[Discussion] Is Atheism Based on Faith?

[The Necromancer]

The point is in the explanation that religious people provide: God created everything

Unless they argue that God created evolution...

Science can explain to some degree how things came to be (the Big Bang Theory is silly) - how the earth transformed, all the climate changes, the evolution of new species etc. - that's their proof

Religious people base proof off of a book that other people wrote

Ok. Nice story. Doesn't change the fact that you can't prove or disprove it no matter how hard you try.

 

[Ginn Uchiha]

The point is in the explanation that religious people provide: God created everything

Unless they argue that God created evolution...

Science can explain to some degree how things came to be (the Big Bang Theory is silly) - how the earth transformed, all the climate changes, the evolution of new species etc. - that's their proof

Religious people base proof off of a book that other people wrote

Ur ignorance amuses me. Do you know what sparked the scientific revolution? That's right! Christianity. I believe in evolution as just one of the many im depth works of God. You know there are eye witness accounts and manuscripts accounting for Jesus Christ. Read the book, "More than a Carpenter" about 120 pages.

 

[Ginn Uchiha]

Sorry buddy, Atheists have morals too. Sometimes we have more morals than religious folks, especially those who encourage immoral acts!

Do I agree with the Crusades? No, ofc not. People always throw stuff like that in this conversation. "Let's just generalizes the religion as a whole because of what SOME people did and believed a long time ago." Great.

 

[FreakensteinAG]

Ur ignorance amuses me. Do you know what sparked the scientific revolution? That's right! Christianity. I believe in evolution as just one of the many im depth works of God. You know there are eye witness accounts and manuscripts accounting for Jesus Christ. Read the book, "More than a Carpenter" about 120 pages.

Two problems.
1. Yes several Christians and Jews and Muslims contributed to scientific progress. But you act like this deals a blow to scientists? This doesn't change how "lacking" opponents if science's arguments are.
2. Hearsay is never credible evidence. They would be laughed out of a courtroom

 

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Atheism is an excuse for people to live immorally. People who have no faith are people who choose to settle for a blank existence. Quite sad, really.

Most people have morals, regardless of their worldview. However, Christians live by an objective moral standard, whilst non-theists/atheists live by relativistic moral means. Just because they don't agree with the Bible's moral system doesn't mean they automatically are immoral people. That's quite silly.

The point is in the explanation that religious people provide: God created everything

Unless they argue that God created evolution...

Science can explain to some degree how things came to be (the Big Bang Theory is silly) - how the earth transformed, all the climate changes, the evolution of new species etc. - that's their proof

Religious people base proof off of a book that other people wrote

Macroevolution vs. microevolution. And yeah, the Bible was written by around 40 (I think?) people. But the thing is, God spoke through them, so it's not just some random guys writing whatever they want on a piece of papyrus.

 

[Ginn Uchiha]

Two problems.
1. Yes several Christians and Jews and Muslims contributed to scientific progress. But you act like this deals a blow to scientists? This doesn't change how "lacking" opponents if science's arguments are.
2. Hearsay is never credible evidence. They would be laughed out of a courtroom

1. The proof is all around you.
2. Eye witness testimonies hold a very firm place in court. These aren't stories made up after the fact. These are manuscripts written DURING the time period

 

[Prometheus Beta]

Faith by definition is belief with a very high degree of certainty (and of course where there is no evidential warrant for said degree) much less the complete certainty that many religious folk tend to profess. I don't know about most other atheists but I personally am an agnostic on the question of a God in the abstract (the philosophical God) so no, I don't think that is faith of any kind.

What I do identify as an atheist, however, is on most religions -Islam, for example. The reason for this is that Islam is riddled with factually false assertions, whether it is in the holy text (e.g. the Quran claims that comets are really missiles that angels use to fire against devils) or from the prophet (e.g. who once claimed that black seed oil is a medical panacea). Nevertheless I still do not claim to profess a 100% degree of certainty on the falsehood of Islam.

The great Physicist Richard Feynman when asked to comment on religion wisely said that he was not certain of anything, and at the same time mocked religion as "special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe at large". I have a similar attitude.

Spoiler

[video=youtube;YltEym9H0x4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YltEym9H0x4[/video]

 

[FreakensteinAG]

1. Sorry, I don't see anything supernatural at work at the moment.
2. No they actually don't. Be sure to read up on what takes priority in a court

 

[Ginn Uchiha]

1. Sorry, I don't see anything supernatural at work at the moment.
2. No they actually don't. Be sure to read up on what takes priority in a court

Lmao. I studied law for 6 years. BAKA! BAKA!

 

[Joon]

Everything that is governed is based around religion; meaning nature, life.. (Etc.) has no meaning without religion.

 

[Umari Senju]

Wouldn't it be the absence of? Considering faith is more or less considered religion.

I kind of agree with this. But isn't Aestheticism a belief in what can be proven? Or is it just as you said the absence of believing in a higher power?

honestly, I get confused on this sometimes.

 

[The Necromancer]

This is my problem, he created everything, might as well create a followers guidebook. I can also write a book and say God spoke through me.

With 2000 years of scrutiny between then and now, even a true story becomes myth in the eyes of the current generation. You have no way of knowing whether it was true or not.

Seems to be a common theme, wouldn't you say?

 

[Waindo]

Atheists more often have more faith, belief and common sense. Religions are manmade bullshit. (pardon me I had to.)

 

[The Whisper Of The Mist]

That means you're agnostic, not athiest... U_U

It's called agnostic-atheism.

 

[The Necromancer]

Atheists more often have more faith, belief and common sense. Religions are manmade bullshit. (pardon me I had to.)

And this faith is based on... fact?

 

[Gerkak]

Atheists more often have more faith, belief and common sense. Religions are manmade bullshit. (pardon me I had to.)

So are theories like evolution and string theory.

How does one define common sense? The belief in a divine creator or the belief that an unconscious mechanism that has no thought gave life to inanimate matter

 

[The Necromancer]

True

@bold: Indeed no one can

That's my entire point. Who the **** cares? People are just debating out their asses to hear themselves speak. There's no empirical way to prove either side.

 

[The Whisper Of The Mist]

Let's understand that this thread about more than Atheism vs. Christianity. There are many other faiths and beliefs as well.

 

[Prometheus Beta]

So are theories like evolution and string theory.

How does one define common sense? The belief in a divine creator or the belief that an unconscious mechanism that has no thought gave life to inanimate matter

The difference is that "theories" like evolution (string theory is actually more of a mathematical-philosophical thing than a scientific theory but thats a story for another day) are able to 1) explain the patterns found in the real world that they are formulated for coherently 2) make accurate and testable predictions.

 

[The Necromancer]

The difference is that "theories" like evolution (string theory is actually more of a mathematical-philosophical thing than a scientific theory but thats a story for another day) are able to 1) explain the patterns found in the real world that they are formulated for coherently 2) make accurate and testable predictions.

That's all well and good, but you can't prove that a being of higher power didn't create these very patterns in order to govern the universe it created.