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highwaystar101 on 06 June 2010
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bimmylee said:
Akvod said:

Bah, there's no way to cancel a post.

This is in reply to dtewi

Faith is bad because it is irrational. It is always a good thing to be able to at least explain yourself. Rationalism, is what seperates us from the automatic machine or instinctual animal. Rationalism is what tells us to not immedeiately bite into that cake. Rationalism is what tells us to save up money. Rationalism is what makes us act in a orderly fashion, rather than chaoticly.

 


If faith is irrational, then everyone is irrational to some degree.

For example, if you were to say that "God doesn't exist" and were then asked to provide scientific evidence for that statement, could you do it? Similarly, if someone were to tell you that "God does exist," would you expect that person to be able to provide scientific evidence?

The reality is, science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God; whether or not one believes in God is completely a matter of faith. Therefore, there is not a person on this earth who is without faith-based beliefs.

Rationality exists on a spectrum. I agree that to an extent all people are irrational; but a person can be gauged as how irrational they are (in the sense of creation ideas) based on what they are willing to believe; and each person will be different.

A common example I would cite is between the current model of the big bang theory and the creation story of the universe being created in a week.

The Big bang theory is based on pretty hard evidence (The observed metric expansion of the Universe, the abundance of Hydrogen, Observed galactic evolution, etc). Whilst it may be irrational to accept the current model of the big bang to some degree because there still exists a certain (small) degree of valid scepticism, it is far more rational than believing that a static Universe was created in its current state in a week, an idea for which no evidence exists and plenty that contradicts it.

I may not be able to prove a God does or does not exist, but I see believing in a God (especially a personal one) as being a significantly more irrational choice over accepting other explanations which have a more solid base of evidence and thus being a more rational explaination to accept.