Irrational Faith

Recently I had a discussion with someone on you tube who tried to refute a video I made that claimed that the bible was not the word of God. In this video I cited exactly ten reasons why I was convinced that the bible was in fact like God; a creation of man. My main reason was the fact that the bible contained many human, historical, and scientific errors.

The person who was discussing this with me declared that the bible was the word of God and that this was in and of itself an irrefutable fact! When I prodded him for evidence he shrugged it off and instead insisted that I provide evidence to back up my claims. I told him that I was not the one required to provide evidence since I was not the one making positive claims. In fact, the onus of proving that God existed and somehow inspired the bible was on him.

This discussion led me to believe that theists and non believers see and understand reason, logic, and rationality in completely different ways. Faith as I have always stated is convenient in that it does not require evidence of any kind. All you need to believe a claim on faith is the willingness to accept those claims without question. I am convinced that there is no way that you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God, although I am myself an atheist. Objectively, religious beliefs and their doctrines cannot be proven.

Because of the demand for evidence by not just atheists but many other non believers theists have been forced to try and make sense of their nonsensical beliefs. From a logical standpoint there is no way this is possible. The only thing left for them to do is resort to their favorite past time: cherry picking. What cannot be made sense of objectively or from a literal sense is then reinterpreted to be an allegory, a parable or some other such nonsense.

When science proves religionists wrong they then try to reinterpret their beliefs to at least be partially in agreement with scientific findings. A perfect example of this is the matter of evolution. Theists generally believed that we were created in 6 days and that the Earth itself was no more than 7,000 years old. But with the overwhelming evidence for evolution some theists have accepted evolution as fact. Of course it is a fact with a little twist of God, they state now that God created man and all living things through the process of evolution! You just can’t win with theists.

I have had many discussions with theists on the advances in medicine and they simply say God gave the doctors the knowledge to save lives etc. It seems to me that no matter how irrational religious beliefs can be theists will do anything to make it fit their worldview. They cling to their beliefs like a drowning man clings to a flotation device that is tossed out to him.

I know that it is a stretch; but I personally would love to see the day when man outgrows his dependency on myths and ancient superstitions. I long for the day when the bible will be shelved in the section labeled mythology in the book stores and local libraries. I yearn for the day when religion loses its death grip on the minds of men, and when we can all rely on our own learning and ingenuity to keep our lives progressive and always moving forward. I actually pity the theists but I personally don’t miss those days when I was once of them. I feel free as an atheist: free of body and mind.