Yet, "Hope is not a strategy."Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Theists love to use the "no atheist in foxholes" examples as a way to show that when the chips are down, and people panic, they seek out any straw to grasp, even ridiculous concepts like gods to save them - as if it makes their belief in God more reasonable.
However, I'll give a better example:
When the military is preparing for a battle that will either result in victory or death, they don't use hope as a strategy. It would be absurd to think that hope is something useful, faith even less so as it is the reliance on hope. Faith is subservient to hope. That is, one can hope to win the Lottery and we'd all think that's a nice dream, but if someone said "I have Faith I'll win the Lottery" we'd laugh hysterically. That's because the person isn't just hoping, but placing their trust and reliance on hope to win.
Truly, there is no real value in Faith. Hope, yes, Faith, no.
We all know that people can tread water longer is they have hope they will be saved soon. But let's look at the options:
1. Don't hope to be saved, drown
2. Don't hope to be saved, get saved
3. Don't hope to be saved, save yourself (maybe swim until you find an island)
4. Hope to be saved, drown
5. Hope to be saved, get saved
6. Hope to be saved, save yourself
7. Have Faith you will be saved, drown
8. Have Faith you will be saved, get saved
9. Have Faith you will be saved, save yourself
In each example, the outcome is the same. You either drown, get saved, or save yourself.
Faith has no role in increasing the odds of getting saved, other than the Hope one might have to tread water a little longer - but that is relying on the Hope, not the Faith.
It gets worse, though, because here we are talking about a general Faith. When we talk about Faith in God, it's so much worse:
1. Don't hope to be saved, drown (God let you drown)
2. Don't hope to be saved, get saved (God may or may not have saved you)
3. Don't hope to be saved, save yourself (God didn't help)
4. Hope to be saved, drown (God let you drown)
5. Hope to be saved, get saved (God may or may not have saved you)
6. Hope to be saved, save yourself (God didn't help)
7. Have Faith you will be saved, drown (God let you drown)
8. Have Faith you will be saved, get saved (God may or may not have saved you)
9. Have Faith you will be saved, save yourself (God didn't help)
Only in 1/3rd of the example, does God - maybe - help.
Now, consider this is what people use to believe in the origin of the Universe, Speciation, belief in dying and rising saviors, belief in an afterlife, etc.
Religion teaches that one must have Faith in their respective God, or else (in many cases) suffer for eternity. So, it's not as if one can waver in Faith. You MUST have Faith, or else get denied.
In fact, if a person drowns (or something bad happens), Religionists will often say, "You didn't have enough Faith."
So it's not enough that Faith is functionally useless, but it's required.
Think about how abjectly cruel that is! "You must have Faith to have a chance of getting in God's good graces but God is under no obligation to affirm your Faith."
With this fear of God's rejection, Religionists than use their choice of God's to dictate what they believe about the world, and many try to force their chosen beliefs on others.
Question:
Is Faith useless, cruel or worse?