Wednesday, January 6, 2010

"It takes more faith to NOT believe in God..."

... than it takes to believe in God.

The assumption here is that it takes a lot of faith to believe in God. The corollary seems to be that it doesn't take any faith to not believe. The arguement is made in many churches and houses of religious and philosophical debate that "It takes more faith to not believe in God than it does to believe in God." The suggestion here is generally made that you have to believe in SOMETHING if God doesn't fit into your understanding of existence and life - to rephrase it, I would say "If not God, then who or what?"

What does that look like to you? Help me make some sense of the statement, or help me discount it. What are your thoughts?

1 comment:

BReynolds said...

I can, as usual, see both sides of this.

More faith to NOT believe. Absolutely. I have always believed that the faith those who believe in God have must be very comforting. The ability to give any and all problems to God would, in itself, make things much simpler. To not have to fix it all yourself, to have faith that God is going to help out, if only by making you help yourself... it just has to provide comfort.

So, to NOT believe certainly places your entire bet on Red 32, if you get the roulette reference.

On the flip side, it does take a massive amount of faith to believe. Trust me. From the outside looking in, the amount of faith that you, and others, have is amazing. I mean that in the most complimentary of ways. While I have faith in my beliefs, and they serve me well, the amount of faith that (forgive me, I am having a hard time finding the right word here) my God-loving friends (see, it sounds condescending, not intended as such) have is truly inspiring. Not in the way you would like it to be, there big dog, but it is inspiring.

I have the utmost respect for those who are secure in their beliefs, whatever they may be. Don;t sell yourself, nor anyone else with faith in God, short. It takes a massive amount of faith to believe, and that not only is OK, it is wonderful.