Does blind faith make you stupid.?

Question

I've been to the athiest sites,and they more or less make religious people out to be morons.

Answer 1

"If it made any sense, you wouldn't have to accept it on 'faith', would you?" ~ from Nuns On The Run.

'Belief', itself, is the culprit. 'Belief' is the antithesis of an open mind. Belief is an insidious mind-killer... it cuts one off from the intellectually honest consideration of alternative possibilities.

Open mindedness is an expression of the willingness to consider alternative possibilities... and 'intellectual honesty' goes hand-in-hand with that. Intellectual honesty implies one's willingness to question and to doubt the validity of one's own assumptions.

I should clarify my use of the word 'belief' here. It is perfectly acceptable, in everyday discourse, to say things like:

* I believe OJ did it.
* I believe the sun will come up tomorrow.
* I believe in god.

However, in deeper discussion, it is necesary to recognize that there are different nuances of meaning for the word 'belief' in those three statements... subtleties that seem to escape the notice of most Christians.

In the first sentence, 'belief' connotes a strong opinion.

In the second sentence, 'belief' represents a reasonable expectation based upon knowledge and experiential reference.

In the third sentence, 'belief' represents a certainty that one knows the absolute objective 'truth' about some aspect of existence and reality.

It is in the sense of the THIRD meaning that I say that 'belief' is an insidious mind-killer. In that sense, such a belief is essentially a DELUSION, since it is arrived at by non-rational processes... faith... wishful thinking.

Once one is possessed of such delusions, they provide a neat, tidy explanation for everything. Where rational people struggle with sorting out facts and evidence to arrive at a reasonable explanation, 'believers' do not struggle at all... in the epitome of intellectual dishonesty and intellectual laziness, they just declare "God did it." Where the rational person is forced to admit "We don't know... yet", the 'believer' again declares "God did it."

The intellectual toolbox of the rational person contains such items as biology, cosmology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, logic, physics, philosophy, history... (the list goes on), the believer's intellectual toolbox consists of... oops... wait a minute... believers don't HAVE an intellectual toolbox. All they have is the Wholly Babble, and the brilliant assertion "God did it", and the brilliant intellectual position for countering the facts and knowledge uncovered by science... "Ain't SO."

Answer 2

I think the key here is the word "blind"

Faith, in and of itself, is without basis in fact. If you had FACT then it would no longer be faith, but rather it would be trust. "Blind Faith" is kind of like just believing what you're told without actually having any other reason. I don't think that having blind faith makes you stupid, but it does show that you don't think for yourself.

Read the whole section before you judge my following comments.

Take Christianity for example. If someone were to just tell you that there is a God and that Jesus came to save you from Sin and all that jazz, would you just believe them? If so, then that is blind faith. If you would like to know more and then they take out the Bible and show you stuff and you have a whole book full of stuff that many other people have faith is the truth, then you have at least become a little less blind in your faith. If you then seek your own answers in the Bible and question things for the sake of clarification and understanding, perhaps consulting your pastor/priest, then you have moved beyond the blind faith stage and into a greater and deeper kind of faith and understanding.

It's kinda like this. If we did not have Evil and Sin to compare it to, what would Good and Righteousness be? Without the night, who cares that it is day? In order to truly have exerted your free will and CHOSEN (for yourself) to have faith in something, there must be comparison. If you do not choose for yourself, then you are merely allowing yourself to be led along by the nose.

Continuing on the theme of Christianity, if I remember correctly, God wants you to CHOOSE him for yourself. God wants you to use your free will and STILL CHOOSE Jesus.

The same basic principle holds true with many religions. The choices you make may be over different versions of God or perhaps even different ethical issues, but the core is the same.

Blind Faith = No Choice
True Faith = Free Will and a Decision (Manifest Destiny?)

Answer 3

I wouldn't label having blind faith as "stupid", I think closed minded might be a better word. I really cannot understand blind faith in anything, I'm too much of a free-thinker and the minute you start blindly following anything you loose any sense of right and wrong in my mind. I think questioning definitely makes us more intelligent open minded people.

Answer 4

As an atheist, I believe that blind faith is a bad thing. As a scientist, I find it good to question everything including established ideas.

I wouldn't say it made one a moron or stupid but I wouldn't be able to believe that somebody was right if they weren't willing to believe that they could be wrong.

Answer 5

I think those atheist are just as close minded as they try to claim the Christians are.. I am an atheist, and I dont consider Christians bad at all..Except of course the fundamentalist... But, I would say that blind faith isnt very rational, however, I dont know everything about everything. I do know that I, even if I were a Chrisitan would think everything out before I either preeched to other people or devoted my life to it...

Answer 6

Faith = trust in something

I used these quotes:

In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles. - Henry Christopher Bailey

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. - St. Augustine

May it not be that, just as we have to have faith in Him, God has to have faith in us and, considering the history of the human race so far, may it not be that faith is even more difficult for Him than it is for us? - W. H. Auden

In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity. - Alexander The Great

Faith is a continuation of reason. - William Adams

Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand. - Saint Thomas Acquinas

Now I would say, with your blind faith it does not make you stupid!!! believe me... use that "free will" to find the right medicine to cure your blindness...

Answer 7

It isn't that faith makes you stupid, it's that the word 'faith' is interrelated with the word 'stupidity'.

Faith is belief based on motive rather than reason. But outside the domain of religion, people who believe things simply because they want to are considered stupid.

Faith is an abomination that religious people have perverted into a virtue.

Answer 8

in a sense sin makes you stupid, becuase it causes you to deny a rational faith

I dont believe in blind faith, or a blind leap of faith
I believe in a leap towards the light and I think that the more Biblical view

(this is more in the direction of Thomas Aquinas, CS Lewis, Josh MacDowell, Lee Strobel... and many other Chrstians appologists. However in the end, faith is rational but the human nature being limited by sin will oppose the rational faith without grace from God)

Answer 9

Faith is not blind. We are told by Jesus in Luke 10:27 (NIV) to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" which is a quotation from Deuteronomy. Therefore, both the Jewish and Christian faiths are based on an intellectual faith.

May God bless and keep you.

Answer 10

Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance.

In short, if you have all the answers already, you can't be educated.

So yes. Yes, blind faith makes you stupid.