Labels for anti-theism, anti-quackery, anti-nonsense
» Gallimaufry
An exercise in inflamed whim, nothing more.
I have what is probably a typical on and off again relationship with labels. In finding a new noun to describe some part of myself I've clarified assorted segments of my inner life. But there's the old say, the map isn't the territory. Whatever particularities you associate with the word you've chosen to denote some personal quality, others often (usually?) see other attributes adhering to the word.
For a long time I called myself an agnostic. Actually too young to have cleaner taste I called myself a nihilo-epistemologist. I rejected the idea of knowledge, but never the pragmatic assumption of knowing. I've never been the kind of guy who wants to engage in debates like how do I know the chair is there. Not that I'd argue with Hume. There's no settling the absolute existence of the chair, no benefit in fretting over it instead of sitting down. If you were to ask me what I mean by chair I'd be tempted to do what Dr. Johnson did to the stone when he wanted to settle Bishop Berkeley's metaphysics. I was just a kid trying to capture my total metaphysical aporia.
I switched to atheist not because I know there's no platitudinous or whimsical First Cause behind everything. But given some biggish set of possibilities, the tiny few that clearly come from helpless mortal need for wish fulfillment isn't worth considering when confronting infinity. If It has some real interest in me It can get in touch. If It made everything that for a prank or as a cosmic Busby Berkeley knowing about it would be interesting but irrelevant to my life.
Some folks like to call themselves secular humanists. A dowdy term I've always recoiled from. I know just enough about history to feel uncomfortable with the stereotypical pop notions of Renaissance humanism. And really I don't care for much of humanity. If I could clear the planet of a huge bulk of them tomorrow they'd be gone.
Initially I laughed at the notion of calling myself a Bright. Dawkins can almost persuade me. That is because he's a gifted polemicist and it isn't an ugly word. But really I can't imagine myself calling myself a Bright instead of merely bright.
There's freethinker. Not sure why I reject it. Maybe it sounds as smug as Bright.
I shouldn't forget infidel. For me that gives too much acknowledgement to the Christians.
Often I've said I'm Village Atheist. But my partner had to point out that it has an element of self-deprecating humor. I've always meant to mean that I'd rather laugh at you than, ahem, discuss your crazed half-baked ideas about the universe.
Sometimes I say I'm an anti-theist. Morality derived from an Angry Daddy is clearly hurtful. If there's a theist conception that amounts to more than a baby's cry in the crib then it is a mighty amazing fluke.
But I'm as anti-pseudoscience, UFO, psychic powers, as I am anti-god.
Really having a label isn't important to me. But I do wonder how some people pick the word they use to sum up their disagreement with the irrational.
Comments
Personally, I describe my beliefs as “mine.”
I seriously doubt that my theological beliefs would be supported by any religion.
I’m happy with that. I figure that if everyone disagrees, I must be on to something.
Posted by: mike | March 27, 2004 11:48 PM
Some Spanish philosopher who lived at some point in time that was before now and whose name escapes me once said, “Our most strongly held beliefs are often our most suspect.” How does that relate to labels? I’ll get to that in a moment. I think most Christians should do some serious soul searching about their beliefs, for example but leave us not get me started on Christianity. It is one of the most dangerous ideologies ever conceived and it seems to me that if the “end times” truly comes it will be the Christians who bring the whole mess about.
Labels. Yes. The thing to understand is that a label isn’t just a word, it’s a set of emotions, images, beliefs, assumptions about the person or thing being labeled. Take the example of a chair. One might ask, what is a chair and the obvious answer is that it’s a thing on which one parks one’s buttocks. Sure you could use it for that but you could also use it as a stepstool, exercise epuipment, hold off deranged wild cats with it… The chair doesn’t give a rat’s pitoot about its intended purpose; the idea of a chair is a mental framework that we create and tack on to our experience whenever we see a “chair”. That’s a rather stupid example but I hope it gets the point across. I have a friend Cheryl. She is a lesbian. If when I first met her I thought, “Well she’s a lesbian and that means this, that, the other, about her… Yep I got her pegged” I would never had listened to her and heard what she had to say. Certainly I wouldn’t love her like the sister I never had as I do now.
Not only that but labels are often an excuse for laziness in that we use them as a sort of mental shorthand so we don’t have to pay attention to life. In some cases it’s useful to be able to say, “This person is a bank teller and his job is to blahblahblah…” because you’re probably not going to engage in meaningful conversation with him. It’s just that if you do it without taking a look at what your assumptions are you’ll miss out on some interesting opportunities. If you are so insecure in your place in the universe that you need a nice simple explanation for everything and cookie cutter labels for “right” and “wrong” and the way things ought to be, if you are so fearful of yourself that you need to believe without question then you are probably in the Christian right. Weather permitting, you would probably like to either force everyone to agree with you through torture or death threats… Your labels most likely are “sinner” or “people God hates” or whatnot. As such your are probably not looking at this site or reading this.
From “labeling” to “desperately trying to ignore reality because it does not mesh with how one wants things to be” to “doing one’s best to destroy that which one does not want in one’s version of reality”. That’s my several thousand cents on the matter.
Posted by: wu wei lion | March 28, 2004 12:21 AM