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One of the things that many Judeo-Christian religions seem to cling to is the idea of faith. Faith, for a member of a religion, is a very powerful tool. It can be used to explain yourself, your actions; it can be used as an excuse; it can even be used to “defeat” an atheist or agnostic in an argument. This is, of course, is due to the fact that faith is based not off of facts, but assumption. Religious faith can be described with this simple, concise epigram: When you believe in a reliable source, that's trust. When you trust in an unreliable source, that's faith.
True belief is supposed to be based upon facts, or at least educated, logical hypothesizing. When you believe in something or someone, it is understood that you have a logical reason for doing so. For example, I believe that the three judeo religions are wrong because I know that their teachings are full of contradictions and because I have seen members of those religions arguing over the meanings of the same, vague book. However, modern faith doesn't require any logic, backup, proof, fact, or otherwise to support it. It is belief with no logic and no reason. Because of this, I am regularly puzzled by people who seem to hold faith in such high regard. Faith has become something to admire by the general religious populous. Saying "I have faith" has transformed from the default answer of a factually deprived speaker into a motto of religion.
Yet, we have to understand as a people that actions without throught and logic is extremely dangerous. Suicide bombers kill hundreds because their faith promises gratouitous female companionship in the afterlife. Several christian sects deny global warming and are determined to consume our natural resources because they have faith in god's ability to provide us with more. If we continue this decline of logic and reason, we will literally destroy ourselves.
At its core, modern faith is still an excuse. A loophole. It allows people to bypass logic and facts and move straight conclusions and action. They can avoid the massive holes and discrepancies in their respective religions and somehow claim that they know what is right based on their faith. When someone says "I have faith", it really means "I don't have any factual basis for what im saying, but I still stubbornly believe it". If the human race is to survive and indeed evolve, we must bypass this ignorant practice.
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"This is, of course, is due to the fact that faith is based not off of facts, but assumption"
ReplyDeleteThat's wierd because my faith is based on a plethora of facts and arguments like:
the teleological argument
the various cosmological arguments
the various ontological arguments
the moral argument
and finally the rather stunning evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.
Seriously dude, the first Greek and Jewish Christians never used faith to mean blind baseless belief. The apostles and first christians certainly did not have this sort of faith.
"True belief is supposed to be based upon facts, or at least educated, logical hypothesizing."
ReplyDeleteNot true. this seems to espouse hard empiricism, which is intellectually bankrupt. "Facts", by which I assume you mean testable and observable facts, cannot demonstrate the truth of many presuppositions made by science. Metaphysical truths are a perfect example of this.
Seriously dude, the first Greek and Jewish Christians never used faith to mean blind baseless belief. The apostles and first christians certainly did not have this sort of faith.
ReplyDeleteA word has no meaning. It means whatever humans interpret it as when it is spoken. When we speak of faith, we aren't referring to the 2,000 year old greek interpretation of the word. We're talking (post)modern.
Jake, you've made quite a lot of comments on our blog here, and reading through them, I confess that I cannot find any supplied evidence to support your claims. Your comments are wholly composed of argumentative theses that lack any support. I attest this to a lack of any substantial knowledge of scientific method, among other things, but I make the humble request that you give us some evidence for your claims in any future posts. It will make it much easier for other people to engage in intelligent arguments with you.
ReplyDeleteAn obvious example would be your above post. You say your faith is based on facts and arguments, yet you only list arguments (which you even label as arguments) and no facts. Arguments require facts, which you have not provided, and a quick research of your arguments shows that they are all fallacies.
Thank you, still, for commenting on our blog, and we look forward to posts from you and anyone else, no matter what religion or lack thereof.