What is Faith? (and do atheists have it?) September 25, 2007Posted by Joe in agnosticism, atheism, belief, Christianity, evidence, faith, freethought, god, logic, religion, skepticism, theism.
Tags: atheism, belief, faith, religion, theism
Atheists often define the word ‘faith’ as “belief in something without evidence or int he face of contradictory evidence”. I don’t believe this is really what theists mean when they use the word, but I cannot come up with a reasonable meaning that fits their usage. They seem to use it as a justification for their religious beliefs and as a way to buttress their belief in the face of doubts.
Faith is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as follows:
Main Entry: 1faith
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>
synonym see BELIEF
– on faith : without question <took everything he said on faith>
“Does God Exist?” August 2, 2007Posted by Joe in agnosticism, atheism, belief, Christianity, evidence, fallacy, freethought, god, logic, morality, religion, skepticism, theism.
Here are notes I made while reading William Lane Craig’s “Does God Exist?”
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Atheism does not imply meaninglessness.
Atheism does not imply lack of hope for a better future. (It does put the onus of making the future better on us.)
Even if there is a god there is no “deliverance from aging, disease, and death”. Even if there is an eternal afterlife in paradise we still age, disease, and die.
Strong vs. Weak July 13, 2007Posted by Joe in agnosticism, atheism, belief, evidence, freethought, god, psychology, skepticism, theism.
Some atheists often separate themselves into two subtly distinct groups; the “weak” atheists and the “strong” atheists.
Weak atheism is defined as a lack of belief in any god or gods. They haven’t seen compelling evidence that a god exists so their default stance is not to form any god belief.
Strong atheism is a positive belief that there is no god. They have an actual belief that no god exists
It’s the evidence! July 9, 2007Posted by Joe in atheism, belief, creationism, evidence, evolution, freethought, science, skepticism.
I entered a discussion on the teaching of evolution with some creationists here. Why’d I bother? I’m not yet sure.
I struggled to get across the idea that hollow assertions on a blog shouldn’t be enough to convince anyone about any theory of the real world. (and yet was still accused of wanting them to accept evolution on the weight of my assertions alone!) Pure reason can tell us nothing about the real world! Only actual evidence and data collected from it can tell us what it is really like.