Can Faith be a Reason for Agnosticism or Atheism?

[Devilry]

Here's an interesting idea.

As an Agnostic, I constantly maintain that I am hardly at a loss in not subscribing to any one religion, even after death. Of course, I do have multiple reasons for believing so.

I believe that, firstly, because we cannot know anything about God, no religion that describes a God to such specific detail without proper evidence is likely to be wrong by the sheer concept of probability. Therefore, if a certain religion deemed that I would go to hell after I died for being an Agnostic, there is a low chance that I would actually go to hell because I strongly believe that it is likely that the religion is wrong about God.

Secondly, even if religious revelation had some sort of worth in helping religion to be accurate, there are still so many religions to choose from. Even if I were to commit myself to one, there is still a low chance that the religion I were to commit myself to would be the right one, and I might still end up in hell anyway.

Thirdly, if God would truly make non-believers go to hell, then I believe that in all his benevolence, he would give us some way of believing in him. Because when all of my reasoning points to Agnosticism, then nothing is wrong with believing in it, because it's not as though I'm ignoring a God who might be there. Yet, if God did exist, he is then technically the one who created reason, and the one who made it so impossible to reason about his existence. I firmly believe that a benevolent God would not punish a person for not believing in him when there is so little logical reason to.

Yet, even so, my arguments do not dispute the fact that, for example, God could possibly exist and it is Christianity that is correct about God, therefore I am going to hell even though I could have avoided it by going to Christianity.

In fact, amidst all the uncertainty, the final step that allows me to become Agnostic is quite possibly faith. It might just be faith that if a God were to exist, he would not send me to hell for being an Agnostic. Reasoning helps to assure me 90% of the way, but the device that eradicates the last 10% of my fears is quite possibly faith.

It's just like how Christians can have reasons such as upbringing and the Bible to believe in God 50% of the way, and the last 50% is covered by faith.

So, do you think faith can be a reason to believe in Agnosticism, or maybe even Atheism?

[Joshua Patrick]

I would not say faith can lead to Atheism, but I believe faith still keeps the hopes of Agnostics alive.

[Wood-Man]

Kierkegaard, with his "leap to faith," emphasized the willful nature of faith. In this sense, faith is the exercise of an inescapable responsibility to choose (designate) that which is meaningful and important. When you make choices about what is or is not credible you are implicitly making choices about what is important. I believe this is therefore an exercise of faith in its broadest sense.

[Baron von Gailhard]

So, do you think faith can be a reason to believe in Agnosticism, or maybe even Atheism?

It's the reverse actually. Atheism and Agnosticism are so hopelessly illogical that no-one could ever have faith in them. Fundamentally they amount only to descriptions of certain types of misbehaviour characteristic of bad people. That is their historical evolutionary starting point. However most atheists today seem to think that their version of truth is better than anyone else's which clearly shows that they acknowledge a truth God.

And what you yourself say only shows that you would be prepared to rank faith above atheism and agnostcism.

So sorry, but not until you can rationally define what cannot be rationalized, i.e. atheism and agnosticism as intellectual belief systems, can you progress with this bizarre theory that only confirms that most atheists and agnostics are anything but what they say they are.

[Wood-Man]

So, Baron, what is faith?

[McCulloch]

So, do you think faith can be a reason to believe in Agnosticism?

How do you believe in Agnosticism?

[Baron von Gailhard]

So, Baron, what is faith?

Belief in something as a certainty.

[EduChris]

...do you think faith can be a reason to believe in Agnosticism, or maybe even Atheism?

It isn't humanly possible to actually objectively "know" anything at all. The only thing any of us has is our subjective beliefs, and our subjective processes for weighing what we view as the balance of probabilities.

That said, the God Hypothesis seems much more fertile than the alternative, and when you start looking into the major world religions, there are substantial differences between them such that it should be possible to find one that suits you better than the others.

[Wood-Man]

So, Baron, what is faith?

Belief in something as a certainty.

That's an interesting definition; not the one you usually hear. Let's use it.

Are beliefs such as in gravity, the world being round, etc., all examples of faith?

Is there any utility in distinguishing beliefs that can be tested by repeated observation (the scientific method) from those that are not testable in this way?

[McCulloch]

So, Baron, what is faith?

Belief in something as a certainty.

I've always thought that faith implied a belief held with conviction sufficient to rely on that belief in some kind of tangible way. As James points out, faith without works is dead. As in the classic standard sermon illustration number 43:

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow.

An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls."

Now, Tightrope wrote back, "Sir, although I've never been to America and seen the Falls, I'd love to come."

Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily.

The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it."

"No," said Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?"

"Well of course I do, you just did it."

"No, no, no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?"

"Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."

"Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow."

But also that faith implies a belief that is held with a greater level of conviction than is warranted by the available evidence. The conviction of things not seen.