Many times over when I have argued with Christians, I have
gone away frustrated and amazed. Their lack of reason and critical
thinking skills when it comes to their religious belief can
be very frustrating. What frustrates me so you ask? Easy: Faith.
The Christian will always end up trotting faith out as THE counter
argument to any and everything you may say to them. This is
the secret weapon used by theists. But, faith is not reason.
Faith is the belief in something without evidence, or wishful
thinking.
Regarding faith, Bertrand Russell said the following:
"…. We may define faith, as a firm belief in something
for which there is no evidence. When there is evidence, no one
speaks of faith. We do not speak of faith that two and two are
four or that the earth is round. We speak only of faith when
we wish to substitute emotion for evidence." Bertrand Russell
on God and Religion (Prometheus Books, 1986), p. 283
This view is supported by the bible itself, for when we read
the following verse the meaning of faith becomes clear:
Romans 8:24 For in hope were we saved: but hope that is seen
is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
25 But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with
patience wait for it.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him:
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
By these verses it is clear that faith is a belief in something
for which there is no evidence. Hope in things not seen, evidence
for something not seen. Also if you would notice in the last
verse, it implies circular thinking, you have to believe that
god is real when you come to him, not the other way around.
If it was the other way around, then there would be no need
for faith.
We said that faith is not reason. What is reason? Reason means
to think in a way using mental processes to reach a specific
goal, the acquisition of knowledge. Or, reason is a step by
step process of critical thinking, which is logical and has
a goal, the goal being knowledge. Thinking is any cognitive
activity, such as dreaming or remembering.
Although, faith does involve thinking, is the same as reasoning?
No. It involves thinking, but not reasoning. Lets look at an
example to see what I mean.
When you will ask a Christian if he believes in the god of the
Norse, Odin, the believer will respond with a no. And then give
reasons, which lead him to believe as he does. Ask the same
Christian about belief in Thor, Odin's son, and again you will
hear his reason for not believing. This will also apply to any
other god you may wish to use. Now, when you apply these reasons
given for disbelief in the aforementioned gods, to their god,
faith steps in and their reason leaves. To back up his point,
the bible may be used, but that is nothing in line of proof,
just a way to "settle the matter" with a wee bit of
circular logic.
Christians are in all reality, atheists. Seriously, they discount
all the other gods of this world, be it Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,
Mormon, Greek, Norse or what have you. Yet the will suspend
thought and reason and grasp faith to keep their belief in the
Christian god. For, if they would use the same logic and reasoning
on their god, it would vanish with the wave of a hand, like
the others before. Reason cannot be used to show their god to
be real. It must be faith, or wishful thinking.
Faith, as we have seen, is not the same as reason, not in the
least. As we saw from the verses above, faith is the substance
of things UNSEEN, HOPED for and the like. If it could be demonstrated,
there would be no need for faith. But here we have the bible
tell us it is not knowable or demonstrable.
Now can god be proven? NO! God cannot even be reasonably demonstrated,
let alone proven. Try to get a believer to prove their god,
if you can get them past "You cannot prove he does not
exist…" they will always fall back upon faith. Faith is
just belief in something without the evidence to support that
belief. And it shows, although the Christians will never admit
it.
Can you disprove god? NO! The thing is, the nonbeliever is
under no obligation to show god not exist. They claim god is
real, not us, so they must show that their god is real. It is
a little thing called "the burden of proof." Atheism
is simply the lack of belief in a god, if you do not believe
in a god; you do not have to prove anything.
Many a Christian will claim that their faith is demonstrable,
and reasonable too. But we know that is not the case by only
consulting the verses already mentioned in this essay. But,
there is another point I would like to bring up that supports
this as well; the bible says that god is UNKNOWABLE. If something
is unknowable, then how can you know it? I know it sounds like
a silly play on words, but think for a second… if the bible
is as claimed, the true word of god, and inerrant as most Christians
claim, then can you really ignore the following verses? You
tell me….
Job 11:7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find
out the Almighty to perfection?
Job 37:23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out He
is excellent in power; And in justice and plenteous righteousness
he will not afflict.
Romans 11:33 O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of
God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
34 for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become
His counsellor?
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
By reading the very book Christians claim to believe in we
can see that god is not knowable, visible, testable, verifiable
nor reasonable. Why even bother with this god in the first place?
To avoid a hell made by this unknowable deity? Why bother with
a deity that is admittedly unknowable according to one's own
bible? Reason allows us to know many things but not this god.
This is not to say that there is no god period, just that reason
cannot let us know god.
As we have seen, faith is not the same as reason, and thus
not an adequate counter argument for belief in their god. Faith
is belief in something for which there is no evidence. The bible
supports this view of faith, and admits that faith is wishful
thinking. Wishful thinking does not solve anything, in fact
it allows a person to run away from problems in life, like the
role of women, gender, sexual preference, science when it shows
the bible to be wrong … and more. Where faith prevails, reason
fails.
