First, let us agree on the definition of “faith”, at least for the purpose of this thread. Faith is the belief in things not seen.
The three Abrahamic faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, all rely on faith for much of what they believe. There are things we cannot “see” for ourselves that we accept as part of our belief systems.
Since the dawn of man, we have sought an understanding of the spritual world and the afterlife. We continue this pursuit to this day.
I believe this includes the atheist. I believe no one can lightly choose to be an atheist. I would hope it would be a decision to which they have given alot of thought.
But as a Christian, I say there is a God. I cannot prove it, so I have to accept it on faith, taking into acount the sum of my experiences in this world. The atheist says there is not a God. Not only is the atheist burdened with the difficult task of wrestling with the existance/absence of God, but they are further stymied by the fact that you cannot prove a negative. By nature, the atheist has more faith than the religious person.
This reminds me of a philosophy professor I had in college. She would define things however she wanted to fit her arguments. She said everyone was religious, then defined religion as the sum of one’s life experiences. Well, no shit.
Look, I don’t have “faith” in not believing. I don’t go around wrestling with the existence/nonexistence of God. Honestly, I don’t. I just have a lack of belief in my heart; that’s how I knew I was atheist one day. I was meditating and had an epiphany and suddenly - there it was. No belief, and more importantly, no particular need for it.
Reminds me of “Jesus was either a liar a lunatic or lord”.
Theres no harm in it by itself, but the acceptance of this as a rational argument certainly furthers the cause of ignorance. (Can you increase a negative?)
Standard horseshit that has manifested itself here any number of times. Look up a definition (not whatever specious nonsense you choose to accept) of “atheist”.
Then come up with something new and interesting and maybe you’ll get a debate.
After being here nearly six years, newcrasher, I think the best thing to do is try to pass this thread off as a joke; there’s no other sane excuse for it.
Not only is the theist burdened with the difficult task of wrestling with the existence/absence of God, but they are further stymied by the fact that you cannot prove he exists.
How can you say that theists wrestle with their faith less than atheists wrestle with their logic?
Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect you to answer in the affirmative here, because that’s such an absurd conclusion; so tell me; given that your faith in the non-existence of Zeus, Odin, The Invisible Pink Unicorn, along with your equally strong faith in the non-existence of a million other things is stronger than your faith in God, how does that affect your daily life? Do you even find time for God amongst all those other, bigger concerns?
Also, you must be exhausted; the most active and vigorous athlete is doing less than you - a marathon runner is running one less race than you; you’re not only doing the non-high-jump, the non-pole-vault and throwing the non-discus, non-javelin and non-hammer, but you’re also running a non-marathon. Poor you!
Well, I’m not quite getting where your connection is between “things unseen” and an athiest’s “faith.” Are you saying that because athiests also can’t see what happens once they die, that there is some sort of “faith” around that?
Athiests tend to actually not worry about the afterlife, because there isn’t one (YMMV).
I don’t see you, but I believe you exist. Is that faith?