why would you call it "faith" when someone doesn't believe in the unknown? can't they just not believe?
isn't that agnosticism? my understanding of atheism is that it is this: "i've looked into this (or not) and there is no God." agnosticism would say, "i've looked into this (or not)...and i'm not sure if there's a God or not." and a theist would say, "I've looked into this (or not) and I'm convinced there is a God." 1 and 3 require a faith statement, from my viewpoint. they require a sense of knowing the unknown. it occurs to me we're arguing semantics, though.
That is your belief in religion. But what about the Greeks, or the Romans, or the Egyptians, or the Sumarians,or American Indians? Multiple Gods.....wouldn't that be religion too? DD
I am confused, I thought Athiesm is the absense of religion? And agnostics are skeptics, but unsure? Am I missing something? And for the record, there is no doubt in my mind that Jesus lived and breathed on this planet, and had a major impact on the world. The rest, I withold judement until as many of the facts come out as possible. DD
nihilism which is the firm rejection of any belief system or truth I am not sure someone can maintain pure nihilism.
max, you are saying that god exists regardless of what others think. this is not a given. it is your belief that he does. atheists believe the opposite and agnostics can see the merits of both arguments or are wholly unaware of any such concept.
i'm not saying that for purposes of this discussion. not at all. i believe that, for sure, but it's not what i'm saying here. what i'm saying is that believing there is no god and believing there is a god both require making statements which can't be empirically proven to be true. it is still an absolute statement about the unknown.
what i'm saying is that you are not making a leap of faith by not believing in something you don't or can't know.
and what i'm saying is that when you make statements suggesting that you don't or can't know God, you're making absolute statements about the existence of God. there is a measure of faith in that, even if it's not as big a leap as the person who saw Mary in his pizza pan. when you say there IS a god...and when you say there IS NOT a god...you're making absolute statements about something you can't prove. each takes some measure of faith.
There is definitely evidence of Jesus Christ, and a pretty good bit of evidence of his followers. One could argue that his importance wasn't nearly as known outside of Palestine until his followers began converting other religious people all over the Roman Empire. If you want to prove beyond doubt that Jesus existed, you will have trouble. But there is enough evidence there to make his existence at least probable. It depends on your definition of religion, but atheism is definitely a belief system. And some atheists actively try to convert.
Not really true. Nihilism is the belief that nothing can be known or expressed and so a nihilist would believe in nothing. Not reject just not think any of it is viable because everything is baseless. Also, nihilism is a philosophy that covers everything in life not just religion so it cannot be a mirror of religion. You are right, though, that no sane person could really be a nihilist. Even Nietzsche was not, though he made the idea cool.
