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Faith and Reason
On Faith and Reason
When we speak of an idea which can not be proven, we call it a theory. When we take such a theory and bundle it with dogma, we call it religion. The act of believing such unproven theory and dogma we call faith. In all aspects other than theism, we call this fantasy. Why should faith be any different?
We can debate questions of interpretation of ideas based on reason. It is not constructive to debate differences in fantasies because no fantasy can be disproved in the mind of the one who is creating it. Fantasies may do no harm as long as the believer respects the right of all others to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Why does mankind cling to concepts which can only be defined as fantasy when so much distrust, contention, injustice and violence is the consequence? The concept which contributes to such mayhem is theism--the insistence that (a) there is a God, (b) this God desires that we worship Him and pray for His influence over our lives, (c) each individual is worthless without His saving them, (d) what we believe is more important than what we do, and (e) ours is the correct way to see these things and all others are in error.
Any contradiction or criticism of one's particular version of this fantasy is seen as blasphemy.
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