Atheism as faith. Um, no.
i have to call bullshit on this one. Don’t get me wrong - JD is one of few people who i look up to and someone i have a ton of respect for. However, atheism is in no way a faith.
Dictionary.com defines a faith as:
belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
Faith is something we believe in because we were told to or we like the way it makes us feel.
as for athiesm - that is based on facts, that lead us to draw a conclusion in the form of a hypothesis and then repeatedly test that hypothesis. if it stands long enough then we have a theory - and if you don’t believe that a theory is strong enough to trust - then drop a pencil. you just tested the theory of gravitation. Often tested and rarely refuted in our daily lives. After all of our testing however we can now call that theory a fact, one you HAVE to live by in our current situation and circumstances.
let’s apply that mode of thought to the big guy.
start with a hypotheses: There is a being that created us. there is an afterlife, there is whatever. So long as there is something that can be tested.
now test it to prove or disprove the hypothesis. good luck on that one.
so we now know that we can not test these hypothesis, but that is in no way a reason to just make up whatever. It often intrigues me how seemingly rational people can suspend this methodolgy when it comes to their faith.
if i told you i had itty bitty people in my computer that actually do all the work, would you believe me? No. you would a) dismiss me as a nutcase or b) ask to see them.
So i open my comp case and give you a glimpse inside. can’t see them - Oh, you can only see them if you believe in them and then you know they are there. you can feel their presence. bullshit.
Athieism is based on conscious decision to not make up stories, to look for testable hypothesis, to dismiss irrational ideas because there is no proof. And as we have seen above the lack of proof or ability to test for proof should not be license to make up whatever. But in faith we suspend that thought process entirely.
since it cannot be proven - faith enables it’s believers to produce many many rationalities. it has been the underlying rationale of arguably every major war this world has seen, and most atrocities that this world currently deals with.
It is in our best interests as a species of being to do away with faith.
Might as well bring this up while Twitter is all abuzz with #nogod. This is a frequent argument I have with my friends, and one I can never get anyone to agree with me on.
I assert that Atheism is just as much faith as any religion.
To assume that you know with no amount of uncertainty how The Universe was created and what will happen after you die is foolhardy. There’s only one way to find out what the posthumous experience is for sure, and so far nobody has come back to share.
Understanding and accepting that we will never answer some questions with absolute fact is part of the respect that every faith and religion deserves.
I believe with absolute certainty that there is no God, but because I cannot base that belief in unrefutable fact it must be faith.
