Atheism is a Faith-Based Belief System
Back up for just a minute and think about the difference between positive and negative statements of fact. The difference can be illustrated by a simple example. Suppose there are 10,000 clovers in a field. Person A declares, "There is a four-leaf clover in that field," while Person B objects, "There are no four-leaf clovers in that field." Now, how many clovers does each person have to observe and know about in order to be certain that they are correct? Since Person A must find only one single four-leaf clover in order to be correct, in theory he could prove his statement after observing only one clover, provided that it had four leaves on it. But Person B, in order to know for a fact that she is right, has a lot of work to do! That's because until all 10,000 clovers have been inspected, there would still be the possibility that among the clovers which remained "unknown" to her was one which boasted a fourth leaf. She could never be certain that she was right until she knew everything there was to know about that field and the clovers it contained.
The same principle holds for statements such as, "There is a God," and "There is no God," only this time on a cosmic scale. In order to prove the claim, "There is no God in the universe," one would have to know everything there is to know about the universe. As long as some body of knowledge remains unknown to anyone making that statement, there will always be the possibility that sufficient evidence for the existence of God is out there, despite the individual's ignorance of it. And since no one can seriously claim to know everything, anyone who is honest will admit that they can never prove there isn't a God. One Christian author put it this way: "Somewhere, in the vast knowledge you haven't yet discovered, there could be enough evidence to prove that God does exist. . . . If you insist upon disbelief in God, what you must say is, 'Having the limited knowledge I have at present, I believe that there is no God.'"**
It is the word "believe" in the above quotation which brings us to the assertion made in the title of this article: "Atheism is a faith-based belief system." To be an atheist, you have to have to rely on belief, not factual knowledge. You could never amass enough knowledge to prove the nonexistence of God, so you must place your faith in the improvable assumption that there is no God. My Christian brothers and sisters, do not ever let an atheist deride you on the basis of your faith in God (as if "faith" were a dirty word!), because atheism is no stranger to the concept of faith, either. Ask your atheist friends what it would take for them to accept God's existence. Then pray that the Lord will open their spiritual eyes to see the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ, as well as the depravity and hopelessness of their current situation, guilty as they are of sin against a holy and just God. May the Lord grant repentance to those who are strangers to His mercy and grace!
**Quotation taken from Ray Comfort's book, God Doesn't Believe in Atheists (1993), pp. 14-15.
Published by Matthew Mitchell
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3 Comments
Post a CommentHowever, given the lack of any proof of a theistic entity, the existence of the entity and all of the supporting rituals fall under the theistic belief and therefore are summarily rejected.
Third, by this argument, all humans are nearly identical in their "faith-based belief systems" as we all believe there are no unicorns, no leprechauns, no giant wingless crickets, no martians on Mars, no billy goats on Pluto, etc... And their non-existence can never be disproven. But we do say that they do not exist based solely on the data that we have access to in our world. Yet are these concepts really ones that factor into our beliefs in society or one's persona? Do they really help us live a better and more complete life? Of course not, because the list of things that don't exist is infinite and irrelevant. Are you suggesting that we should believe something merely because we cannot disprove it? You would then have to believe all of the aforementioned things above if that were the cas
First off, as per the definition, it is impossible to have a "belief system" on the basis of a single belief. Second, it is impossible, as per the definition, to believe in the non-existence of something. It is not a belief to say "I believe there is no God" because a belief is only confidence in the truth or existence of something. Indeed, it is impossible to prove the non-existence of something. If it doesn't exist, there is no physical way to prove that, but merely that there is no data supporting it's existence. However, because we do not have data for its existence also means we cannot definitively negate its existence. But we can say that there is no proof for it, and therefore there is no implict reason to believe it, which is what atheism is. Atheism is the rejection of the theistic belief not necessarily the existence of the theistic entity. However, given the lack of any proof of a theistic entity, the existence of the entity and all of the supporting rituals fall un
I see the logical point that you are coming from, but you are missing the real point of atheism. A-theism means only that there is a lack of a theistic belief. Theistic belief says there is a god and I choose to accept that it exists solely on faith alone. An atheistic view says that because there is no proof, there is no reason to believe in theistic dogma. Of course, that is the difference between belief and proof. An atheist would never claim to prove that a god does not exist (especially since you cannot prove non-existence), but more that there is no data to support accepting that belief.