It Takes More Faith To Be An Atheist!

To start off this post, I have to recommend this video:

When I suggest videos to watch, which isn't that often, I am really expecting that you watch the video.  I only post videos that I find to be extremely informative or helpful in aiding my readers understand what I am trying to get across.

The aforementioned video is tangentially related to the topic for the post today, which is "It Takes More Faith To Be An Atheist!".  This is is one of the most common statements I hear from theists because it falls into the category of arguments I like to call, "putting us on even footing".  The types arguments that attempt to put the theist and atheist on even footing include:  the "you have just as much faith as me!" arguments, the "your atheists groups are just like churches" arguments, and the "if we can't prove a god then you can't disprove it" arguments.  The purpose of these types of arguments from theists is to say that atheists and theists are equally irrational, have just as much evidence as the other, and have as much justification to believe as the other.

Many proponents of the "It takes more faith to be an atheist!" argument claim that for atheists to be absolutely certain that a god doesn't exist, in the face of the evidence that is this universe, takes an extraordinary amount of faith.  The first problem with this argument is that most atheists do not claim to be absolutely certain that a god doesn't exist, but rather they are convinced beyond reasonable doubt.  Using the phrase "absolutely certain" is utterly pointless when trying to sort out what we do and don't know.  We cannot be absolutely certain about anything and bringing up absolute certainty just ends the conversation.  Second, rejecting a claim that doesn't provide enough evidence isn't taking something on faith.  Recall that faith is believing in something for which there is no evidence.  Atheists are rejecting something for which there is no evidence for; the exact opposite of what faith is.  For more on this argument, see http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=It_takes_more_faith_to_disbelieve.

E-mail brbailey@umd.edu for any questions or to start a discussion with me, or leave a comment below!