Tom Chivers has asserted that Atheism is Honest, the Atheist has looked at the evidence, found none for God and made the intellectual and empirical discovery that there is no God.
How arrogant.
What’s actually happened is that someone has started from a position of not wanting to believe in God, taken a scientific stance to try to disprove God, achieved the decision he wanted to having found no evidence of God in his own life and decided that for all mankind there is no God.
It’s dishonest from a scientific perspective and it’s dishonest from an intellectual perspective.
Pitting science against religion in this way is akin to pitting cheese against a kestrel.
The truly honest position is to admit, that no one can really know. Religion is a matter of faith, not a matter of science.
As a bishop (of sorts) I’m more than happy to acknowledge that my faith may be based in misplaced superstition, but it gives me comfort and solace and does no harm to anyone. How many atheists will concede that their rejection of any God is based in their own intellectual choice rather than a truly evidence based framework? Very few, I’d wager.
Instead many atheists seem to prefer to claim some sort of superiority to those of us of faith. “There is no God,” they profess, “So anything religion based should be excluded from society, not mentioned to children and the tenets of religion may not be allowed in the decisions of society.” Pure, unexpurgated, arrogance.
For me, there is humility in faith, the acknowledgement of a higher power the need for respect and love for both Him and for our fellow man. Respect underpins society and helps it to function, a society without respect won’t stay a society for long with people pulling in different directions. Many say “I’ll respect you if you respect me”, always someone else has to go first. Well I’ll go first, I’ll even respect the non-respectful in small ways so that their respect can grow.
Not so the arrogant atheist, his very language reeks of disrespect. “Why should I respect someone who believes in imps, sky fairies and demons?” he cries. Why shouldn’t you? Is not a person of faith still a person, you can respect them and treat them with respect while not actually agreeing with them. I’ll respect you all the same, I’ll acknowledge that there is no God in your life, not right now, I’ll quietly hope that you and He meet in your life, but I’ll not force you and I’ll not disrespect you as I do so.
Now, can you do the same for me and stop using disrespectful language to liken my God to a “sky fairy”?
Damocles' Blog
The Myth Of The Honest Atheist
Tom Chivers has asserted that Atheism is Honest, the Atheist has looked at the evidence, found none for God and made the intellectual and empirical discovery that there is no God.
How arrogant.
What’s actually happened is that someone has started from a position of not wanting to believe in God, taken a scientific stance to try to disprove God, achieved the decision he wanted to having found no evidence of God in his own life and decided that for all mankind there is no God.
It’s dishonest from a scientific perspective and it’s dishonest from an intellectual perspective.
Pitting science against religion in this way is akin to pitting cheese against a kestrel.
The truly honest position is to admit, that no one can really know. Religion is a matter of faith, not a matter of science.
As a bishop (of sorts) I’m more than happy to acknowledge that my faith may be based in misplaced superstition, but it gives me comfort and solace and does no harm to anyone. How many atheists will concede that their rejection of any God is based in their own intellectual choice rather than a truly evidence based framework? Very few, I’d wager.
Instead many atheists seem to prefer to claim some sort of superiority to those of us of faith. “There is no God,” they profess, “So anything religion based should be excluded from society, not mentioned to children and the tenets of religion may not be allowed in the decisions of society.” Pure, unexpurgated, arrogance.
For me, there is humility in faith, the acknowledgement of a higher power the need for respect and love for both Him and for our fellow man. Respect underpins society and helps it to function, a society without respect won’t stay a society for long with people pulling in different directions. Many say “I’ll respect you if you respect me”, always someone else has to go first. Well I’ll go first, I’ll even respect the non-respectful in small ways so that their respect can grow.
Not so the arrogant atheist, his very language reeks of disrespect. “Why should I respect someone who believes in imps, sky fairies and demons?” he cries. Why shouldn’t you? Is not a person of faith still a person, you can respect them and treat them with respect while not actually agreeing with them. I’ll respect you all the same, I’ll acknowledge that there is no God in your life, not right now, I’ll quietly hope that you and He meet in your life, but I’ll not force you and I’ll not disrespect you as I do so.
Now, can you do the same for me and stop using disrespectful language to liken my God to a “sky fairy”?
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Posted by Damocles on April 4, 2012 in Commentariat, Setting The World To Rights