A question for all?

Question

Faith - noun
1. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
2. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
3. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
4. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

How atheism fits under any of these I would love to know, I really would, if you can prove to me how Atheism fits under any of these definitions, I will chose your answer as the best.

So the question is How does Atheism fit under any of these definitions.

Vinster some people seem to believe that Atheism requires faith somehow, I obviously don't, if they can prove how Atheism requires more faith than any person would in their life then they deserve best answer.

And by "requires faith" I mean requires more faith than an average person would have in their garbage bin being emptied on the day it is supposed to be.

I'm sorry Christina, but you have just proved my point.

Without evidence = 0 evidence, therefore in order to need faith something must have zero evidence.

With carbon dating, fossils putting man and dinosaur millions of years apart, mutating viruses proving that single cells can "evolve", and a variety of other scientific evidence, this is a loss for faith due to the wonderful formula of:

Evidence > 0 = Not meeting the faith requirement, therefore not having much to do with faith.

As I said it requires faith to believe some things, like asking someone to mind your dog or groceries or your child.

Atheism doesn't require any more "faith" than the average belief, and it requires a lot less belief in the imagination of people that lived thousands of years ago.

You might think Scientology is ridiculous and sounds like a bunch of science fiction stories, to me it sounds equally as ridiculous as your infinite and immortal not to mention incomprehensible "God"

Atheism is a category not a religion, you can be anti-semitic and be of any religion, anti-semitic people fit under a category, just because people are in a category sharing similar beliefs, doesn't constitute "religion".

Creatures can be sexual or they can be asexual, the former having a definite sex, the latter having a definite lack of sex, or being without the need of of a definite sex.

Same goes for atheism, you can be theistic or atheistic, being atheistic means you either have no or believe there is no god/gods, simple isn't it.

Actually "Pastor John" I tend to believe that if someone comes up to me, telling me I should believe that there is an infinite immortal big brother that exerts total dictatorship over my "soul", and that I must live a life according to 2000+ year old book of hearsay, in order to live an eternal afterlife, while still being in some sort of presence on an incomprehensible omnipotent being, that they should back up such mythical illogical fairy tales with some credible evidence.

As for Atheists not considering any other belief other than their own, I'm sorry to tell you that without proof, then these "beliefs" are not up to our standard:

If during a trial a murderer claims that God himself told him that his cause was a just one, and that he should murder these heathens, I think the Judge or even his lawyer would go for the insanity plea.

Case Closed buddy.

Answer 1

Arguably it fits under #3, in that you believe in some philosophy that requires evidence. But under that broad of a definition, you could consider any belief, disbelief, or general idea to be a matter of faith.

Answer 2

It does in that there is no proof, scientific or otherwise that there is no Creator. Also, there is no scientific explanation of creation or theory of everything. Yet, Atheists choose to BELIEVE that there is no Creator.

It is there Belief. Your definition #1 a belief that is not based on proof; they believe something unproven, indeed unprovable to be true. No person on this planet knows for sure if there is a Creator who created everything in the universe or if the universe somehow created itself. There are only hypotheses.

Absence of proof does not equal proof of absence. For many centuries man had no proof that the world was not flat and that there was anything past the horizion. That lack of proof did not proove that there was no other continent. We now know that there is.

For centuries scientists believed disease was caused by "bad air". There was no proof that diseases were microbial lifeforms. Now there is. A lack of proof that there were germs was not proof that germs did not exist.

The problem with Atheists is that they refuse to accept that there belief is no more valid than any religious belief. They claim that science backs them up but it does not. That is why there are so many religious scientists. For some, the more they try to disprove the existance of some Creator the more they tend to believe in one.

The difference is religious people freely admit that they do not know; they believe. That is what faith is about. Atheists lie to themselves but what they have is equally based on faith. They believe there is no God. They do not KNOW. They cannot know because the answer is unknowable. At least for now.
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Answer 3

Well, I don't think I have been part of this dialog. However your question interests me. By definition 4 of course you do not have faith. Only Judaeo-Charistians would have this faith.

However definition 1 says that you have faith if you have a belief that is not based on proof. An atheist has a belief that there is no god. It is a belief as science has neither proved nor disproved the existence of God. The atheist's belief that there is no god is not based on fact. It is by definition 1 their belief.

Pastor John

Addendum: I have no desire to argue with you nor to convince you of my faith. Your question wasn't whether my faith would stand up in a court of law now was it whether my faith is real. Your question was whether the definition you provided under any point fits an atheist. I acknowledged that it didn't fit four. But I still believe that an atheist fits the first choice of your definition.

Whatever atheists may believe, they can no more prove that God doesn't exist that we can prove that he does. It doesn't matter what a court believes or what you believe. It doesn't matter what I believe. You cannot prove that God doesn't exist. But you do believe that he doesn't. That is definition 1

Answer 4

How about #3

Answer 5

If you define Atheism as a religion, unique in that there is not a set of doctrines or beliefs that they share as a whole but still a religion because they have an opinion in this spiritual matter, (They don't believe in God - a spiritual opinion) then they should be considered a religion as most of them feel they are. They never claimed to have faith so that's not even an issue.

Answer 6

1. Only theists suggest that atheism requires "faith".
2. Atheism does not require faith or any form of belief that is not based on proof, because most of the theories many atheists believe have overwhelming amount of evidence.

Atheism doesn't fit under any of those categories, I'm not sure who told you it did. :D

Answer 7

"3.belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty"

People can have faith in themselves, faith in others, faith that justice will be served. Faith does not always have to be related to a religion or a god.

Answer 8

Since there is no "proof" that God does not exist, then it can fit neatly under the first definition.

1.belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

Answer 9

That is the English definition.
In the Bible The Greek word behind "faith" in the NT is pistis. As a noun, pistis is a word that was used as a technical rhetorical term for forensic proof.

=EDIT=
You are convinced, I will not try to change your mind.
All I can say is there is no scientific claim for evolution from molecules-to-man that you can give that I can't use science to shred.
You need to go to credible sources and not Dr. Dino.

Answer 10

it fits under number 1.

Atheists have a hypothesis that god does not exist. They can't prove it any better than any religion can prove that their god does exist.

However, I call myself an atheist/agnostic. I think that god doesn't exist, I can't prove it and I have no intention on proving it because it is futile. I like to think about it as if no one had ever made up the concept of god, no one would know about it. I don't want my mind polluted by old texts...