(September 21, 2020 at 3:26 pm)tackattack Wrote: Atheists have faith in their memories, faith in your reason, faith in your senses, etc. You don't rationalize and reason every thought or action, no one does.
I'm sure there are atheists who don't believe, for irrational reasons, non-cognitivist "reasons", emotional convictions, or simple irreligiosity (lack of belief in the supernatural due to no exposure or otherwise unaware of any theistic thought).
I can't speak for other atheists on this, because I don't know why they don't believe in a god. But I will say this, you're wrong about the faculties of the mind. Of the inflection in memory, reason & senses. Very wrong.
I don't have faith in my faculties precisely because they're prone to error. This is also the case for the mind itself. The possibility exists.
My usage of my faculties, as best I understand them, is probabilistic. The mind itself, consciousness, is probabilistic along the same pathway as its faculties. The mind has to be, because if it wasn't - it would be static - impossible for change to occur in the mind. It would be like to deny that entropy affects the brain's ability to function. This is esoteric, I know, but I don't conceive of consciousness any other way.
I accept the cognitive limits in my memory, which is why I record stuff I consider important I want to review later. I can forget & I can remember incorrectly. This has made me realize that the imperfection of memory excludes certainty. I can only trust, insofar I'm unable to detect otherwise like a recording would demonstrate, that my memory works sufficiently enough for my mind. Do you think that this realization of imperfection is the same as faith in my memory? If you do, we're talking past each other and no common ground in understanding is possible to be reached.
My cognitive ability to reason is likewise imperfect as my memory is. Even if I had all the relevant precise facts to base, on reasoning ability, a conclusion - I could still reach a wrong conclusion. I'm well aware of that, which is why I like consensus so much, insofar that the demonstration on the exact same relevant precise facts were known to others. If more people come to the same conclusion as I do upon their own reasoning ability of the same relevant precise facts, then I'm inclined to think that the conclusion is correct. Now, consensus on a conclusion doesn't mean certainty. We could very well all be wrong, regardless of consensus. Can you really say the same thing for faith, when the standard of faith has created thousands of denominations within Christianity itself? I personally think not, and this lack of consensus makes faith useless IMO.
As for the senses they are merely provisional and faulty. In my case, for instance, I have to use glasses to adjust my eyesight because I'm nearsighted. But that's not why I don't have faith in my senses. Due to these limitations, I know that they're imperfect, case in point, the blindspot in my vision that my brain simulates "filling it in". Same for hearing, I can't hear anything above 20khz sound, and this limitation in hearing tells me, like with eyesight, of the imperfection of hearing. You get the point, I think. I don't have faith in my senses, likewise for my reason & my memory, because my senses give me an imperfect, provisional access to my environment. A demonstration of this imperfect, provisional nature of senses are optical illusions. I don't see how faith in my senses can possibly reconcile this, especially due to optical illusions.
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Same as for my faculties, I think my mind - my consciousness - is imperfect in the same line. A very easy demonstration of this is that I've changed my mind. I'm an apostate. Convictions aren't choices. I don't choose to not believe in a god, any more than you choose to believe in a god. That's not how minds work. People undergo alterations to their convictions all the time, choice never enters into it. What do you think faith does, that reason cannot?
