“Faith is the surrender of the mind, it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.” ~Christopher Hitchens
Love this one. You’re on a role today, ummagumma! ~JJ
Have you ever gotten that line after a discussion about religion with a theist? If you have (or ever do), your response should be “Good!”
Because the definition of faith is believing something for which there is no evidence. And if you have to strengthen your resolve to believe, that means something I’ve said caused you to question it. It means you caught a glimpse of what I know to be true - you have no evidence. ~JJ
When you hear someone say, I trust god, they’re saying that they’re willing to take life as it comes. There is no god; thus, he doesn’t control what happens or what doesn’t happen in a given life. A Christian would say: “I leave it in god’s hands.” So, they interview for the job and if they don’t get it, they say: “it wasn’t god’s will.” If they do, they say: “praise the Lord.” How convenient?
There’s no such thing as trust in god. In simple terms, they’re just being optimistic. When it comes to religion, one can only have absolute faith. Trust doesn’t apply to gods. Trust applies when testing the effectiveness of science, mathematics, or language. Trust applies to testing someone’s dedication, commitment, or level of honesty. Trust applies to that which is tangible. Trust and religious faith are not synonymous.
Trust is a gradual process. It has to be earned. Faith is, like deconversionmovement says above, simply optimism. ~JJ
~ Sam Harris (The End of Faith)
This quote, this entire idea, has been on my mind all weekend long.
Kim’s post this morning expounds on the effects of this idea. Complacent acceptance of others’ (and their own!) pain and suffering. Willingness to overlook the atrocities in our world as a “plan.” A belief that everything is temporary and that death will be better than life.
But faith in the happiness of death keeps people trapped in their prayers, in their churches, in their dreams. In most situations, it doesn’t inspire action. (Though in the worst situations, it DOES inspire action. Horrible action.) We have a large segment of our population that literally hopes we are nearing the end of the world.
What a horrible way to live! We have this one, very precious, life. And think of the changes that will happen once more people start to realize this. I know how accepting the finality of death changed my life and how I interact with my family, my friends, every person I meet. This is it. It’s all we have.
I personally do not fear death… but I sure as hell don’t think it will be better than life. ~JJ
I'm JJ. Female. If you hang out with me you'll get thoughts on atheism, secular parenting, ethics, feminism and politics (liberal, pro-choice) and occasionally excerpts from conversations with my 8-year-old son (there's a link below for most of the conversations and parenting posts). I don't usually accept anonymous asks but I've opened it up for now. And if you request a private response, I will oblige. Also, because I get asked a lot, my url comes from the phrase "Teach children HOW to think, not WHAT to think." That's my parenting philosophy in a nutshell.
