I think one of the most frustrating things about religion for me is that fact that it is protected by its own set of cognitive rules. If people were to apply the same loose standards of evidence and reason to other areas in their life (admittedly some do) things would unravel very quickly. I know intelligent people who are otherwise skeptical in their lives. They don’t believe in quack medicine, they question media reports of current events and use fairly strict codes before they believe something as fact. Some of them are scientists who understand and accept Occam’s Razor while others are journalists, trained to question and seek sufficient information before telling a story. And yet, these same people have no trouble accepting that a man, born of a virgin birth, thousands of years ago was the literal son of God, a God who makes contradictory and sometimes duplicitous statements, performed miracles and spoke to donkeys, died and was risen from the dead only to disappear again in order to ascend to his rightly place next to his ethereal father in heaven. Wow.
The excuse for this ability to remove an otherwise functioning brain and put it on a shelf is called faith. How do you justify such mental gymnastics (and ironically, complete disrespect for our supposed “god given faculties”) with one little word? What kind of God would require that of you? I can understand believing in something – a higher power or supernatural force. There is no real reason not to believe in something like that. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that an omnipotent, omniscient God is an imagined father figure for an otherwise small and lonely planet.
It is often argued that god cannot be proved or disproved and in some ways this is true. What we rely on however is the things that make up a faith…the documents, the claims, the books, the church. If these things fail to hold water, it is a fair assumption that the god they claim to represent can be dismissed. In the real world this approach is used all the time. In a court of law it is often impossible to prove that someone did or did not do something. What you rely on instead is the evidence. The videotapes, the fingerprints, the probabilities and then, based on that, you decide. If the evidence is found to be lacking then people intuitively understand that the person cannot be found guilty. Why can’t we apply the same reasonable approach to claims of a religious nature?
Wow, great blog. I too am Atheist ( a quiet one) I have Mormon parents and did the force feeding as a kid to church. I’ve been to many churches, and never believed in any of it. I called myself agnostic for years, but now thanks to my kids and Youtube, I watched some videos and yeah, I’m and Atheist and have starting telling those who ask… I live in Utah so yeah, they ask lol
I remember as a young 18 year old fresh out in the work force after growing up Mormon being asked my a customer where I lived ( I worked on the phones in customer service) I said Utah, she said “Are you Mormon?” I said no ( even though I was babtised and all) I wasn’t struck by lightning by saying the words “no”. It was strange at first but got easier as time went on. Something empowering happened to me that day by telling a stranger “NO” I’m not mormon I felt such relief from the bondage of that church.
I get the missionairies knocking on my door every once in a while, and your blog has given me some good answers and points of discussion to use when they ring the bell. Thanks so much, I’ve stayed up way past my bed time reading your blog, but it’s worth being tired in the morning.
You said it yourself, some of these people are ” trained to question and seek sufficient information before telling a story.” Doesn’t that tell you something? Why do you assume faith is the “ability remove an otherwise functioning brain and put it on a shelf.” Do you know what FAITH is? Faith is believing the truth. For faith to be faith, we must have a reason to believe. You have faith that a chair will hold you before you sit. Even if you never sat in that particular chair before. You have a reason (likely based on personal experience) to have faith in that chairs ability to hold you. I know that it is difficult for you to see how this could possibly apply to faith in God. And I have know way of knowing the evidence that convinced you that God is not real. But I can say that I have made a sincere effort to seek out every atheist objection to God and I haven’t found a single one that “holds water.” (I could list them, but I’ll spare you the details unless you ask for them because it is very lengthy, and I have enough trouble keeping my thoughts to a minimum).
Not ever “religious” person truly has faith. Most of them just have hope. People who have true faith, don’t just believe in something because they were told to. They believe because they have reason to. Real faith does not succumb to scare tactics, nor does it thrive on reward systems. They don’t believe to “escape” hell or to gain “heaven.” They believe because they have a reason to believe. And because that reason is so real that their trust is not easily shaken. A chair can give way underneath you. It doesn’t mean you’ll never sit again. The more reasonable thing to believe is that there was something wrong with the chair that you put your faith in.
Do you want to know why the people depicted in the Bible had faith in God? It’s because he NEVER let them down. He always fulfilled His promises. THAT was the REASON for their FAITH. There are people alive today that have real faith in God, and they have personal experiences to back up their beliefs. They have REASONS to believe it. Albeit, what they consider a reason, you might consider comical.
It’s perfectly fine if you think that God and the Bible are purely fiction. That’s your opinion and it is shared by many other very intelligent people. Personally, I have done my share of research (most of it secular) and considered both sides of the debate and have found WAY more “evidence” to align my opinion with those who believe it to be true. If you think God has failed to live up to his promises, then I can understand why you would not have faith. But I can tell you that if I ever entered 2 + 3 in to a calculator and the answer came back as 6 instead of 5, my first reaction would NOT be to loose faith in the calculator. :)
I forgot to add that you truly intrigue me. I find your blog so intellectually stimulating. I hope I have not offended you in any manner with all my comments. You passion shines through in your writings. I am just as passionate about what I believe to be true. Thank you for respecting my opinion even though it is not the same as yours. I assure you, I did not leave my brain on the shelf. :)