Faith

In his book, A Manual For Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian explained faith as: "Believing something anyway" - I agree.  Let's give it a try.

Me:  So you believe the bible where it says, "In the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth"?

Christian:  Yes, I do.

Me:  You do know that there is no scientific evidence backing up that claim, don't you?

Christian:  It's a matter of faith, so I'm going to believe it anyway.

The above is not an exact quote from conversations that I have had with believers in the past, but is a paraphrase of every single conversation that I have had with every single Christian in the past 20 years, concerning the biblical claims that they believe regardless of the complete lack of evidence supporting those claims - they believe it anyway - or - FAITH!

When did faith become a virtue?  You see it on numerous headstones in any cemetery with epitaphs like "He was a man of Deep Faith".  Why is believing without evidence, or in-spite of evidence to the contrary, a mental act worthy of recognition and praise?  Why not: "She was convinced by the evidence"?  Is that not an admirable epitaph.

bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com