Why is Faith/Belief a Moral Issue?

[Rhondazvous]

People reject the Abrahamic deity because there is no evidence such a being exists and theists’ efforts to prove otherwise have not been compelling. Why then is it considered a virtue to psych one’s self out and just believe in things one knows are not true? How is that good? Why is it a moral failing to stand on one’s intellectual integrity?

Ascribing virtue or vice to one’s status as a believer makes as much sense as saying men who eat bananas are good in bed. Let’s look at the proof. Statistics show that men who are good in bed have at some point eaten at least one banana in their lives. So hands down, the proof is irrefutable. And when you consider the phallic shape of bananas, that’s even more proof.

I’m not trying to be funny. Just making a point about the ridiculous assumption that nonbelievers are essentially bad and believers are essentially good. Tell some people you’re an atheist and they automatically assume they know all about you and what you will do.

This is absurd.

[Minimalist]

Religion is absurd.

[brewer]

Ditto Min. Those caught up in belief think that's where all morals come from. Therefore, a person with morals that is a non-believer (or even with a different belief system) they can't comprehend. Kind of "if you don't think like me you may be tolerable but not good".

Side note: its not men who eat bananas, its men who carry them (heh heh).

[Esquilax]

Why is this a moral issue? Because religions make it a moral issue as part of their survival strategy. If you don't have any evidence, if you can't convince people of the truth of your propositions via observation, then it pays to turn just believing in those specific propositions anyway into a virtuous endeavor. No currently extant or extinct religion can hack it in the marketplace of ideas, and so the people who author their holy books have to resort to a kind of poisoning the well, where they turn faith into a purest example of moral good, and disbelief into evil, perpetrated for selfish reasons.

A religion that proposes a god and then advocates for following the evidence where it leads is a very quickly dead religion.

[Minimalist]

[dyresand]

You know because when people start killing in the name of god they think its moral the same as how people blow themselves up for allah and or you know how kamikaze pilots crash their planes for glory. All in all religion and morality do not deserve to be in the same sentence. Morality you do whats right as for religion you do what you think is right because a book has instructions what is and isn't moral, like stoning children who misbehave.

[Neo-Scholastic]

No one claims that Christians are any better than anyone else, only that no one on their own is good enough. All have fallen short etc etc. Faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ is recognition that there is a higher moral authority than Man. Thus the profession of belief is the start of the process of regeneration that leads to salvation. It doesn't matter where you are morally. What matters is the direction you are headed.

[robvalue]

I reject the Abrahamic deity because he is a fascist dictator arse hole, whether he's real or fictional. I find the moral argument against religion more compelling than anything else. They are vile, why do I want anything to do with what they teach? Why does anyone?

If he somehow was real, he's clearly not able to actually do anything anymore (now we have better methods of recording events), so there's nothing to worry about.

Faith is a ludicrous concept, and the idea that it is a virtue or a pathway to truth is willful ignorance. It's all religion has, because of the utter lack of evidence that it's anything to do with reality.

[Minimalist]

he is a fascist dictator arse hole

More like an early iron-age village chieftain with a chip on his shoulder.

[Esquilax]

No one claims that Christians are any better than anyone else, only that no one on their own is good enough. All have fallen short etc etc. Faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ is recognition that there is a higher moral authority than Man. Thus the profession of belief is the start of the process of regeneration that leads to salvation. It doesn't matter where you are morally. What matters is the direction you are headed.

So, that avatar: you're basically doubling down on what was revealed to be a blatant series of lies in the last thread you made on the subject, are you?

Well, I guess you are good living proof of your claim that you, at least, have fallen short of the moral edicts of your god.