I'm ZJ, and I've been told "users relate more easily to somebody they've seen." Sounds good to me!
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Faith and atheism
Video | ZJ on YouTube | Subscribe
ZJ: Someone suggested that, as an atheist, my beliefs are based on faith, just like those of a religious person. I disagree. Here's a better way of looking at it. A faithful religious person subscribes to various religious beliefs based on faith. That is, they believe what they do, even though there may be no reasons to, and many reasons not to. But they disregard this, and that's what it means to have faith.
Atheists, on the other hand, do not have these beliefs. And we are not willing to believe these things when there is no reason to, or despite the many reasons not to. We don't have the faith to believe all that. So atheism is not based on faith, but rather, the lack thereof. Religious people have their religious beliefs. We do not. Religious people have faith in those beliefs. We do not.
If atheism were based on faith, it would be like getting out of bed one morning and abruptly deciding that you don't believe in God. Not for any reason—just because. And even if evidence arose that there is a God, you would still refuse to believe, because you have faith in atheism.
But atheism isn't like that. There are many valid reasons to not believe in God. For example, there's just as much evidence for elves, unicorns and magic as there is for the existence of God. That is, none whatsoever. There's no reason to believe in unicorns, and hardly anyone does. So what reason is there to believe in God?
And keep in mind that allegedly supernatural phenomena are always found to have natural origins, which have the notable advantage of evidence in their favor. We have never found a supernatural cause to replace a natural explanation. It's not as though we initially believed lightning was caused by electrical discharges, but later discovered Zeus was throwing thunderbolts out of the sky. The universe has consistently been explained by natural causes, not supernatural intervention.
Atheists do not have faith. We don't want it, and we don't need it. We don't have faith that there is no God. We have no faith that there is a God. That's what makes us atheists.