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Originally Posted by SATCHMO
Atheism is most certainly a faith. It is a placement of one's belief in the unlimited and inerrant capacity and accuracy of human understanding regarding the nature of absolute reality, and subsequently in the notion that the divine does not exist.
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There are an infinite number of things that
could exist, but which I choose not to recognize or believe in. (ie, teapot orbiting Earth) Atheism is the "default faith" so to speak, as we are all atheists at birth, but I do not think that makes it a faith in the conventional sense that Harry and I were discussing. Satchmo, you're clearly an extremely smart dude (or you're just copy/pasting from a philosophical forum
), and I think you're trying to argue a point that is simply too
deep for the purposes of this thread. I'm not the right person to provide a relevant and detailed counter-argument.
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Does not believing in god immunize one from any of the ego's many perversions and their respective worldviews, such as the ones you listed, or is our natural proclivity toward such aberrance?
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No, it doesn't immunize us, and Yes, it certainly seems a catalyst.
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Can religion itself always be used as a scapegoat for the presence of any of these limiting and dangerous world views, or is it our limited understanding of religion and our subsequent corresponding actions and worldviews which produce them? Can faith and reason coexist in an individual, in a community, in a global society, to move beyond such limiting worldviews to expand and evolve consciousness beyond such worldviews?
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I'm sure it does for intellectuals like yourself, but for a lot of people with a lot of power (ie George W Bush) and for everyday people such as most reading this forum right now, faith is a vehicle for so much bigotry, prejudice, and harm that, in my opinion, it deserves my hate.