Does it take a lot of faith to be an atheist?

Question

Seems like we both are beliving in something that can not be explained. You believe the earth was poofed into exsistance without any sort of "creator" or "maker." And we believe that a God, that defies our earthly princibles, and laws, designed us and everything around us. Either way you look at it, we both have to put strong faith in the unknown. Glad we all have something in common finally.

Scratch Earth, I meant the universe.

You can't explain how the universe came about, and to this day no scientist has even touched the subject, therfor...you fail.

I'm NOT NOT NOT NOT saying that it takes Faith to NOT BELIEVE. READ MY WORDS! I'm saying it takes faith to BELIEVE that the universe just came out of nowhere.

Answer 1

It takes just as much faith to believe in atheism as it does to believe in God. To make the absolute statement “God does not exist” is to make a claim of knowing absolutely everything there is to know about everything – and of having been everywhere in the universe there is to go – and having witnessed everything there is to be seen. Of course, no atheist would make these exact claims. However, that is essentially what they are claiming when they state that God does not exist.

Answer 2

Theists seem to be trotting this out a lot lately. There is actually a large amount of scientific evidence supporting the big bang theory. You should look it up sometime. However, accepting this theory isn't what makes one an atheist, nor should denying it make one a theist. Most atheists are people who do not believe in a god or gods because of the complete lack of evidence for the existence of such a being or beings. This is not faith, which requires belief despite lack of evidence. This is logic, which says not to believe in something when there is no evidence for it.

Edit: To this day no scientist has even touched the subject of how the universe came into existence? How do you have an internet connection in your cave? Scientists have been "touching" this for almost a hundred years. Longer if you look at the pre-big bang hypotheses.

Answer 3

Atheism requires no faith, and I don't believe the earth (or the universe) was "poofed into existance." I am comfortable in not knowing exactly how the universe was created, or even if it was created, since (as you claim for your God), it likely existed forever, in one form or another. I have no "faith in the unknown." I simply do not have faith in the existance of a God.

Answer 4

From the point of view of a true skeptic, it probably takes just as much faith to believe "x is false" as to believe "x is true". Of course, most people these days are so miserably educated and narrow-minded that they wouldn't understand isosthenia if it came along and whacked them on the head with a clue-by-four. And if you mention Sextus Empiricus and the Tropes to them, they glaze over like a gerbil at a physics lecture. They just don't have it in them to understand anything more than "Me right! You wrong!". This is true of the majority of people subscribing to all flavors of belief and disbelief, atheist or not.

Answer 5

There is a great deal of explanation concerning the origin of the universe. The fact that you choose to omit that explanation and simplify our beliefs to the universe being 'poofed' doesn't change that.
And your premise is flawed, one does not need to have any belief whatsoever about the origin on the universe to be an atheist.

Oh, you're saying that it takes faith to believe the universe came from nowhere. Well sure, we can all agree on that. In the unlikely event that I ever meet someone who believes the universe came from nowhere I'll be sure to pass that on.

Answer 6

Actually no. It takes zero faith, but a lot of knowledge and rationality to rise above the dogmatic religion that has so thoroughly saturated modern cultures.

From the types of things you're saying, it sounds like you've been spending some time on fundie websites, and with youth pastors. You should consider a serious study of secular literature, to understand what atheists truely believe and why.

Answer 7

I have no faith whatsoever as you would define it. I don't care about the irrelevant questions you pose. Does a butterfly need to know where it came from or where it's going, or how soon for that matter? I dreamed I saw a butterfly...or maybe I was a butterfly...It all gets blurred because that is the essence of life.

Answer 8

Absolutely true. The way I look at it to not believe in God is a faith based assumption since it can not be proved. All that follows from that assumption is logic--requires science and natural law to yield the world view of today. To believe in God is a faith based assumption--and based on that assumption most religions are logically consistant logic flowing from that basis assumption. But in either case the basis assumption is faith based--one requires science, the other for lack of a better word "magic". And really I guess what I don't believe in is magic--i believe in cause and effect.

Answer 9

You are putting words into people's mouths now. I do not know anyone who says such things. You are lying, to be frank. I believe in nothing, and it is outrgeous to say that I do. you are distorting things and covering real issues with silly semantic smoke screeens. People who know or admit they do not know are quite different from people who know nearly nothing and only pretend to know stuff I could hardly believe when I was age 7. Faith and belief have no place in my life, and you are lying outrageously if you say so. That is slanderous.

Answer 10

Not really.

Does it take allot of faith for you to deny the existence of Leprechauns?

Same applies.

I am willing to admit that I don't have all the answers, which makes exploration beneficial and exciting, religious people assume they do have all the answers, which causes them to fear exploration and the future.

I would rather live my life with a positive outlook on the future and embrace new invention and learning, rather than continually adjusting my never changing position to make it fit in with evidence other people find.

Living with a belief that the future is doomed, the world is out to get you and people deserve eternal torture, is a terrible way to waist life.

Edit ---

It takes reliance on men who spend their entire lives building on the understanding of millions of men who spend their entire lives performing mathematical and scientific studies to verify theories.

I find that it takes less faith to base belief on duplicative studies than it does to believe nomads who claimed that God stopped the rotation of the earth so that Joshua could kill the rest of the Gentile community.