Religious faith is a good way to establish truth. Do you agree?

Question

Here is an atheist argument:

Atheists attack this by saying that if faith is a good way to establish truth, then most people would come to the same conclusion. Only one-third of the world's population is Christian.

Here is my rebuttal:

The feeling of the Holy Spirit is undeniable.It can touch you but you have to WANT it to and too many people do not try.An atheist could give a lip service prayer and not put his heart in it AT ALL and yet he thinks God will answer this?

You have to really try.

Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Cain gave a sacrifice to God that was half-hearted. God will not respond in a positive manner unless you really give your heart to him.

Also, people belong to other religions because they fell away from the truth. Satan inspired other religions that worshipped Baal for example and these religions spread while Judaism did not because the Jews were God's chosen people and Jesus had not come yet so times were different when it come to converting

Imagine if you had never tasted salt before. If a person tried to explain it to you he could tell you it's not sweet or sour, etc.

This would be telling you what it's not. Try telling someone what it is.

The Holy Spirit is the same. You can feel it, but you have to try.

Agree?

Answer 1

Faith is not truth. Faith happens because there isn't any proof or it would be called truth. That is why it is called faith.

Answer 2

Religious faith is a good way to establish truth. Do you agree?
--No.

The feeling of the Holy Spirit is undeniable.
--It's funny how the "holy spirit" can touch so many people in
--different churches to tell them that what they believe is right.
--It's called the power of suggestion.

It can touch you but you have to WANT it to and too many people do not try.
--Like I was saying, the power of suggestion is at play here.

An atheist could give a lip service prayer and not put his heart in it AT ALL and yet he thinks God will answer this?
--Um, no, because he (notice everyone in your little world is
--male) doesn't believe in god.

Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Cain gave a sacrifice to God that was half-hearted. God will not respond in a positive manner unless you really give your heart to him.
--That's all it is, a story.

Also, people belong to other religions because they fell away from the truth. Satan inspired other religions that worshipped Baal for example and these religions spread while Judaism did not because the Jews were God's chosen people and Jesus had not come yet so times were different when it come to converting.
--Wow, this argument is so STUPID, it's not even worth a
--rebuttal.

Answer 3

>Religious faith is a good way to establish truth. Do you agree?

So wait a second here. Trusting in the existence of the christian God and denying other possibilities is a good way to get to the truth? How does this make any sense? When you have faith in God's existence, you convince yourself that God can be known to exist without the evidence having to support that idea. How on Earth can NOT looking at the evidence be a better way to establish the facts than LOOKING at the evidence is? How does anything have a better chance of leading to the truth about the real world than examining the real world? I don't understand how you can justify this.

>The feeling of the Holy Spirit is undeniable.

Sorry, but I'm still not feeling it.

>It can touch you but you have to WANT it to and too many people do not try.An atheist could give a lip service prayer and not put his heart in it AT ALL and yet he thinks God will answer this?
>You have to really try.

This is not a useful argument. You're saying that you will only find evidence for God AFTER you put your faith in him. Basically, what you're saying is 'After you convince yourself beyond rational doubt that God exists, you will suddenly find justification for belief in God!' Well duh, of course. After you convince yourself beyond rational doubt that 2+2=5, you will suddenly find justification for the belief that 2+2=5 as well. In other words, you have your causality all wrong: Belief is based on evidence, but evidence is not based on belief. The evidence has to come FIRST for the belief to be valid because otherwise you can find 'evidence' for anything you have chosen to believe no matter how ridiculous. Get the idea?

Answer 4

Faith is by no way a good way to establish truth. Listen, everyone has a different truth. In the real world, two plus two rarely equals four. In Christianity, for example, no two people of different denominations can agree on everything. And why do you assume that people of different faiths are "of the Devil" -scoffs- no wonder no one really likes Christians. You guys claim WE attack religions? It's more of a counter-attack by how you make your arguments sound. What about all those religions that came about BEFORE your God was even thought up of? Sumerians, Mesopotamian, Chinese, Japanese, etc? What about them? Were THEY led away by Satan as well? Give me a break. You're just a bigot trying to get an "Amen" from the crowd.

