(October 25, 2011 at 3:04 pm)Shell B Wrote: Simply saying, "I rely solely on faith. I have no evidence." would garner far more respect from me.
That's an honest and fair position. Here's a small contention, though:
I have no evidence either.
But, even though I don't have any evidence, I don't think that I rely solely on faith.
I think that most theists do have their own reasons for believing in god. Maybe they are not rational to others - and certainly not an evidence of God - but only 'proofs' or 'arguments' which they think are reasons that a god is more likely to exist. This is something that every theist should have to be intellectually honest, IMO.
Also, "proof" can either mean "persuasive (though not necessarily infallible) evidence" or "absolute verification of something, impossible to deny" depending on how a person thinks of it. Either way, the idea relies more on our own subjective acceptance or agreement with something instead of objective fact and ignores the fact that there are many things that the human mind cannot deny while still thinking it's only the mind itself being rational about the subject. Therefore, not everyone is gong to agree and theists have to accept that.
