by passwordprotected 232 Replies latest jw friends
If God is outside of nature and therefore cannot be proved or disproved by science, is atheism a form of blind faith? After all, it cannot be defended on the basis of pure reason.
Steven Jay Gould said ;
"Science simply cannot by its legitimate methods adjudicate the issue of God's possible superintendence of nature. We cannot affirm nor deny it; we simply can't comment on it as scientists."
Atheism is no more blind than any other faith is. An atheist has looked at the world and concluded "there is no God", just as a christian has looked at the world (hopefully) and concluded "there is a God." Both require faith to some extent, but I wouldn't call either of them blind (with the exception of people who made no search and just went with what they're parents told them).
@TheClarinetist great answer.
I too dont think it is blind..We all believe what
we want to.
None of us can PROVE to the other without a doubt that
OUR faith is the correct one
Although in MY Humble? opinion,it takes more faith to believe
there IS no God,than there is to believe in one,with all the beauty
around us....
my 2 cents worth( I think it is worth more nowadays though
I don't think this is blind. I think this is honest.
If a person hasn't seen god, talked to god, and sees suffering and an absence of god in the world, can they be blamed for concluding that god doesn't exist?
If someone insisted that their was a secret person leading the United States, and the person insists that evidence exists, even though no sign of, or communication exists, can a person be blamed for rejecting the idea that such a person doesn't exist?
What I am talking about isn't the possibility that god exists. I think this is a shallow attempt to establish that a "higher power" exists. To that I say, this is correct.
The problem gets sticky when various competing religious agendas try to claim the higher power as their own. Jehovah. Jesus. Allah. Any of them could clear this up by coming forward. But they haven't.
The biggest error I think with Christian theists in this manner of debate is simple. The fact that science cannot disprove a higher power doesn't mean that potentially, a higher power is the Jesus you believe in.
Why is it that if I allow for the existence of a higher power, that I must then in turn, believe that this higher power is the Jesus that you worship? What evidence or facts should jolt me in that direction?
Belief in higher powers are fine with me. But Jesus isn't insisting that I worship him. You are. Does that make sense?
Believers are always trying to define atheists according to their own criteria. Atheism is not a belief. It's a lack of belief. How does faith enter in to it at all? From my point of view, it's like walking straight down the road, without detouring. Whereas a believer will always detour around a certain spot in the road, thinking there is an invisible rock there. I know the rock isn't there, and never even think about it, until a believer tries to stop me and ask me how I can just walk through that rock. It's the believers that have blind faith.
The God atheists cannot disprove theists cannot prove.
Once you get to this line, what's the point of keeping on arguing for the existence of God?
belief - any cognitive content held as true
These are my working definitions for belief. According to that definition, agnosticism, where you neither believe in God or believe that there is no God, is the only system of disbelief, if you will. Faith, IMO, and this particular definition I didn't find using Google "define:", faith is belief in something which can neither be proven or disproven. Therefore, "there is no God" would be both a faith and a belief. Of course, I've also been known to be full of myself, which I hear is pretty common for people around my age. :-P
Oh, and for the record, "blind faith" is a faith which refuses to take into account evidence to the contrary, and which is not based on reason. So while I would concede that the majority of christians have "blind faith", there are many who came about their faith honestly, so to speak.
The God atheists cannot disprove theists cannot prove.
Narkissos, you have a great talent for being concise and profound at the same time.
Allow me to agree with this statement.
Once you get to this line, what's the point of keeping on arguing for the existence of God?
I only argue against when atheistic or agnostic thoughts are misrepresented. Or, when religious agendas become political agendas where enforced belief becomes an issue.
I will also involve myself into any debate where god is represented as judgmental of all sinners, and believers must be guilted into appeasing this angry god. I came from this background, and it is destructive.
Beyond that, to each their own.
Atheism is a sense of rational reasoning derived from the known without any form of faith
Every human being is born an atheist, all known gods were created out of human ignorance of the world which we live in.
Over time that ignorance has slowly dissolved and it will continue to dissolve further into the future.
