Yeah it does irritate me. In fact one of the Christian apolgetic books is called "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist". I have even heard a professor of mine say that line verbatim and it just makes me want to face-palm.
I think Christian's have different reasons for saying this including perhaps as others have mentioned the comfort of feeling like they aren't being irrational by holding onto their beliefs. I think the best thing you can do is to simply explain to them that atheism simply means lack of belief and it isn't faith in something you can't see.
Ultimately I think most people know that they can't 100% disprove the idea of a being that is supposedly undetectable and outside of our universe. Although to be cute neither can anyone disprove the existence of the invisible fire breathing dragon in Sagan's garage :p.
If people back into that corner and use that as their argument you can safely assume they have surrendered the discussion. Honestly the argument of "I just have faith" should be countered with "faith based on what?". I think forcing people to admit that it lies in fear, tradition, and in some cases blind faith is a great step to helping people understand you and themselves better.
But hey, there are a fair bit of people who will probably bury their head in the sand instead. People often resist change especially change on that level. Unfortunately Christianity does a pretty good job of keeping the "sheep" in through scare tactics.
I think Christian's have different reasons for saying this including perhaps as others have mentioned the comfort of feeling like they aren't being irrational by holding onto their beliefs. I think the best thing you can do is to simply explain to them that atheism simply means lack of belief and it isn't faith in something you can't see.
Ultimately I think most people know that they can't 100% disprove the idea of a being that is supposedly undetectable and outside of our universe. Although to be cute neither can anyone disprove the existence of the invisible fire breathing dragon in Sagan's garage :p.
If people back into that corner and use that as their argument you can safely assume they have surrendered the discussion. Honestly the argument of "I just have faith" should be countered with "faith based on what?". I think forcing people to admit that it lies in fear, tradition, and in some cases blind faith is a great step to helping people understand you and themselves better.
But hey, there are a fair bit of people who will probably bury their head in the sand instead. People often resist change especially change on that level. Unfortunately Christianity does a pretty good job of keeping the "sheep" in through scare tactics.
