— [1]
“ | Claims about faith can be used to justify and defend absolutely anything on an equal — and equally unreasonable — basis. This means that faith ultimately justifies and defends absolutely nothing because after we're done with all the faith claims, we're left precisely where we were when we started: faced with a set of religions that all appear to be about equally plausible or implausible. Since our position has not changed, faith obviously added nothing to our deliberations. If faith added nothing, then it has no value when it comes to evaluating whether a religion is likely true or not. | ” |
Faith is something religious people use in place of evidence. People who have faith are rarely persuaded to change their opinions by the use of reasoning or logic, and consequently it is the antithesis of the scientific method and rationalism.
Rationality[]
The word faith can be used with varying levels of rationality:
- I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. (Based on past experience and very rational)
- I have faith in the legal system. (Perhaps less rational)
- I have faith in God. (Based on myth and totally irrational)
You can tell a godbotherer has lost the argument when s/he invokes faith.
Blessings[]
"blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.", translation
"Blessed are they that believe stupid things without (or even contrary to) evidence?" [2]
See also[]
References[]
External links[]
- Faith Importance of Philosophy website
- The Believing Brain
- The Believing Brain: Why Science Is the Only Way Out of Belief-Dependent Realism
Video links[]
- Test Your Faith-Vision
- 4th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism You don’t believe in science fiction monsters without evidence. Why believe in God?
- What's good about religious faith?