Quote:
Originally Posted by catzmeow
I used to believe. That's what makes me laugh about these conversations, the assumption that the non-believer knows nothing about faith. I know about faith. I've experienced it. But, over time, I realized that just because you believe in something doesn't make it real.
I don't have faith in many things: Jesus Christ, pink elephants that fly, the spaghetti monster, cthulhu, hari krishnas, religious leaders who fleece their congregations, holy books of any stripe, and sheep.
I do have faith in: The redeeming power of love. The tendency of people to live up or down to our expectations of them. The healing power of laughter and humor. The capacity of humans to aspire to amazing heights of goodness and appalling depths of evil. The possibility of heroism in the most unlikely places. Courage. The sacredness of breaking bread with people.
I don't need God to be happy.
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Believing in God, or however you want to define faith as it's not limited to mono-theism, isn't really about happiness on this Earth. For example many give a vow of poverty in order to better serve God. It is belief in something greater than ourselves. If you want to compare the complexity of the Universe and the miracle of life, with "pink elephants" be my guest. My existence is proof enough for me that God exists.
As I say, the alternative to having no faith is basically saying to oneself "this is it, this is all there is". Unless you can explain how the atheist can define existence any other way, I'd be anxious to hear it. The "tenents" of atheism are essentially......"This is it, there's no other form of conciousness or existence".