When (if ever) have you deferred to your philosophical or theological system over your intuitions?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nUnlike some other atheists I have spoken to, my intuitions did not initially run toward disbelief, and I spent a number of years as a believer. It was by evaluating my theological beliefs through the lens of rational skepticism over a period of time that my faith began to erode. Eventually I had to admit to myself that my intuition toward belief in supernatural was incorrect. Being habitual about skeptical thinking has effectively altered my natural intuition since then, however, I still struggle at times when I catch myself accepting things without critically thinking about them, mostly because I\u2019m too lazy to follow through or because I find the initial evaluation agreeable to my outlook. It\u2019s incredibly easy to skim through a twitter feed and read an article headline that fits my expectations\u2014that a homeopathic remedy doesn\u2019t work, a GOP pundit is accused of something awful, that George Lucas is trying to ruin Star Wars even worse\u2014and retweet it without reading the full article let alone checking it for accuracy. When I\u2019m aware of this tendency, I try to keep myself more consistent with the skepticism I value, even if it flies in the face of my natural intuition.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Are there people whose opinions on morality you trust more than your own? How do you recognize them? How is trusting them different than trusting someone\u2019s opinion on physics?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI trust no one\u2019s sense of morality more than my own. I do not believe anyone is above moral questioning. However, there are people I admire whose opinions and moral outlook I use as a benchmark for my own. Some of these I grew up with\u2014parents, siblings, cousins\u2014and others are those I\u2019ve befriended over time. I recognize these people by noting shared values, such as kindness, cooperation, and generosity, and by how consistently they exemplify these values to those around them. If someone behaves morally only in a certain context or toward certain types of individuals, they are not truly moral. If one of these morally admired persons were to question the morality of my actions or express a view I question, I would most likely review my own position for consistency, shifting it or reaffirming it as appropriate. Unlike various academic disciplines, such as the humanities or natural sciences, where I can accept an expert\u2019s opinion and trust that the academic body of their specialty has at least somewhat guaranteed that they know what they\u2019re talking about, I don\u2019t believe that someone can be an \u2018expert\u2019 on morality, which is why I rank my own moral evaluations as paramount.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can you name any works of art (interpreted pretty broadly: books, music, plays, poetry, mathematical proofs, etc) which really capture the way you see life\/fill you with a sense of awe and wonder? You can give a short explanation or just list a few pieces.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThere are many pieces of art and literature from which I\u2019ve found meaning and a sense of awe. Philosophical and moral perspectives are, in my opinion, best presented through the lens of fiction and artistic expression. Art and literature can resonate with a person in a meaningful way by inspiring an emotion (even a negative one), by introducing an unfamiliar concept or view, or by \u2018capturing\u2019 or expressing something the viewer could not have themselves articulated. The overall quality and general regard of a piece of art need not determine its value for this either. A person can find meaning in an issue of Spider-man<\/em> as easily as in Hamlet<\/em>. I would not exclude religiously inspired works from this, nor religious texts themselves. I\u2019ve spent summers delving into Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy<\/em>; I\u2019ve stood in awe of Dali\u2019s Christian-themed \u2018Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid\u2019; there are verses of the bible I\u2019ve found meaningful, and I need not have faith now to appreciate them still. Art is incredibly valuable because provides people with a common touchstone. By sharing the author\u2019s vision, all viewers can, in discussion of a piece of art, be brought closer together to each other.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click here to judge this entry<\/a><\/strong>, and, once you\u2019ve voted, feel free to speculate and trade theories in the comments or look at other entries in this round.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the thirteenth and final entry in the Atheism round of the 2012 Ideological Turing Test for Religion. In this round, the honest answers of atheists are mixed in with Christians\u2019 best efforts to talk like atheists. It\u2019s your job to see if you can spot the difference. The voting link appears at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[165,166],"class_list":["post-3281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideologicalturingtest","tag-atheist-turing-answers-2012","tag-turing-answers-2012"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n