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Title: Are Atheists Right? Is Faith the Absence of Reason/Evidence?
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URL Source: https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/are-atheists-right/
Published: Aug 28, 2019
Author: Simon Turpin
Post Date: 2019-08-28 08:44:15 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 917
Comments: 11
Atheists often accuse Christians of believing things or having “faith” without evidence and like to remind them of the old adage: “faith is believing what you know is not true.” In the eyes of many atheists, “faith” has become a buzzword for putting your intellect out of gear and for believing something without any reason or evidence for it (i.e., blind faith). For example, atheist and scientist Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, argues that faith is separate from reason and is the absence of evidence: Faith is nothing more than the license that religious people give one another to believe such propositions when reasons fail. . . . When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths.1 On a more popular level this argument is used by the atheist activist Aron Ra, best known for his YouTube videos, who defines faith in a similar fashion to Harris: Sometimes I say that faith is an assertion of unreasonable conviction which is assumed without reason and defended against all reason. By that I always clarify that evidence is the only reason anyone should believe anything. I cite apologetics as the practice of systematically making up excuses to dismiss any and all counter arguments in order to rationalize how one could still hold an unsupported and thus unwarranted position, and I cite the ‘statement of faith’ posted by so many fundamentalist organizations to demonstrate how faith is assumed independent of evidence and regardless of it.2 Ra previously described himself as an “apistevist,” someone “who rejects faith as being the most dishonest position that is possible to have.”3 So, not only does Ra claim not to have “faith” but also he argues that those who do have it are being dishonest (even though he misrepresents faith as being without evidence). A favorite proof-text by atheists (including Ra) to argue that Christians believe without evidence is the apostles Paul’s words: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). However, Paul is not suggesting that Christians take a blind leap of faith. He suggests that they base their lives on what God has revealed to be true about the world, as Guthrie explains: When Paul says that we walk “by faith” . . . he insists that his pattern of life is governed by what God has revealed as true about life: in other words, he trusts God, based on revelation. This faith, moreover, contrasts with walking “by what can be seen” . . . At present Paul cannot see Jesus, or God the Father, or the Spirit, or the spiritual realm, but he trusts God in any case. His focus of life rests on the unseen, eternal realities, known through God’s revelation, even though he cannot physically see those realities (4:18). This is what it means to walk by faith—to trust God on the basis of what God has revealed to be true.4 Although these atheists may have heard sincere Christians wrongly say things like, “oh, you just have to have faith” as if they didn’t need evidence for their belief, this is not supported by the meaning of the words faith or belief that is found in the New Testament. What Is Faith? THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT NEVER PLACE “FAITH” OR “BELIEF” AGAINST REASON, EVIDENCE, OR TRUTH BUT RATHER THEY USE IT TO REFER TO A CONVICTION OR CONFIDENCE IN SOMETHING. In English translations of the New Testament, the most common word for “faith” is the Greek noun ÀίÃĹ (pistis), and “believe” is the Greek verb À¹ÃĵύÉ (pisteuM). The leading Greek lexicon today lists a range of meanings for pistis, from subjective confidence to an objective basis for confidence, and it shows that it can refer to “that which evokes trust and faith” or a “state of believing based on the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith.” PisteuM refers to considering something “to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust” or “to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence.”5 In its classical usage, even before the writing of the New Testament, pistis referred to “conviction,” “certainty,” and “proof” that can be relied on.6 The writers of the New Testament never place “faith” or “belief” against reason, evidence, or truth but rather they use it to refer to a conviction or confidence in something.7 The apostle Paul’s explanation of the content of Christian belief confirms this:
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Just wondering - are atheists capable of being "moral"? I believe they can be.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. The existence of God is simple logic. We see the creation...it declares that there is a God! And so, in order to be God, God has to adhere to all the attributes that define what God would be. One of those attributes is that God is loving...He would by His very nature communicate with His creation. That loving communication is expressed in His Word! So we see that logic is one of the ways that brings us to our faith in Jesus Christ.
I've found that "bible thumping" only further pushes them away. Once the seed is planted, it's up to the Holy Spirit to convince them that they are wrong.
Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
I believe they can be. The question I have for atheists is...why be moral at all? I mean, if all there is to this life is a few short years of misery, followed by a meaningless eternity...why be good? Why not just kill and take whatever makes you feel good?
Well, most people don't want to kill anybody. Atheists are people, so they don't take atheism as an excuse to kill because they don't want an excuse to kill. Indeed, since they do not believe in life after death, life is MORE PRECIOUS to atheists than it is to theists, who always look forward to something MORE. Atheists have only this, and therefore treat it with greater care than the faithful. Also, killing and taking will engender resistance from the general society, including law enforcement. With only a limited time on earth, who wants to spend it in a jail cell or running from the law?
life is MORE PRECIOUS to atheists than it is to theists If you look at societies where atheists rule (Stalinist Russia, Communist China) you will find more than enough people who WANT to kill. My son was reading Solzhenitsyn recently, sharing bits here and there. Horrific, the lust for killing reigned supreme. Life was certainly not precious to them! Here in our society we have a mix: those who are religious and those who are atheists. But look, for example, at the abortion rate as atheists gain control. Vic, atheists WANT to kill...they're simply held in check by our moral codes (10 Commandments, etc)...for now.
Atheists just don't get it and there is a reason for that. The same reason we don't get until God calls us.
Please remove my comment #4 Thank you
They don't believe in the 10 Commandments.
That is so true! The atheists I know, the ones who are outspoken in their atheism, despise the 10 Commandments, including the Commandment "Thou shall not kill". They don't mind killing babies in the womb and they don't mind killing off the elderly...and don't mind telling you so. I know atheists personally. Life means nothing to them. They are bitter people. The only thing restraining them is that they are out numbered by a huge majority who still hold to the 10 Commandments, even if somewhat loosely. When you find societies where atheists are the majority (communism, for example) you will find mass killing.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#2. To: A K A Stone, Deckard (#0)
How should we respond to the demand from atheists that in order for them to believe something they need evidence or reason for it? The reality of the matter is that for many atheists no evidence will ever be enough to convince them of God’s existence...
#3. To: watchman (#2)
How should we respond to the demand from atheists that in order for them to believe something they need evidence or reason for it? The reality of the matter is that for many atheists no evidence will ever be enough to convince them of God’s existence...
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
#4. To: Deckard (#3)
#5. To: Deckard (#1)
Just wondering - are atheists capable of being "moral"?
#6. To: watchman (#5)
Why not just kill and take whatever makes you feel good?
#7. To: Vicomte13 (#6)
Well, most people don't want to kill anybody.
#8. To: A K A Stone (#0)
#9. To: A K A Stone (#0)
#10. To: watchman (#7)
Vic, atheists WANT to kill...they're simply held in check by our moral codes (10 Commandments, etc)...for now.
#11. To: Vicomte13 (#10)
They don't believe in the 10 Commandments.
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