Poop Shute

This is in response to a friend's Facebook blog post. It was months ago, but I just got on for the first time since then. One person, Anne tried to describe my immovability on the issue of faith (and those like me) as though it were it's own kind of faith unto itself. Here is my reply.

To Anne, and anyone else that would accuse my non-belief as just as much of a faith as your own, I will strongly disagree and tell you why. Essentially, I will say the same thing as Anthony, but I will use a different approach.

There are two ways to express the lack of God, and the difference means everything:

1) I believe there is no God.

2) I do not believe in God.

The first statement is a statement of certainty in something that there is no way to prove. That is the belief of atheism, and yes, it could be argued that this stance is a kind of faith all its own. But it's a faith in something that does NOT bare the burden of proof, the existence of God bares that burden. It's like having "faith" that there are also no such thing as fairies, vampires, and unicorns. Nobody would call you close-minded or arrogant if you made those statements.

The second statement is different. It is an expression of a lack of belief, but in no way points towards any fixed and dogmatic certainty of any alternative. I tend to lean more this way, because I have no certainty in what happens after this life, but I recognize that there is no way to ever really have the answer, so I let it go.

Like Anthony said, if you show me compelling evidence or even just a good reason to believe then, of course, I am bound to "helplessly" agree with you. As a person who leads a thinking life, I would have no choice. But the key to that scenario is I don't have to compel you with any evidence to the contrary. The "burden of proof" is on the idea of something existing, nobody has to prove something does NOT exist. It's not only impossible to prove a negative, but it would be redundant if you could, because the lack of evidence to the affirmative is argument enough. I point you, once again to fairies, vampires, and unicorns.

But, I would not stubbornly hold to this lack of belief in the face of evidence. If tomorrow somebody came up with unarguable evidence proving any faith was right, I would be "helpless" to change my mind. But those people of faith, no matter how many of their points are shown to be inconsistent with science and reality as we know it, hold fiercely to what some old book says.

Any way of life that asks me to blindly accept anything, is not the life for me.

COMMENTS

Ah, the certainty of youth! I am smart enough to know I have no certainty about anything; that there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. If you change the question from a black-and-white "is there or isn't there" and instead ask "could there be" the answers become far less certain. Could there be a God? I can't say with any certainty either way. Could there be vampires, ghosts, fairies, aliens, hobgoblins, leprechauns, archangels, Heaven, Hell, etc? I'm willing to entertain the possibility, and be amused by whatever the result might be. dougeebear | 10.13.08 - 1:21 pm | #

Haha. I don't have the "certainty of youth" either. I actually say about half way down the post that I don't have the dogmatic certainty of an atheist, because there is no way to answer that question one way or the other, so I simply accept that I can never (within this lifetime) really know the answer, and I let it go and move on for now, operating under the idea that there is not a God, because nothing compels me to believe that there is. And, as I said, nobody can or should try to prove God is NOT there, but you don't have to, do you? Without contrary evidence to dissuade me, I comfortably and happily live as though religion is just as much fantasy as are vampires, fairies, etc. That make sense? Joey | 10.13.08 - 2:59 pm | #

re: "Without contrary evidence to dissuade me, I comfortably and happily live as though religion is just as much fantasy as are vampires, fairies, etc." I'll point out to you that religion and faith are two very different things. One can have faith without religion and I see examples every day of folks who have religion but no faith at all...that being said I know for a fact that you could comfortably and happily live if there were no religion OR faith to speak of. I'll go the usual route: What about love? I imagine you won't count it because it's not an old white dude? You can believe in love (an untangible, un-proveable feeling) but not God? Not that you should believe in God, I'm just curious... Meg | Homepage | 10.13.08 - 8:30 pm | #

I think Joey would reply with something like, but I can feel the emotion of love. I don't feel an emotion called "god". But some of us do. I'm not a big fan of organized religion and I'm not saying everyone has to feel the way I do. I just know that my truth is: I do feel "god". (I hate calling it that. It has so many messed up connotations in our society.) vega | 10.14.08 - 3:06 pm | #

Vega, I have two pet peeves. One, I hate being interrupted. But worse than that is two, I hate it when people speak on my behalf. Expecially when they are incorrect on my opinion. I will answer your "love" question in a full post, Meg. It merits further exploration than a comment. Joey | 10.15.08 - 3:53 pm | #