Faith is not reality;  IT IS wishful thinking,...theology,...hope,...desire,...delusion,...a fast way to avoid the realitys of life,... and hide behind an imaginary friend,... the way you use to hide behind your mothers skirts when you were 4 years old.

     They say "..Well I have faith, that's why..."  You say "...then you know I'm right, so why are you hiding from the real world?...

 Hi Weston - welcome!

Head over to the Introductions section and introduce yourself. I know that might seem awkward, but everyone appreciates it, and you get a lot of welcome messages.

As for faith, it's belief without sufficient evidence. Maybe they don't care if what they believe is true. How do you know something is true? By testing it. That's called the scientific method when it's really stringent, but other methods work, too. If they don't care that what they believe is true, then you're right - your'e at an impasse.

Faith is belief without evidence. Believing without evidence is defective reasoning. Faith is therefore defective reasoning.

Faith is a mental defect, elevated to the status of a virtue by those with an agenda to fool the gullible.

Being proud of ones faith, is like being proud of having Downs Syndrome.

A person who falls back on faith in a debate is simply saying they are unwilling or unable to debate the issue on its merits.

Faith is the flip side of Paranoia in that it is the unreasoning belief that someone is out to help you...

When I discover I'm taking something 'on faith'...I root it out of my thinking, ruthlessly.

LC >;-}>

That is exactly how I take it, and it's how I've responded in numerous debates.  The faith call is nothing more than an admission of loss of the discussion/argument.  I regularly call people on this and do not take their excuses as an answer.  That's another thing to be careful of, the difference between excuses and answers.  This one was drilled in to me by teachers in primary school when I did something wrong "I don't want an excuse I want an answer, now why did you do this?".  I didn't realise how true their words were back then, I wish I had.

The only reason some people see it differently is because theists have someone convinced others that faith is something other than what it is, they've turned it in to something to be proud of which should never be the case.

Hi Weston

"Faith" is a word they use incorrectly (as some atheists do too as evidenced from at least one of the replies you got). Faith is really just another word for a state of belief. It does not need to be unjustified to qualify. We place faith in things all the time on the basis of the good evidence we have accrued that suggests we are right to do so.

They mean "blind faith", and that's another thing entirely. Next time they use the term incorrectly and just carry on as if nothing has been said wrong, haul them back with a store "Whoa!" and tell them they mean "blind faith".  If they contradict you and attempt to provide the "evidence" they have accrued inform them that a lot of subjective claptrap is not evidence. Nor are outright untruths - another favourite of theirs. Then, having proved that they endorse blind faith, tell them that you prefer to go through life with your eyes open.

If they try the other old chestnut "you have faith in the fact that there's no god, so you could be equally wrong then couldn't you bla bla",  then (after a patronising sigh or two) ask them have they as hard a problem listening as they have seeing and remind them that faith in a demonstrable fact is in no way comparable to what they are doing at all.

Faith, i other words, is not a cop-out from having to acquire evidence - it's a transitionary point in the acquirement of knowledge on the way to establishing fact, and evidence is crucial to the process. They are lying, even if they don't know it, if they think misusing a perfectly self-explanatory term buys them out of having to justify their rubbish.

Man is the only animal with the true religion...several of them.
   -- Mark Twain

So someone has faith. The fool has unshakable faith in his wisdom.

It is actually a foolish basis for religion and easily dealt with.

I usually suggest the different religions and sects within a religion decide which is the truth faith and get back to me as I can only deal with the true, true faith. Lesser truths should not bother me.

The quick and dirty method is the people who are out to convert you are mostly some kind of fundamental Protestant so one can simply tell them to get the Pope to agree first and then get back to you.

Faith is not an argument. Faith is merely a statement. Taking a leaf from the tent preacher, try bringing the faith into question. Why do you have faith? How do you know you have the right faith? How do you know that fuzzy, warm feeling isn't the devil warming you up?