Which is worse: blind faith or blind lack of faith?

Question

Many Christians on Y!A's will post answers like this: "THERE IS A GOD." They offer no other answers or details to the asker's question.

Many atheists on Y!A's will post answers like this: "THERE IS NO GOD." They, too, offer no other answers or details to the asker's question.

So, which is worse? Believing in something for the purpose of believing, or not believing in something for the purpose of not believing?

Answer 1

Blind belief is a dangerous thing. The ancient Egyptians blindly believed that the Pharohs were gods. They willingly let the Pharohs take advantage of them because of it.

Wanting proof of something before you believe it is not bad. It does make scammers mad when you insist that they prove their claims before you hand them your money. Demanding proof keeps you from believing in any random thing that comes along.

Imagine a scenario where a person comes along and says that he is Jesus. He has a few people with him and all of them say he is Jesus and that he has performed all sorts of wonderful miracles. They talk of this but offer no proof. The Jesus guy will only do stuff that stage magicians can do. He wants you to sell all of your stuff and take all of your money and give it to him so that he can help the poor of the world and end war. Would you believe this guy is real? Why or why not?

What is bad is that in that case, there are plenty of people who will, out of blind faith, believe this guy. They will get scammed. There are a few different people out there right now pulling this scam. Probably hurting thousands of people all because those people are acting on blind faith.

Answer 2

Blind Faith.

From what Ive read many atheists have answers to questions but get tired of giving them over and over.

Christians only answer is There is a God and the Bible says so.

So it really becomes a he said vs he said kinda thing based on what you find credible.

Frankly Id believe things more that have many records and such vs a book written after the fact and that is all that is used for supporting a certain cause.

Answer 3

There is no such thing as blind lack of faith. You are assuming a biased definition of faith, by which blind trust in God is faith but blind trust that God does not exist is not faith. This is not the case. Blind trust in anything is faith, whether it is the existence of God, the nonexistence of God, the flatness of the Earth, the existence of peanut butter sandwiches, and anything else. Faith is automatically bad because it is irrational and has no mechanism for refining knowledge into truth. Trying to get to the truth through faith is like trying to get to Tokyo by boarding a random airplane at an airport. Yes, it MIGHT work, but it can only work through sheer random chance, unlike logic which can actively seek it out by refining knowledge and discarding the parts that don't fit with the evidence.

Answer 4

Excellent question, I'll check back to see what people thought.

As for me, I choose to believe. Though I do not consider this to be "blind faith". I see no real purpose in "not believing" in something strickly for the purpose of "not believing". What would be the point in that?
It kind of breaks down to "free agency".
We are "free" to choose how we believe, or if we believe.
You know, even Atheists believe in somethings. Maybe they believe that tomorrow will indeed come, or maybe they believe that they studied so hard for their finals that they will surley pass with flying colors. That belief however small is still believing. That believing comes from the spirit that lives within each of us. That spirit comes from God.

Answer 5

My opinion is why believe in something just to believe in it and why not believe in something just to hate it. Thats like saying a certain food item taste disgusting when you have never even took a bite. People do it alot of the time just to fit in with a certain crowd or to give an answer when in reality they arent giving an answer at all but evidently leaving th ebook open for more question which I think I proved my point because you are asking the question arent u? Its pointless to tell what you believe in unless you have a reasonable explanation or else you have nothing for your readers to believe in now dont you, they arent going to take your word on it, we want proof!!!!

Answer 6

The Christians that respond saying There is a God and say nothing more are not Blind, they just think that is all needs to be said or they have the lack of knowledge to give insight the the question.

Answer 7

Blind faith, obviously. I believe that is a redundant term, too. People wh support blind faith ONLY support blind faith in whatever it is they believe in; they never support people's blind faith in other things (i.e., Christians don't support blind faith in Mohammed or Rasta Fari or Wicca).

Answer 8

Always better to have faith in something even if it is blind...belief in nothing makes you nothing; if that is your goal, however, then that is your choice. Also, we do not believe in God for the PURPOSE of believing in God; we believe in God because we know He exists and loves us. Not having any faith in anything is, IMO, a tragedy.

Answer 9

both!! Why? A lot of Christian follow religion and not Christ so they feel the need to defend their religion.

Atheists say there is no God and they can't prove it. They think the more people they get to believe in the God they say don't exist would prove their point.
If their is No God why do they spent so much time talking about someone that don't exist?
So Both group need to think about what they are doing.

Answer 10

They are both equal.

However, you will find far less atheists with no reasons for their non-belief.

It takes some pretty good reasons to admit that you are the most widely despised minority on the planet. You certainly don't do it just for kicks.