VIRB

I came across an article over the weekend which talks about how christians claim that atheists must have as much faith in the big bang theory as creationist do in an omnipotent creator. The following is my reaction to that claim.

Being an atheist only implies that one does not believe in the existence of a supernatural god. Atheism does not imply a belief, it implies a disbelief. One can be an atheist without having to believe in the big bang theory, or any other theory for that matter. So to argue that atheism requires faith because atheists believe in the big bang theory is illogical.

If a creationist wanted to argue about someone needing faith to believe in the bang theory, then the argument should go towards all of those who believe in the big bang theory, not necessary atheists. To imply that by being an atheist also requires holding a belief in the big bang theory, is simply false. Perhaps many atheist do believe in the big bang theory, but it is not a requirement to be an atheist, nor is it exclusive to atheists.

What I think creationists really want to argue is that it requires faith to be an atheist, or in other words, faith not to believe in god. Creationist clearly make this argument because their own beliefs deeply depend on faith so much that they try to justify their faith by saying that those who are in opposition to their beliefs also have faith, and therefore are equal in this respect. This too is false, as faith only applies to belief, not disbelief.

I am not surprised that creationists would make such claims as saying that atheist need faith to not believe, for the simple reason that creationists have already exposed their lack of logic in arguments where they attempt to defend their reasoning as to why they believe in god, so it would be expected to see the same lack of logic applied elsewhere. This is not saying that all creationist are unintelligent and completely lack reason and logic, as on some issues they probably do apply a level of these traits. However, I think on the topic of the existence of god, they allow their personal desires, preferences, and need for comfort to take precedence over reason and logic. Doing such, allowing our personal preferences and desires to dictate what we believe rather then evidence could be quite polluting and dangerous to our lifestyle, view, and understanding of the world. I will get into this topic in a later post.