t be reached by reason.
There you go. I stayed up thirty-six hours straight over the past couple days watching an addictive and remarkably illogical TV show called Fringe so I’m not really strong on “reason” or “argument” right this second anyway.
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July 26th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
I frequently dream that I’m screaming logical arguments at my parents about their hatred toward me, other gay people, illegal immigrants, Democrats, anyone who’s not a straight white male, etc. Then I wake up and relive the logic over and over while I shower, while I drive to work, during the work day, and sometimes I’m even still arguing with my parents in my head at the end of the day.
And I, too have found out how pointless this is. First of all, it’s pointless because it’s all in my head and it’s all things I would (probably) never say to them aloud. But secondly (and my dreams often revolve around this fact), they just would never get it. And OH! How frustrating!
Because, like you said, their beliefs aren’t based on logic. And now that mine are, too (hopefully!), I can’t even remember how it was when it was otherwise.
Anyway, all this could be summed up by me saying, “I KNOW, RIGHT!?”
July 27th, 2010 at 7:58 am
I heart Fringe.
Kerry´s last blog ..Its the Kamikaze Chipmunk!
July 27th, 2010 at 9:52 am
I did the same thing you did on the mission. So glad I came to the knowledge that those warm fuzzy feelings were not the spirit telling me the book of mormon was true – especially since I felt those more frequently when watching fictional movies than reading the Book of Mormon. Yeah, sometimes I got them during a testimony, but they were just touching stories.
Thank goodness logic prevailed.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
About two years ago, when I began questioning my own beliefs, your blog seriously did help me to begin thinking for myself. Er, not to contradict THIS post, but… it hasn’t been an entirely fruitless endeavor, my friend.