by tangible, I mean things that can be "seen under a microscope", touched, studied, measured, etc.
How about untangibles, such as: truth, person, justice, beauty, love, etc... I am right to say that we acknowledge that these things exist even if they can't be seen. Personally, I think that those values all point to the source--God.
Comments?
2007-10-03 09:22:45 · 35 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
"truth, justice, beauty, love" these are subjective and change with the times. They only exist in the mind, same as god.
2007-10-03 09:29:05 · answer #1 · answered by Blue girl in a red state 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm agnostic, but still wish to give you my answer....
You mean intangibles, rather than untangibles.....
Beauty can be seen.
Love (like other emotions) can be felt.
Justice can be meted out.
Truth is an absolute, a function of logic.
To some degree, all these things really are "tangible" even if they do not have substance or mass. They are not necessarily tied to God in any way.
I have seen and experienced all of the things you mention, and acknowledge that all "exist". I have not seen or experienced anything that demonstrates to me that God exists or is the one responsible for man being on Earth, etc...nor do I have any proof that God doesn't exist.
2007-10-03 09:36:55 · answer #2 · answered by peytonbarclay 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I've never met an atheist who says they only believe in the tangible - that would be stupid. There are many, many things which clearly exist but are not, strictly speaking, tangible. What the atheists I know say is they only believe in things for which there is evidence. That's not the same thing. There are forms of evidence other than being able to see, touch or hold something. I know love exists because I can feel it myself - that's evidence. I can also observe other people's actions reflecting love - couples making sacrifices and compromises to stay together for decades, parents making sacrifices for their children, children taking care of their elderly parents...that's evidence too.
2016-05-20 00:32:00 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As an atheist, I don't enjoy the luxury of belief. "Belief" literally means to accept something as true without substantiating evidence, and that is something I would never do. I "know" some things, I "think" about others, I even have an "opinion" or two. What I never do is "believe in" anything, because belief represents a deliberate abdication of reason and logic.
It is easy to know that tangible things are real because they actually exist in objective physical reality. The intangibles you list do not actually have their own independent existence because they are all merely properties of of some other object which actually does exist. In other words, they are abstractions. For example, I love my wife. There is no denying that she actually exists; there is no denying I also exist. However, my love for her is an abstraction which has no independent existence of its own. My love cannot be said to exist because it is not a thing, but merely a description of my subjective mental state.
Time and again I have pointed out that all the ancients and most modern believers are solipsists, who imagine their own subjective perceptual experiences are real. For such a person God appears to be subjectively real, however, because God is not part of objective physical reality, He can never be said to actually exist. No matter how devout you may be, your own thoughts are merely abstractions which never actually exist. You may sense God's presence in a most intimate way, but that does not make Him real, and you cannot truthfully assert that He actually exists.
2007-10-03 10:14:53 · answer #4 · answered by Diogenes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can imagine truth (a human concept that is the subject of great dispute), justice (a human concept that varies by person and culture), beauty (a human concept that seems to depend upon the beholder's personal opinion and what is beheld), love (another man made idea which has innumerable meanings and shades of meaning).
None of those intangibles has any concrete form nor do they have any one meaning to all people. If they were ordained by god, shouldn't the concepts be immutable and planet-wide?
Since these are not "values" and since they cease to exist if no human mind is thinking about it, they are like god. Only exists in a human mind.
2007-10-03 09:29:13 · answer #5 · answered by BAL 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You can associate them with an imaginary being if you want, but they are physical. No, they can't be seen under a microscope, they are experienced through our senses and can be seen in scientific tests.
Truth is logic, a scientific term. justice is just the punishment for doing wrong by the law. By person I am assuming that you mean the person's "soul". The soul, beauty, and love come from brainwaves in your head. We can scientifically see the difference in brainwaves when you experience these thing.
2007-10-03 09:34:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'll drink to this question...
*Drink*
And for your answer: Yes I believe in untangible things such as truth and love. However, these things are not evidence of a supreme being.
2007-10-03 09:30:16 · answer #7 · answered by Christy ☪☮e✡is✝ 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
In business accounting there is a ledger entry for Goodwill. Companies put a dollar value there to reflect the value of their company's good name, credit rating and connectedness with markets and suppliers.
This practice is reflected in a common business expression, "Business is business and love is BS!"
Intangibles can have values given to them, but they do not actually exist as realities.
The values are assigned by humans, and only serve to show what concepts humans place values on.
2007-10-03 09:34:50 · answer #8 · answered by Y!A-FOOL 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Person? People exist last time I checked...
Otherwise, I can agree that we humans use words to describe emotions. Emotions are real, if not "tangible." Thus, truth, beauty and love are all subjective, and thus do not really exist in any way other than descriptions for emotions that we share.
So, God is emotion and nothing more?
2007-10-03 09:26:26 · answer #9 · answered by ? 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
lame,
I believe in lots of things I can't touch or see. However, I don't believe that the idea of what Chrisians call religion is any sort of reality.
How is it that a perfect being like God had to change everything around when he sent Jesus down? If he is perfect and knows all why did he change how religion worked? He exterminated (supposedly) the world because he didn't like it.
Christians make me sad, the bible is so full of contradictions that people who believe it all should be committed.
2007-10-03 09:28:25 · answer #10 · answered by joey k 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I don't have to believe in love, which is an emotion caused by a chemical reaction in your body. I don't have to believe in truth, because something is either logically true or it isn't. It does not require belief, it is a word. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, beauty can't be defined, something can't be defined as beautiful, it's in the opinion of the person observing it- Also caused by our brain and the way it thinks.
2007-10-03 09:28:12 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