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Are you familiar with the Neil Gaiman book American Gods or the TV adaptation by the same name? Other than the supernatural aspects, it is the best model I know of to summarize my view of religion.

In the Russell's Teapot + Bayes theorem sense I am definitely an atheist. In another sense I'm polytheistic to the extreme of believing in all gods. The atheist belief is a well known model many take seriously. I don't know of anyone other than me who takes the American Gods polytheism model seriously. If you aren't familiar with that source material it might not make much sense to hear someone declare they are an atheist polytheist who believes all gods are real.

Comte de Sats Germain 10mo ago

I'm not familiar with that, but it sounds like it might be similar to something I might actually believe - if God is infinite, then he is in everything, so there's a spirit in everything. Animism makes sense. And likewise, gods can be real because they're personifications of the one being, the All God, how ever you choose to describe him/it.

But its hypothetical - I have had no experience that directly indicates this to be the case. I just wouldn't condemn a person for having whatever gods, for this reason.

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Bill Cypher 10mo ago

It's more the idea that gods are as real and powerful in this world as the number and dedication of their followers.

Few believers, the god is weak. No more believers, the god dies.

So Jesus may not have even been a real historical figure, and no supernatural god figure behind him. He is still a very powerful god because he has many followers acting independently but in concert based on what they believe he teaches.

The Jesus you like is different than the Jesus of most modern Christians. Literally 2 different gods as I see it. Your Jesus is far less powerful also because theirs has more followers.

One of my favorite gods is Odin. Of course he has very few followers today. I think that shows with the amount of anti intellectualism and expert hatred we see around us. We may have some science worshippers today but science without wisdom has many faults. Those faults are exploited to help drive people to convert and be more devout in the anti expert religion.

Comte de Sats Germain 10mo ago

Egregors. Could be.

IMO my Jesus is vastly more powerful than the Jesus of idolatrous Christians. He's the life and truth - that's the life force within, which makes biological life and the experience of this Hubble in eternity possible. Its Grace. And that's the same internal fire of the Zoroastrians. There are infinite ways of describing the one thing. The Dao, the Spirit, the invariable Truth, the whole, the Monad - but IMO, the most elegant word is grace.

And I know an idolatrous Christian would attack me for saying this, but its really easy to prove. Just read look up the Greek words as you read the Gospels. One little step. Easy. Fucking Idolators...

And... It doesn't matter. Its simultaneously the most profound thing and also the most pointless. Live life. Forget about it. It isn't going anywhere.

Bill Cypher 10mo ago

Never seen the word egregor before. Not shocking it exists, it seems like a painfully self evident concept to me someone else must have thought of it also.

Grace is certainly something modern Christians lack.

Less wrong talks about the pain of changing your mind a lot. One point they spell out that we often overlook, you know you can live to bear the truth because you already are living with the truth. All that changes is your acceptance of it. Fancy way of saying I completely agree with your last paragraph.