What is "FAITH"

[NomenMihiNon]

For a bunch that has no faith in anything you sure seem to have a lot of opinions about faith. You know what they say about opinions, right. You should try and experience faith before running it into the ground.

It's a common theme in atheist communities like this one to host several members who are former believers. Who's to say they haven't already tried it?

I've never killed anyone, so does that mean I can't have an opinion about homocide?

In all seriousness, I am precisely the type of person that Tartarus Sauce is talking about. I spent many years trying to have faith, and not out a fear of retribution or mortality or anything like that. I wanted to believe that there is some sort of force or entity that watches over and cares for us and can be appeased to influence the workings of the world in our favor, and with which we can commune in order to have more meaningful, fulfilling lives. But ultimately, my inability to ignore the complete lack of evidence for any such thing, and the abundance of evidence that the universe is but a random, insentient system devoid of any inherent meaning save for that which we give it, made my having such faith impossible.

I'm not saying everything I feel is slave to hard evidence. I believe my friends care about me, I trust that I can confide in them, and I hope that no matter what we can remain lifelong friends. These things may be similar to faith, but they are not the same as faith. For I know it's possible they only find my company entertaining and don't truly care about me as a person, or that one of them could easily go blabbing my secrets to everyone we know, or that any number of changes in our lives could cause us to gradually lose touch. I don't mean to sound nihilist, for in spite my acceptance of life's uncertainties I still try my best to lead a happy, fulfilling existence. Whereas faith is the denial of that uncertainty, and thus the assertion of "knowledge" of things that you merely believe instead of actually know.