I guess atheist is more than “I don’t believe in God”. It’s about not believe that a God created the world and controls our lives. I can accept that there are aliens with sparky hammers and God like powers and still be an atheist 🤷
If they’re not from the Deity region of France they’re just sparkling aliens.
It doesn’t quite work like that.
You are an atheists when it comes to any and all Gods that have been presented to you thus far by other humans. You simply don’t believe any of their claims, because they lack evidence.
If somone told you Thor exists you’d ask him show me the evidence, and if they literally presented Thor to you, you would no longer be an atheist towards the Thor claim.
That is totally ok, you’ve been presented with evidence that Thor exists thus you believe Thor exists. It doesn’t mean you will follow or worship him it just means you now are convinced he exists. You don’t need to fight to keep the atheist label when it comes to Thor in this case.
A lot of believers don’t understand that if the Bible God showed up to me tomorrow and proved himself to be real, I’d no longer be an atheist towards that God claim, but I would not worship or respect him, because the God of the Bible is a massive piece of shit.
If I’m presented with a chicken that is widely understood to be a god, and I don’t see evidence of its divinity, I’m still an atheist towards that chicken.
MCU Thor is the chicken
The point is that Thor from the movies sufficiently proves to you that he is a God. You not believing in a magical chicken is the same as you not believing in a magical Jesus.
That is not what we’re taking about. With Thor we’re taking about a God, that sufficiently proves to you that he is in fact a God, so you at that point claiming to still be an atheist towards Thor wouid make you the unreasonable one.
He’s a god in the same way Superman is. Maybe even a little less god-like tbh.
Maybe my expectations of godhood are a little high? I’m thinking about the omni-stuff ya know, and Thor is both mortal, and very limited in power.
MCU Thor just isn’t godlike, he’s super fucking powerful, but a god is a few levels above that imo.
And if he’s a god because he’s labelled a god, then we’re back to the chicken. The chicken is also labelled a god
Ah. Good argument; where you and I diverge in opinion is that I draw the line at an immortal soul.
Any sufficiently powerful being can be considered a god, in the same way that sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic; I agree. However, if any of these gods could prove to have some control or authority over my existence after death, I’d accept them as God, or a God (if they presented as Olympians, or Valhallians); I’d probably even change my lifestyle. If it were Odin or Thor, and they confirmed that it you die in battle you get to go to Valhalla, I’d sign up to fight in Ukraine immediately - for instance. It’d be a hard proof, but it it were the Abrahamic God, I might suggest something like: “omnipotent means you can make me convinced.”
I’m not a god, and I don’t have some fetish about being the “Captain of my Soul.” Like you, if confronted with Thor, I can recognize his ineffable god-ness without worshipping him; but it it affects my post-death existence, everything changes.
Heck, if they promise to provide me a Good Life and don’t vary too much from my core ethics, I might worship them then, too. It’s not much different from paying taxes and going to work, and it might be hella easier than what I’m currently doing.
Specifically, Creator Deity Atheist, I guess? Especially when the line between superhuman and minor deity is basically a jump rope, a strict definition of theist probably needs a higher standard; not just supernatural being, but super-dimensional?
Maybe a different usage of Atheist is used here, closer to Anti-theist. A belief that gods exist, but they’re not worth worshipping, or no being worth worshipping exists.
Interestingly Marvel has Jesus, Christian God, and a multiverse creator deity, The One Above All, whos been depicted as Jack Kirby on a few occasions.
What??
Pretty good read overall.
Since 1938 and due to the actions of Adolf Hitler, God started drinking at bender-level, going at Job’s Place in Hell. He suffered from a tripolar disorder causing his appearance as the Triune: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He also sometimes went trolling for virgins. During that time, he didn’t speak to anybody.
Like Steve said: “God doesn’t dress like that”
