Welcome to The Passion of the Atheist!
Greetings everyone, welcome to my new blog.
For those of you that do not know me, I am a 29 year old former Active-Duty Marine, husband, and father of a four year old son. I am also a former christian. In my off time (what little I have) I run a website called:
www.passionoftheatheist.com Please take the time to check it out when you have the chance.
My intentions for this blog are that this will become a place where both atheists, and theists, can come in and debate (in what hopefully can be a somewhat friendly manner) all aspects of religion and matters pertaining to it.
Let's jump right in, shall we?
Faith: If we are to define 'faith' (as the dictionary I have does) as 'A belief which does not rest on logical proof or evidence', then I personally feel that having faith is irresponsible.
The problems that arise with believing in something for which there is no evidence (or faith) are two-fold as I see it:
1. There is a good chance that the belief will be false. Many Christians are forced to agree with this, whether they like it or not. Here is why: The majority of the world is not Christian, this is fact…ask any Christian and the majority will tell you that all the other religions of the world, such as the Muslim religion, Hinduism, Mormonism, etc., hold false beliefs. Therefore, their faith is wrong. Even within the Christian religion you have countless denominations, all holding that their faith and beliefs are the correct way to practice Christianity (the Catholics say the Lutherans are wrong…Lutherans say the Catholics are wrong, etc.).
2. Someone that believes something on faith is more likely to adopt other beliefs for which there is no evidence, and the chances increase even more that they are false…and this can lead to dangerous or un-wise decisions. For example: Let's say there was a person that had a headache and no Tylenol was available for them to take. So, they decided to 'pray' to their god to rid them of the headache…after a night of sleeping, they wake up and…surprise…the headache is gone. They have faith that their god heard their prayer and answered it. No medicine was necessary. One week later they get diagnosed with cancer. I think you can see the danger here. "Why take medicine…prayer should do the trick…" And you may think that the example is a bit extreme, maybe so, but how many other false beliefs have been adopted that have eventually led to dangerous or un-wise decisions?
Shouldn't we, as logical human beings, abandon 'faith' for 'reason'? Should we not base our decisions on the evidence that is presented before us, and use 'trust' and 'hope', not 'faith', that the decisions we make turn out for the best, as opposed to the worst?
Discuss.
For those of you that do not know me, I am a 29 year old former Active-Duty Marine, husband, and father of a four year old son. I am also a former christian. In my off time (what little I have) I run a website called:
www.passionoftheatheist.com Please take the time to check it out when you have the chance.
My intentions for this blog are that this will become a place where both atheists, and theists, can come in and debate (in what hopefully can be a somewhat friendly manner) all aspects of religion and matters pertaining to it.
Let's jump right in, shall we?
Faith: If we are to define 'faith' (as the dictionary I have does) as 'A belief which does not rest on logical proof or evidence', then I personally feel that having faith is irresponsible.
The problems that arise with believing in something for which there is no evidence (or faith) are two-fold as I see it:
1. There is a good chance that the belief will be false. Many Christians are forced to agree with this, whether they like it or not. Here is why: The majority of the world is not Christian, this is fact…ask any Christian and the majority will tell you that all the other religions of the world, such as the Muslim religion, Hinduism, Mormonism, etc., hold false beliefs. Therefore, their faith is wrong. Even within the Christian religion you have countless denominations, all holding that their faith and beliefs are the correct way to practice Christianity (the Catholics say the Lutherans are wrong…Lutherans say the Catholics are wrong, etc.).
2. Someone that believes something on faith is more likely to adopt other beliefs for which there is no evidence, and the chances increase even more that they are false…and this can lead to dangerous or un-wise decisions. For example: Let's say there was a person that had a headache and no Tylenol was available for them to take. So, they decided to 'pray' to their god to rid them of the headache…after a night of sleeping, they wake up and…surprise…the headache is gone. They have faith that their god heard their prayer and answered it. No medicine was necessary. One week later they get diagnosed with cancer. I think you can see the danger here. "Why take medicine…prayer should do the trick…" And you may think that the example is a bit extreme, maybe so, but how many other false beliefs have been adopted that have eventually led to dangerous or un-wise decisions?
Shouldn't we, as logical human beings, abandon 'faith' for 'reason'? Should we not base our decisions on the evidence that is presented before us, and use 'trust' and 'hope', not 'faith', that the decisions we make turn out for the best, as opposed to the worst?
Discuss.
posted by The Passion of the Atheist at 1:20 PM
6 Comments:
I think you are misunderstanding what faith means to us christians...
I would define it as a trust. The same that you have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, we have faith that god is with us in our lives.
I have trust that the sun will rise tomorrow, because there is ample evidence that it has everyday that I have been alive.
I have no evidence that god is with me (or you), therefore I would have to believe this on faith...which for the reasons I stated earlier...I find to be irresponsible.
Welcome to the atheist/freethought blogworld! I like the blog name btw.
Thank you Delta.
anonymous,
Your definition of faith is not in agreement with what the Bible says about faith.
Hebrews 11:1 says Faith is belief in things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
This of course coincides with the dictionary definition.
Since its not from the Bible, where did you get that faith definition from anonymous? Did you just make it up?
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