RichardSRussell (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} richardsrussell) wrote,@ 2008-03-04 11:01:00 |
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Atheism As Faith
If you really want to insult an atheist, say that atheism is just another form of faith.
You guessed it! That’s exactly what came up next:
As Kurt Williamsen winds down, he treats us to this penultimate paragraph:
= = = = = =
There are many logical black holes that destroy strict evolutionary theory. One needs only add here that it takes far more "faith" to believe in atheism than it does to believe in God.
= = = = = =
If there really are “many” black holes that “destroy” evolutionary theory, why can’t he find just one of them? And why is it that the “logic” behind these black holes has totally escaped virtually every biologist on the planet?
Evolutionary theory is one of the most fantastically successful scientific paradigms ever. Its predictive powers are enormous and have been applied to fields as diverse as particle physics, linguistics, and sociology. It has hardly been “destroyed” by the minor mouse nibblings around its edges that fundamentalists like Michael Behe and William Dembski have come up with. It’s as if Brett Favre threw for 5 touchdowns, ran for another, piled up 600 yards of total offense, and took a knee 20 seconds before the end of the blowout, and the ID proponents focus on that last play to fault him for what is statistically a 1-yard loss. The criticism, in addition to being utterly unjustified, is out of all proportion to the overall accomplishments.
Before I get going on faith, let me point out that Williamsen’s phrase “believe in atheism” is an oxymoron. One does not “believe” in atheism. Quite the contrary. Atheism is not a belief at all. It’s the absence of a belief. Calling atheism a belief is like calling bald a hair color. It’s like calling health a disease. It’s like saying peace is a type of war.
Next let’s look at the logic behind Williamsen’s claim that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. Since his whole essay is an argument against atheism, what he’s really saying is that we shouldn’t trust atheism because (in his warped view) it’s founded on faith. Here we have the ultimate irony: a bombastic Christian bad-mouthing faith.
Well, I happen to agree that we shouldn’t swallow anything that’s based on faith (and tomoro I’ll get into lots more detail as to why, and what the alternatives are), but the fact of the matter is that atheism isn’t based on faith at all. It’s based on the plain, simple idea that “It is wrong — always, everywhere, and for everyone — to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” (W. K. Clifford)
And that’s all atheism is saying: Show me. Show me the evidence. Where is this omnipresent god of yours? You claim he answers prayers, but clearly he doesn’t. (And don’t try to weasel out of that with the old con-man line that “Sometimes he says ‘no’.”. I can read John 14:13 as well as the next guy, and I don’t see any asterisks, fine print, limited warranties, or “void where prohibited by law” exceptions there.) You claim that he loves everybody, but according to the Bible all but 144,000 of us are gonna go to Hell, a place that he created to inflict eternal suffering. How loving is that? If he’s so wise, how do you explain the construction of the human knee, something that you or I or your 8-year-old kid could have designed better?
It doesn’t take faith at all to reject this entire cartload of horse dung. All it takes is a brain and the ability to detect a smoke-and-mirrors con game that’s riddled with errors, contradictions, and the most obvious lies. Oh, and periodic appeals for more hard currency, thank you very much.
Being open-minded isn’t the same as having holes in your head.
Tomoro: Faith, the ultimate hole in the head.
If you really want to insult an atheist, say that atheism is just another form of faith.
You guessed it! That’s exactly what came up next:
As Kurt Williamsen winds down, he treats us to this penultimate paragraph:
= = = = = =
There are many logical black holes that destroy strict evolutionary theory. One needs only add here that it takes far more "faith" to believe in atheism than it does to believe in God.
= = = = = =
If there really are “many” black holes that “destroy” evolutionary theory, why can’t he find just one of them? And why is it that the “logic” behind these black holes has totally escaped virtually every biologist on the planet?
Evolutionary theory is one of the most fantastically successful scientific paradigms ever. Its predictive powers are enormous and have been applied to fields as diverse as particle physics, linguistics, and sociology. It has hardly been “destroyed” by the minor mouse nibblings around its edges that fundamentalists like Michael Behe and William Dembski have come up with. It’s as if Brett Favre threw for 5 touchdowns, ran for another, piled up 600 yards of total offense, and took a knee 20 seconds before the end of the blowout, and the ID proponents focus on that last play to fault him for what is statistically a 1-yard loss. The criticism, in addition to being utterly unjustified, is out of all proportion to the overall accomplishments.
Before I get going on faith, let me point out that Williamsen’s phrase “believe in atheism” is an oxymoron. One does not “believe” in atheism. Quite the contrary. Atheism is not a belief at all. It’s the absence of a belief. Calling atheism a belief is like calling bald a hair color. It’s like calling health a disease. It’s like saying peace is a type of war.
Next let’s look at the logic behind Williamsen’s claim that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. Since his whole essay is an argument against atheism, what he’s really saying is that we shouldn’t trust atheism because (in his warped view) it’s founded on faith. Here we have the ultimate irony: a bombastic Christian bad-mouthing faith.
Well, I happen to agree that we shouldn’t swallow anything that’s based on faith (and tomoro I’ll get into lots more detail as to why, and what the alternatives are), but the fact of the matter is that atheism isn’t based on faith at all. It’s based on the plain, simple idea that “It is wrong — always, everywhere, and for everyone — to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” (W. K. Clifford)
And that’s all atheism is saying: Show me. Show me the evidence. Where is this omnipresent god of yours? You claim he answers prayers, but clearly he doesn’t. (And don’t try to weasel out of that with the old con-man line that “Sometimes he says ‘no’.”. I can read John 14:13 as well as the next guy, and I don’t see any asterisks, fine print, limited warranties, or “void where prohibited by law” exceptions there.) You claim that he loves everybody, but according to the Bible all but 144,000 of us are gonna go to Hell, a place that he created to inflict eternal suffering. How loving is that? If he’s so wise, how do you explain the construction of the human knee, something that you or I or your 8-year-old kid could have designed better?
It doesn’t take faith at all to reject this entire cartload of horse dung. All it takes is a brain and the ability to detect a smoke-and-mirrors con game that’s riddled with errors, contradictions, and the most obvious lies. Oh, and periodic appeals for more hard currency, thank you very much.
Being open-minded isn’t the same as having holes in your head.
Tomoro: Faith, the ultimate hole in the head.
