The Atheist’s Goddess
Atheists have their Supreme Being too
“One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods”: that is the usually-accepted definition for an Atheist.
Paradoxically, though, it cannot be true.
What do Atheists believe in, in fact? By denying the existence of God or gods, they have to assume that the “world” just happen to exist, and that we are here to talk about it due to pure luck.
Or to say it better, due to Pure Luck.
The ancient Greeks themselves recognized the power of Luck, and they worshiped Her as the Goddess Thyke.
And so Atheists have to believe in something: they have to believe in Luck.
Perhaps Luck is not a personal deity. Perhaps She is not interested to the ways of the world (still, can’t resist dabbling into it) and perhaps there is no point in praying to Her.
That is besides the point. The point is that if one exists and there is no God, then Luck must exist, and Luck is the Creator: for all intents and purposes, a God.
This applies also if Luck gets out of the way, and Creation is a property of a Spinozian Nature.
Hence nobody can be a strict, logical “Atheist”.
Agnosticists, on the other hand…
Maurizio - Omnologos 
Atheists believe in many things, but supernatural creators of the universe are not among them.
Joe
2007/Sep/13 at 23:45:38
Joe
In fact, I mentioned Nature as the Creator. And Nature is by definition not “supernatural”.
omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 06:04:35
Nor is nature a goddess named Thyke. 😉
To summarize the reasoning of this atheist: If the universe came from something there is no basis for the assumption that the something (or somethings) were intelligent, sentient, had names or personalities. There is no reason to suppose that anything other than natural processes are the cause of our existence. Wishful thinking and ancient mythologies aside, there simply is no compelling reason to assume that some magical entity exists at all.
So where is the “god” in that picture? If you think atheists must believe in god, the word must not mean much to you.
Joe
2007/Sep/14 at 15:49:53
Joe
A deity does not have to be a sentient, intelligent, personal “magical entity” that lives outside nature.
If you believe that “natural processes” are behind it all, well, then you must believe in Natural Processes…
omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 16:04:34
I do believe in natural processes. I’m not sure what you think that proves, but enjoy it nonetheless.
Joe
2007/Sep/14 at 16:19:54
You’ve found your gods! 😉
There is a really intriguing similarity with animist beliefs, but I’ll deal with that in a later blog
omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 16:24:40
Though I don’t worship them, pray to them, name them, believe I know anything about them absolutely, consult them, or depend on them for moral guidance. But yeah I suppose us atheists are no different then all those believers.
Now excuse me while I go attend a worship service at “Our Universal Force of Gravity”. They’re the best.
Joe
2007/Sep/14 at 17:17:39
I do have the impression that you do “name” the force of gravity 😎
omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 20:39:28
Well I was thinking more like “Fred”.
Joe
2007/Sep/14 at 21:42:48
[…] so to Joe, who writes “There is no reason to suppose that anything other than natural processes are the […]
The Atheist’s Goddess (2) « Maurizio - Omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 22:52:41
Extended reply to several comments at https://omnologos.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/the-atheists-goddess-2/
omnologos
2007/Sep/14 at 22:55:26
Luck needn’t have a consciousness, or to be anthropomorphized. Luck is just what we call it when things work out to your liking by chance. There isn’t much randomness in the universe. You can predict anything and everything if you have enough information. We call the roll of a die random, but it isn’t. We just don’t know what it is going to roll based on the data we have(science can help with this). If you control the variables you can control the outcome of the roll(technology comes in here). Just because the universe is big, complex, confusing and impressive, doesn’t mean there is a/are god(s). Wishing that something is so, does not make it so.
Todd
2007/Oct/15 at 16:56:58
There is an Atheist Goddess. She has a Latin name, Fidem Turbare, and she is an intelligent brunette who presents logical arguments against her own existence. I read about her a few years ago, but I don’t remember where.
Anonymous Coward
2012/Jan/02 at 08:02:22
[…] thing to clarify first. I wrote a blog, not a 100-page tome dissecting the question from all points of view. So it naturally had to come […]
The Atheist’s Goddess (2) | Omnologos
2012/Mar/31 at 00:03:58