(November 8, 2017 at 4:34 pm)purplepurpose Wrote:(November 8, 2017 at 4:13 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Faith is not a virtue, it is indistinguishable from gullibility.
It as an excuse people use to describe a belief they have, when they have no good reason to believe it is true.
Faith is not a reliable path to truth, when it can lead 1.5 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion Hindus, 2 billion Christians, all to different, mutually exclusive, beliefs.
Please explain why you think faith is a good thing?
Of course I don't want to put a leash on religion. I want it to disappear based on the fact that it is not supported by evidence, logic and reasoned argument.
And it has not gone unnoticed that you did not respond to any of the real world negative consequences I listed in the post you are responding to.
Suicide, drugs and crime are popular. Believers preaching order trough fear isn't the worst stuff.
Funny thing is, the countries with the highest percentage of atheists, have among the lowest crime rates, suicide rates and drug addiction.
So, you contention that 'believers preaching order trough fear' does not seem to be supported by the evidence.
The country with the highest suicide rate is Sri Lanka, with 99% believers. Sweden is at least 70% atheist, and their suicide rate is number 46 in the world.
Same goes for crime rates. The most atheistic countries in the world have substantially lower crime rates the the most religious.
Same with drug addiction, with a few exceptions.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.