I just got done talking to another theist and, as expected, it didn’t go well. The second they get backed into the wall or their core beliefs are questioned, off into the hills they run. What else is new?

Yet we all see this all the time, right? How many theists have you talked to that could communicate in a rational, evidence-based way about their beliefs? None? That’s pretty typical. So let’s get into it.

This was on an Atheist Experience video, I think. It was something in their realm of shows. I made a post and a theist responded, asking me if I was willing to concede that God could possibly exist.

Sure, I said. Of course, I noted that they didn’t ask about “a god”, only theirs in particular. I’d be perfectly willing to accept that God was real, just as I was willing to accept that leprechauns were real, given the proper amount of evidence.

He didn’t like that much. I think he was expecting me to say no, there is no chance that God is real, so there! I broke his script. Therefore, he launched into faith.

That was his first mistake.

Faith doesn’t actually mean anything. Faith, as Matt Dillahunty used to say, is the excuse that people give themselves when they have insufficient rational reasons to believe. I’m paraphrasing that, of course. I told him, flat out, that faith would never be enough to convince me that a god, any god, was real. I need objective evidence and verifiable confirmation.

Immediately, he turned to run away. Why? Because my rejection of faith made him uncomfortable. Faith, for the religious, is supposed to be an inviolable virtue and it simply isn’t. They don’t know what to do with themselves when you take faith off of the table, therefore… head for the hills!

Because here’s the problem. Every religion has faith. Muslims have faith that Allah exists. Do Christians agree? No. Hindus have faith that Vishnu is real. Do Christians agree? No. Scientologists have faith that body thetans are real. Is that on the Christian plate? Certainly not. Therefore, if they can reject the faith of all of these other  groups, and thousands of others to boot, out of hand, why can’t I reject theirs?

Of course, it comes down to their feelings. They have been told from the start that faith is something they need to cling to. It’s a  good thing, even though it’s entirely rationally unsupportable. Like most things in religion, it is a mechanism of control. If you have any doubts, then your faith is clearly not strong enough. Give more money to the church. Spend more time in the pews. Reinforce your faith! Unfortunately, they never ask themselves WHY faith is important. It’s just  been pushed on them since the very beginning but no one has ever explained why it’s valuable.

Here’s the thing. It’s not. They just don’t want to hear it. I think that, somewhere in the back of their minds, they know that faith is insufficient but they don’t have anything else to offer. Therefore, faith is what they push!

We’ll have to see if this theist ever responds again, I’m not holding my breath, because this is how most of these faith-based discussions play out. Just because you really want to believe, that doesn’t matter when we’re talking about factual reality. If  you can’t accept that the faith of others is meaningful, then why should you think that your own means anything?

It’s when they get backed into an emotionally uncomfortable corner that they tend to break and run. Let’s see how it plays out in this instance.