Arthur Schopenhauer
What is, is.
- Joined
- May 1, 2010
- Messages
- 1,158
- MBTI Type
- INTJ
- Enneagram
- 5
Learn to be more accepting of religion and less pretentious about your Atheism.
It's probably because INTs, in general, tend to apply analytical reasoning to everything in a vicious manner that we tend to dislike church. Plus, as you said, we're not very social or generally optimistic (as in fact, we tend to be very cynical). Thus, church and the superficial smiling and false emotions which go along with it just tends to throw us off. We INTPs generally aren't made to see life from some false rosy glow; we want to know what is truly driving the world. Hence, logic tends to be used like a knife to cut away at anything and everything which doesn't add up. Therefore, we can totally reason away all of the happy aspects of life which simply ultimately lack real meaning. This may lead to nihilism, or something similar, but always something realistic and based on what logically exists. So we just tend to want to be around intelligent persons, as we are—not a bunch of rather "mindlessly social" drones who actually do tend to believe anything they are told.
At least that's how I tend to view the INTPs general relationship to society. I've been there, done that. I destroyed the concept of God, internally, through logic. I've reasoned away all of the fancy wishful thinking hopeful perceptions a human being could have toward this world (which I've come to conclude is absurd and meaningless). I've decided people are generally morons (as George Carlin did). So a church is the LAST place I ever want to be, truly wasting my time. I could masturbate, or play a few video games, instead. And life's more pleasurable and less logically dissonant that way.
Learn to be more accepting of religion...
You might want to visit this thread http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/bonfire/32773-righteousness-vs-being-self-righteous.html and dwell on the differences.
Do you mind people questioning your Atheism? Or rather when/if they do what is the first thought that passes through your mind?
For me the true meaning of righteousness is the person who is a living example of doing the right thing but makes no claims to it.
Your definition in fact is another aspect of self-righteousness.
Give me one good reason.
Knowledge in martial arts actually means self-knowledge. A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and accept the consequences of his own doing. The understanding of JKD is through personal feeling from movement to movement in the mirror of the relationship and not through a process of isolation. To be is to be related. To isolate is death. To me, ultimately, martial arts means honestly expressing yourself. Now, it is very difficult to do. It has always been very easy for me to put on a show and be cocky, and be flooded with a cocky feeling and feel pretty cool and all that. I can make all kinds of phoney things. Blinded by it. Or I can show some really fancy movement. But to experience oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, now that is very hard to do. - Bruce Lee
I know many people that have benefited from the thing. It gave them hope in their darkest hour and a person to confide in when they were alone. One of the strongest and most respectable women I know is religious; she was in a car crash about seven years ago and she will openly admit that if it was not for god, she would have been a completely different person. Hell, my mother was about to commit suicide when I was a baby but she says that I smiled at her right before she was about to kill herself and that made her want to live and she prayed to god that day and was saved. I can name numerous incidents where religion has bettered people or families. I've experienced this firsthand many times.
Please note that I'm not saying that we should be accepting of violence or abuse... I'm only saying that we must see the goodness in the thing as there is goodness in it. It is more of an agnostic take on things, I know, but it is certainly more rational than blind hatred.
Faith does not offer the least support for a proof of objective truth. Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.
I have never understood the appeal in religion either. It makes no logical or ethical sense to me and my fundamental principles. I have a hard time with a friend of mine who is quite deeply religious. For her, it's about ethical guidance, being connected to God and her community, believing in something more, knowing that someone will always be there for her...
If someone questions my atheism as if I'm an alien, or some kind of hedonistic heathen who lacks moral who is going to go out and murder a bunch of people for not believing in God, as if I'm a freak who has a disease that must be treated very carefully, I am annoyed by that fact. But do I get bothered that they have asked me? No.
I'll honestly tell anyone anything they want to know. However, if their motivation for asking me is because they can't possibly understand how another person can hold different beliefs, then I'm pretty annoyed by them. So, I'll usually just answer their questions and explain why I don't believe in God. Usually, they'll react odd (because they can't logically refute my position) and will slowly move away and disengage from the conversation.
And the first thought that passes through my mind is, "Here we go again, now I have to sit here and explain why I'm different from these judgmental, narrow-minded people who assume everyone should be the same, and treat me like some ostracized freak from another country (or better yet, another planet)."
Anything else you want to know?