Faith, no more


One of the recurring arguments theists use is 'We have faith'. This is a strange, seemingly unassailable position. The word 'faith' means 'to believe without evidence'. The point is that 'the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence'.

This may sound convincing, to some, at first glance (and second, and third), but if examined closely, the argument fails utterly.

First of all, if there is no evidence, why should one religion be chosen over any other religion? In other words, maybe a deity exists, but how can anybody claim its name is Yahweh, Jehovah , Allah or Vishnu (let alone, Zeus, Thor or Ra...). To have faith in the deity of someone’s parents, or of their own choosing, seems to be quite arbitrary.

Secondly, and this is the main issue, there is evidence to the contrary. The 'holy' books (Torah, Bible, Koran or Bhagavad Gita) all contain creation stories that are in conflict with current scientific knowledge... Genesis is wrong about space-time. Genesis is wrong with respect to the moon as a source of light. Genesis is wrong on account of the 'firmament' being a solid dome.

It's not faith to believe in something unbelievable when there's evidence to the contrary; it's madness.

Any religious person can hold onto talking snakes (highly improbable as they are); they are 'miraculous'. Miracles, per definition, only happen once and can't be scientifically tested or falsified. But, what faith does it take to believe in 'the corners of the earth'? It's just ludicrous.

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