20 years ago, the worst thing I could say publicly was “I don’t believe in God.” Still, I said it because- after a lot of thinking about it, questioning it and laying it all out in front of me and looking at it logically- I don’t believe in God. Neither do I believe in any gods. It's pretty simple. I am an a-theist- I am without a belief in a god or gods.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter quite succinctly. As a dyed in the wool atheist I would balk at the idea of a spirit, and would be in touch with like minded folk. Those very same like minded folk will quite happily go along with what appears to me (from the outside anyway) as a bizarre shared delusion. Scepticism and the glands that carry it... fully excised.
I don't understand how people insist that I must have this feeling that they have (the comment below is a prime example). It smacks of those religious types insisting "you might not believe you have a soul, but we and god see it". To make matters worse, there is a very clear push to obscure and obfuscate with poorly conduct pseudo-studies, inference based on lived experience, and weird correlations found or teased out of datasets that simply don't have the ability to support the claims being made. That so many are falling for it, just boggles the mind.
Believing in god is very different from believing that other people believe in god. Believing in gender identity is also not the same as believing in other people when they tell you they have one and it might be at odds with our others see them. I agree with Luna that there are lacks in your arguments on whether gender identity exists or not, but ultimately that's irrelevant, no one is asking you to believe in it, you are being asked to accept those who do and want to act according to their belief. During Ramadan, my kids' friends who are Muslim are allowed to take time off school to pray, for example. I don't need to believe in any god to be fine with that. If people who don't believe in gender identity don't get in the way of those who do to act accordingly, I don't think anyone minds your belief and you might even find yourself having some interesting conversations about it. But many non-believers in gender identity are against basic rights for those who believe and suffer from that, and that is where the problem lies.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter quite succinctly. As a dyed in the wool atheist I would balk at the idea of a spirit, and would be in touch with like minded folk. Those very same like minded folk will quite happily go along with what appears to me (from the outside anyway) as a bizarre shared delusion. Scepticism and the glands that carry it... fully excised.
I don't understand how people insist that I must have this feeling that they have (the comment below is a prime example). It smacks of those religious types insisting "you might not believe you have a soul, but we and god see it". To make matters worse, there is a very clear push to obscure and obfuscate with poorly conduct pseudo-studies, inference based on lived experience, and weird correlations found or teased out of datasets that simply don't have the ability to support the claims being made. That so many are falling for it, just boggles the mind.
Thoughtful piece, and thanks for sharing it Gia.
Believing in god is very different from believing that other people believe in god. Believing in gender identity is also not the same as believing in other people when they tell you they have one and it might be at odds with our others see them. I agree with Luna that there are lacks in your arguments on whether gender identity exists or not, but ultimately that's irrelevant, no one is asking you to believe in it, you are being asked to accept those who do and want to act according to their belief. During Ramadan, my kids' friends who are Muslim are allowed to take time off school to pray, for example. I don't need to believe in any god to be fine with that. If people who don't believe in gender identity don't get in the way of those who do to act accordingly, I don't think anyone minds your belief and you might even find yourself having some interesting conversations about it. But many non-believers in gender identity are against basic rights for those who believe and suffer from that, and that is where the problem lies.