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Faith/Belief Possible?

Posted on: January 11, 2007 - 12:34pm
unixrab
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Faith/Belief Possible?

Here's another question (and I'm just curious this time):

Can Athiests believe? What I mean is, does the mindset of logical athiesm preclude the ablility to believe in anything (not specifically like a god, but generally, like something that one believes without evidence?) Or to word it yet differently - Can/Do you have faith (in anything), and is it "faith" (per se). Does incontrovertible evidence (of anything) nullify the property of faith? (in your opinion)

No agenda...just interested in your take(s) (and don't quote me Kierkegaard, I've read that, I want your opinion)

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Posted on: January 11, 2007 - 1:05pm #1
Piper2000ca
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If you mean faith as in

If you mean faith as in "belief in something without evidence," then basically no.  Now, people like myself, will say things like "I have faith in your abilities" when talking about a person, but this is faith used in the context of trust, and it is trusting something we know exists (you can see your friend).

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Posted on: January 11, 2007 - 5:31pm #2
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unixrab wrote: Can Athiests

unixrab wrote:
Can Athiests believe? What I mean is, does the mindset of logical athiesm preclude the ablility to believe in anything (not specifically like a god, but generally, like something that one believes without evidence?)

Humans inevitably believe some things on insufficient evidence. I am almost sure that I personally hold many false beliefs. In my opinion, the difference between a sceptic and a non-sceptic is not that the sceptic does not have unfounded beliefs but that the sceptic considers it a virtue to re-examine his beliefs when new evidence presents itself.

unixrab wrote:
Can/Do you have faith (in anything)

No. I find it neither possible nor desirable.


Posted on: January 11, 2007 - 7:46pm #3
Hambydammit
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The thing is, faith should

The thing is, faith should not exist as a word.  It should just be called "illogic."  That is, by definition, what it is.  I hope I don't have many illogical beliefs.  If I have any, I hope people point them out to me so I can change them to logical beliefs.

This is, I think, the biggest difference between the skeptic (atheist) and theist.  To believe in any kind of deity, you must not only accept faith as somehow being rational, you must consider illogic (faith) a virtue!

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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