Answer 5

Most religions insist that you don't seek truth, your faith lies in perpetuation of ancient dogma. That leaves no room for truth, just someone else's doctrines.

The Bible attempts to speak for God and that is why it fails to enlighten. The Creator makes no religion or books. You call it truth because that is what you have learned, if you grew up in the Fertile Crescent 5000 years ago, you would have worshiped many Gods that people created with biographies and full descriptions. Those old beliefs changed as man has over the centuries. How can you then claim to know what truth is if you have been spoon fed a revised and homogenized version of ancient mythology?

Pantheist

Answer 6

Religious faith invariably veils the truth and highlights the differences between us instead of the similarities.

To say you 'feel' the Holy Spirit is, in my humble opinion, a delusion and simply an altered state that one enters when using the power of self-persuasion, not unlike hypnosis or psychosis.

I wrote a piece for a magazine about this very issue and you may like to read it. It's always good to understand and really absorb an opposing point of view so that it will make you question yourself or - indeed - strengthen your your own commitment to your faith

Here is the link to my short piece of writing:
http://meanderingtrevor.blogspot.com/2007/04/religion-for-gays.html

Answer 7

You do realize that we have religions dating back to around 10,000 years ago, which we know first evolved as polytheistic and pantheistic, and every one of the followers of those ancients religions, and of the many religions of today, feels just as strongly about the feeling they get from their religion. Even Hinduism is older than Judaism by a decent margin.

Religion is, and always has been, based on little more than culture. Around 3/4 of the world's population, no matter where they are born, will continue the religious beliefs of their parents into adulthood in some format. Child indoctrination is highly psychological and a vicious cycle. A person born in parts of Asia will almost certainly become a Hindu, other parts a Buddhist, in Africa possibly one of the many tribal religions still in existence.

Not only has your religion, through its own text, been systematically ripped apart more than any other religion by new discoveries, it worships one of the most twisted deities ever created by the human mind, and is historically the most violent religion by far ever created, directly responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths..

Thanks, but no thanks.

Answer 8

That is a very arrogant thing to say. You don't even realize how arrogant you are.

I am not saying you are right or wrong about what you are saying, but you give yourself and your religion a dominant stance over everybody beliefs.

Even if you are "right" you are not helping anybody by playing the part of the superior mind/belief. You should be more respectful, if you are truly looking to help people to salvation.

Personally, what you are saying here really says more about how you are as a person than it does about religion. That is my personal opinion. If you are mad about it, it just shows your arrogance. Leave people alone, show some respect.

Peace.

Answer 9

I don't get your argument at all, and whichever athiest said this, is mistaken, or perhaps it is misquoted or taken out of context. I don't claim to be athiest because I cannot prove a god does not exist just as no one can prove it does. You can only feel it and express your FAITH and BELIEF. As for you lip service prayer answer, I don't buy that either. I would love it if I believed there was an almighty being out there who looked after me, and I KNEW for certain there was a good place to go after death, but I don't. I want to, but I don't. When I was a little girl, I prayed hard and honestly. I was young and innocent and my heart was open. No God ever showed. I felt no presence. My mother tried her best, took me to church and Sunday school, but I never got it. I honestly tried, but it didn't take.

Answer 10

You are a snake-oil salesman with a tired pitch.

So, if one prays and prays and so earnestly wants to believe ... then if one does not ever "feel" the presence of "The Lord" - then the conclusion must be NOT that there isn't a "god", but that the person in question never had enough faith to be worthy of a response from this diety? If that person prayed so hard and never got a "feeling" or an "answer" ... that person obviously didn't TRY hard enough?

What a bunch of crap.

Answer 11

I can try and have the spirit of Vishnu come into me also. I can feel emotion feel up within me and call that Vishnu.

I never had the "feeling of the Holy Spirit" while I was a Christian (about twenty years). I no longer accept the Christian religion; faith is not a way to establish truth. Blind emotion leads people many ways; it lead many Germans to destruction during World War II and the brutal death of a lot of innocent people.