No Personal Magic – The Emptiness of Atheism

No Personal Magic – The Emptiness of Atheism
This video is called “NO Personal Magic”, and is part of the “Emptiness of Atheism” series of videos.

The “Emptiness of Atheism” video series is a group of videos I am doing about consequences of being an atheist.

There are consequences to being an atheist which aren’t covered much by atheists, partly because I don’t think they think about them very much

The one I will cover in this video I am calling: “no personal magic” or “no magical universe”.

---

What I mean by that, is the sense that things in life are happening with a larger meaning to them… that the universe gives us “signs”, and personal, magical signals.

I saw an example recently on TV while watching a christian rally revival sort of event.

They were outside, and while the event was going on a big wind came up. It was blowing hard and blew things around the stage and was sort of a squall.

Everyone started cheering, and the preacher was ecstatic, because they all thought it was “god”… god was speaking directly to them through the wind.

Instead of it being just a gusty wind, or squall, it was god showing up to their event. It was a “miracle”.

Other examples are when I hear in personal testimonies of people about their religious experiences or conversions – where they describe things like finding a medallion of a saint on the ground at some point… or having all of the traffic lights turn green while driving to church… some sort of coincidental event that they take to mean a direct, PERSONAL intervention by a higher power.

These events are thought to be “personal” and “magical”…

I personally have actually had quite a number of those types of experiences myself… inexplicable events that have happened which seem like some sort of “personal magic” happening… directly related to my life.

However as an agnostic atheist… I can’t say those experiences are any evidence of a higher power, or supernatural power revealing itself to me.

Here is the reason why…

Atheism, by definition is a lack of belief in gods or god, or in any deity or supernatural being.

This leads to, it seems to me, a rather strict materialism… in the sense that the material world is the foundation of everything. I see no “real” evidence of anything supernatural or magical.

A world without god or gods, or supernatural powers – rules out any magical personal experiences… because magic is defined as “having or apparently having supernatural powers”.

There is a kind of “emptiness”, in living a life where there are no supernatural powers speaking to you or exhibiting itself to you personally… events just happen, but without any special personal magic or meaning in a larger sense.

As humans, we are strongly wired to feel like there are “forces” and “powers” that are somehow conscious and conscious of us.. aware of us and interacting with us or revealing itself to us.

But as atheists, we know this cannot be.

So, one of the prices we pay as atheists… one of the areas I am calling the “emptiness of atheism”, is in giving up the idea and feelings of having personal magic happening to us and around us.

My rational mind knows there is no personal magical meaning, but my emotional self, and my own personal experiences have given me a feeling that greater powers are around me… that sometimes I can see and feel them, and experience them in a personal way.

I want to make one thing clear…

Even though I am bringing up and facing ‘head on’ the “emptiness of atheism” – and in this case the lack of personal magic in the universe – it still does not mean that I think there are any personal gods or a god.

I don’t have an explanation for my experiences, and others I have heard of, but I absolutely don’t believe these experiences are evidence of any of the religious or personal gods that other people believe in.

So even if I wanted to believe in “personal magic” and some sort of higher powers that bring “magic” into our lives… I do NOT.

There is not enough evidence. I have strange experiences and coincidences, but that is not strong evidence.

What I am describing are human experiences, and human experience is very fallible, and prone to deception and misinterpretation.

The bottom line is, as an agnostic atheist, I cannot believe in “personal magic”… and have to live without it.

Thanks for listening, and feel free to leave your comments or opinions on this topic.

Please share this video and pass it on, and come back and watch my other videos sometime.

Till next time, this is Alex Aldrin, the Thinker.