A simple hello and a complex case

[LovecraftLover]

I will begin with some of my favorite quotes:

“Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.” - Heinrich Heine

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." - H.P. Lovecraft

“In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed. Impurities after impurities are needed in the soil, if it is to be fertile. Dissension, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed: Fascism does not want them, forbids them, and that's why you're not a fascist; fascists want everybody to be the same, and you are not. But immaculate virtue does not exist either, or if it exists it is detestable.” - Primo Levi

"I think that if for no other reason than that an Auschwitz existed, no one in our age should speak of Providence." - Primo Levi

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” - Epicurus

I apologize if my post is not as eloquent as it could be; I am writing this a few minutes shy of a family obligation.

Hello, my name is LovecraftLover (because I, ahem, love Lovecraft), and I identify as an atheist and a philosophical Taoist. I do not believe in a literal, personal, all-powerful God, but rather the natural forces of the universe, which I prefer to think of in Taoist terms (so long as those terms make scientific sense, which they most often do). My philosophical Taoist affiliation means that I look up to Lao Tzu and Zuang Tzu as teachers of ethics and metaphysics, but ignore later, more superstitious Chinese thinkers. It is important to note that I do not believe in reincarnation, Chinese astrology, or crazy New Age medicine; such superstitions belong to folk Taoism and Buddhism, not philosophical Taoism. I look forward to sharing my Eastern spin on atheism with the people on this board, and I hope I will meet with no hostility.

My religious background is complex. I was born to liberal Presbyterian parents in 1992, but I had a lot of contact - much of it very negative - with crazier breeds of Christians throughout my southern community. My mother, for reasons she has never been able to explan to me she converted to Catholicism when I was seven and had me confirmed along with her. I recall being a child with a great interest in science and a strong belief in God, and I was bewildered when people kept telling me that the two things were incompatable.  

As I moved into adolescence, I had a lot of questions about religion that no one in my life or on the internet were able to properly answer. I especially remember puzzling over the Holocaust and why God could have allowed or caused it (I studied what we call Holocaust theology, and the utter insanity I found in that discipline is a whole 'nother post). I flirted with Wicca and Islam, wondering if exotic, non-Christian religions would have better answers. From my explorations I gained a great open-mindedness, but nothing that even approached a rational explanation for the world I saw around me. It was not until I became an atheist that the universe began to make sense to me both physically and morally.

I leave you with my favorite Taoist parable:

Three Chinese sages came to a wide, fast river that they could not cross. The first sage sat down and meditated on the Tao for ten minutes, then got up and walked across the water. The second sage sat down and meditated on the Tao for thirty minutes, then walked across the water to join the other. The third sage sat down, meditated on the Tao for a full hour, got up to join the others...and promptly fell into the river.

The first sage then turned to the second sage and said, "do you think we should show him where the rocks are?

[elliebean]

Hello and welcome, Lovecraft!  

[_7654_]

Welcome aboard friend hopefully you will like the ride ...

[i_am_i]

What is this "Tao" and why do you believe in it?

[Asmodean]

Welcome! Always glad to see someone who disbelieves them potion-selling new-agers

[pinkocommie]

Welcome!  I hope you like it here.   :bananacolor:  

[Squid]

What is this "Tao" and why do you believe in it?

The Tao is everything and it is nothing.

Welcome aboard LCL.

[pinkocommie]

Welcome!  

[Tank]

The high quality of younger atheists never ceases to amaze me! Welcome aboard!