Is Atheism a Form of Blind Faith? (page 14)

besty

You have failed to provide the connection to this topic with your question. Perhaps, if you could establish some coherence and relevancy, your questions will be answered. If you choose not to, then don't be surprised if certain things are simply ignored.

I don't find 'what religion would you be had you been born in Afghanistan' to be incoherent.

As to relevancy the OP is positing that atheism is blind faith. Asking you to justify the reason for your Christian faith is not irrelevant.

Thank you for finally confirming you were ignoring the question - I'm not blessed with voices in my head telling me things.

Perry - Are you going to join your brothers in Christ by ducking the question?

Rabbit

It seems to me there's a lot of unnecessary confusion over a couple words: Believe/belief and faith. These words are not owned by the god/no god/which god/biggest god debaters.

I believe I have faith in the kindness and empathy of my sweet wife (my goddess). All of this takes place within the grey matter between my large furry ears -- not yours or anybody else's. I suppose if I were a super-powerful king-like rodent I could make it a law and force you humans to believe in my faith, but, alas...

All these great minds and comments here about such a deep subject...and then, Perry's. *sigh*

To me--it's not complicated--not anymore. The god of the Bible simply does not fit 'my' belief/faith in what a possible Creator would be like. But, that is subjective to 'my' ideas.

Objectively, theists nor atheists can prove or disprove their positions. PERIOD. So, neither make sense to me.

The most honest position for me is like HintOfLime said: "I don't know."

Praise Jesus, Oh, my me God! I've said it... "I don't know." Wow, that felt so good I think I'll say it again, "I don't know." Do you--know? Really? Be honest, you want to believe, you do so. Fine.

If the existence of a godlike sky daddy/mama can ever be empirically proven, I'll 'believe' in It. But, don't expect that 'belief',that It's there, to mean I'll worship/obey/bow-down to It. Knowing myself, as I do, I 'believe' I'll have have some choice, angry words for It's absenteeism. And, express appreciation for my existence -- not excusing The Big It's bad behavior.

~Rabbit

Spook

Faith implies a degree of confidence in excess of the available evidence.

Blind faith implies such a confidence combined with a resistance to contrary evidence.

If the question is restated as follows:

Given a theology which entails that a God exists who superintends on nature, can one who is an atheist with respect to that God have good reasons for such a belief, all things considered?

I have given numerous such reasons for this type of atheism. Do these show...

Faith? No. My confidence in my conclusion is proportional to the evidence as demonstrated in several arguments on the objective likelihood of a theism being true without prior commitments, a priori. This can be immediately inferred from objective facts about the nature of theism ENTAILED BY THE FRICKING OP!

Blind Faith? No. My confidence is maintained and perhaps strengthened a posteriori - after observing the evidence offered by the theist.

You have to understand that your personal experiences are extremely weak evidence as I have painstakingly shown above. The set of all personal experiences, however, is a form of evidence for my position, not your position. You must establish how personal religious experience about God's which don't exist are equally as powerful, motivating and objectively persuasive. All such answers I've encountered are question begging, ad hoc and circular. This shows a rejection of the evidence. This shows "blindness" because by your own admission YOUR OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS MORE PERSUASIVE TO YOU THAN THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS!!!!!

That's why always and for all time those who use their personal experiences in argumentation will be reduced to fideism. All of your best defenders realised this a long time ago and are very careful to avoid these bumbling, foolish, tangential rants.

Deputy Dog

Nark

Good link!

Please forgive my sick humor/humour

The Almighty Homer

Nicely said Spook

Fideism, you don't come across that word too often so here's a little description of it.

fideism

a philosophical view extolling theological faith by making it the ultimate criterion of truth and minimizing the power of reason to know religious truths. Strict fideists assign no place to reason in discovering or understanding fundamental tenets of religion. For them blind faith is supreme as the way to certitude and salvation. They defend such faith on various grounds-e.g., mystical experience, revelation, subjective human need, and common sense. A nonrational attitude so pervades their thinking that some assert that the true object of faith is the absurd, the nonrational, the impossible, or that which directly conflicts with reason. Such a position was approached in the philosophies of the 2nd-century North African theologian Tertullian, the medieval English scholar William of Ockham, the 17th-century French philosopher Pierre Bayle, and more recently in the works of the 18th-century German philosopher Johann Georg Hamann and the 19th-century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. This modern attitude is often motivated by man's apparent inability to find rational solutions for the world's ills.

Narkissos

Fideism would actually rule out religious apologetics as 'the Judas kiss of stupidity,' as Kierkegaard nicely put it.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/82598/1/Should-the-Christian-faith-be-rationally-defended

hamilcarr

I guess they do have a testimony that they have no testimony....

Like all poor monotheists who have testimonies of only one God...

Spook

Yes, the infuriating problem with so many modern Christians to me is that they don't actually have a theology. Their beliefs are a scattered, ephemeral drag net - a grab bag of largely unrelated theocratic factoids - theocracktoids ((C) spook, 2009) if you will.

AllTimeJeff

You all still arguing? I thought we all agreed to disagree.

Farkel

:You all still arguing?

Not me! I'm converting to Christianity! I was overwhelmed by Holy Spirit and the love, tolerance and reason shown by the Christians, I decided to become one, too. Then I can be JUST LIKE THEM.

Farkel, Posteriori CLASS

Is Atheism a Form of Blind Faith?

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