Another Dawkins quote, do you agree with it?

Question

"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." Richard Dawkins

Answer 1

Oh yes, very clever man.

Answer 2

No, I don't agree with it, but with the way in which it is stated does it really matter? I mean, the way the statement is worded is loaded: if I disagree and say I have faith in something then those who do believe the statement are prone to automatically assume that I live a cop-out; that I need a great excuse to evade evaluation and that I don't need evidence for my convictions. What is this, fifth grade with a better vocabulary? "My belief can beat up your belief!"?

This statement devalues, with a little insult, centuries of great Christian (and other faith) thought that has wrestled with the conundrum of faith. Those who have faith often don't come by it easy, or it isn't really faith, is it? Not all Christians have a simpleton's view of "God said it, I believe it, that settles it". Have any of you read anything by Philip Yancey, Brennan Manning or Tony Compolo? Have you read or encountered Christians with brains? Or do you focus on the sensational: Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, Benny Hinn and all the other fools who get it wrong?

If you want to debate how foolish someone acts, or weather or not you believe in a certain person's claims, then do that. If you want to evaluate Christianity or any other faith, don't look at any one person alive today, look at the source. Any person, even the ones I pointed out earlier, is fallible and can be picked apart. If I wanted to I could find plenty about Dawkins to pick apart.

This is the problem with debate--too often people hit below the belt instead of just engaging in honest debate.

Tell me, how seriously would you take me if I attempted to debate you by starting with an insult? Respect man, respect!

It suggests to me that Dawkins isn't interested in true debate, just mudslinging.

Answer 3

Hebrews 11:1
[ By Faith We Understand ] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.


Faith:
1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

You have faith in a doctor diagnosing your symtoms correctly and prescribing the correct medication. You have no way of scientifically proving that he or she will do so in the current visit. You can go on past performance but perhaps this is the time they get it wrong. You just have no way of proving it before you go through the steps they reccommend. You have to have faith, trust, belief that your doctor will yet again get it right.You now have the evidence of things not seen after all goes according to plan and as your doctor said.

Scientists create a medication. They evaluate the evidence and believe they have a good product. It's sent to market only to find out after a time that the medication is producing other complications unseen before. The patient had faith that the medication would solve the problem only to find out it's producing other problems. On the other hand all works out well. You now have the evidence of things not seen in that the medication did exactly what it was suppose to. The scientist may have been sure but you the patient just had to live on faith that the evidence would prove out.

You have faith that a pilot will get the plane off the ground and land it safely for you. You have no way of scientifically proving this. You can go on past results and be reasonably reassured that this will happen but perhaps the pilot is distracted today or at the very least not on his or her A game. Perhaps this is the flight that does not make it to destination safely. Did the airline screen everyone thoroughly enough as to not have a suicide bomber on the flight? Faith played the bigger part in your staying on the plane. You go through the flight both taking off and landing safely. You now have the evidence of things not seen.

You send your teenager out in the car after only having his or her drivers license for a day. Today is the 1st solo flight. Is there any evidence you can use to prove that your child will come home safely? Yes, your child is a great driver. You taugh him or her well. But there are others on the road. You have to have faith that all will go well. No experiment exists to prove that everything will go well at every turn in the road beforehand. Your child goes out and returns home safely. You now have the evidence of things unseen. Your faith has proven to be true.

Everything cannot possibly be proven beforehand. Sometimes you just have to have faith.

Faith is real.

yepperrrrrrr

Answer 4

Yes and it was very sad to watch his program about how children are brainwashed into perpetuating this myth. The teaching of religion by anybody other than the parents should be unlawful.
To yepperrrrr. Of course you can have faith in a Doctor but if you believe he is some sort of infallible god then you would be a complete idiot. You can study statistics and know what level of faith you can have in him/her. There is a big difference in having faith based on facts and reality which is a long way from blind faith in some thing that is as vague and elusive as religion.

Answer 5

Where is his evidence that people of faith do not think? If I can find just one, I disprove his theory, and I pick ... Einstein.

Quote: "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind ...a legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist" ~Albert Einstein

In my opinion, Dawkins is an extremist non-believer as bad as the extremist believers he denounces.

[EDIT]
Fred - why do you think I am in error? Perhaps, because I don't agree with you? Einstein believed in the Jewish God all his life. He didn't see it conflicting with his science at all. HE resolved his faith with his scientific life.

People are able to believe in a spiritual world and also in science. They don't have to be exclusive, and the person who believes does not have to be "ignorant, stupid, or insane" as Dawkins would say.

Answer 6

Completely.
Those that desperately want to show others that they are right in their beliefs despite evidence to the contrary put faith out as the supreme virtue, when it's the exact opposite.

Answer 7

Eh...I kind of agree. I think faith is more of a fear type thing. People are scared of what is going to happen to them after death, and people don't want to die and have that be the end of everything. So they believe in something that will give them eternal life. Which isn't so hard to imagine wanting, because death is quite scary to some peope.

Answer 8

It seems that everyone who has responded agrees, except for one person who cites Einstein. That person misses the point completely, and so should be excused for his error. Yes, this quote pretty much tells it like it is.

Answer 9

I think Carl Sagan put it better...

"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?....For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
[Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]

Answer 10

I'm a big Dawkins fan but he tends to sugar-coat his points more than I would.

Answer 11

LOL he fails to understand the definition of faith.



I bet most people on here probably saw "Dawkins" and immediately agreed with it.