What is faith? A faith in God, or in another person? If I have faith in my friend Wade to bail me out of jail, do I have a logical reason to believe this? If I’ve asked him to, and he’s agreed, then it is logical for me to think this. What if I have faith about God? Is this logical? I know jail exists, I have seen it. I know Wade exists, I have talked to him. In short, I know these things exist because I have experienced them.
Have I experienced God? Has he ever touched my senses? No. Now, suppose someone replied with the comment, “Well, God talked to me once when I prayed.” This is an invalid argument, because there is not a direct correlation with the religious idea of God and a voice you heard while praying. Maybe it was your mom in the other room. The fact that you do not have a definite source of the voice means you cannot assign it to whichever source you wish.
So my belief that Wade will bail me out of jail is based on my senses, from hearing and seeing him, and therefore my belief is logical. Now, take the belief in God. Suppose I say, “I have faith that God exists.” Is this logical — have I ever experienced God through my senses? Since the answer is no, then faith means exactly the opposite of all these things.
Faith is the belief in something with no support from your senses, no support from the things in which you base the rest of your beliefs on. If I believe french fries are good, I believe this because I have tasted them. If I believe fire is hot, I believe this because I’ve been burned. If I believe the general theory of relativity, it is because I’ve been shown it works through my sight and hearing. All of our beliefs, aside from those of faith, come from experience through our senses. This is what makes them logical, and what grounds them in the real world.
The beliefs that are based on our senses are therefore logical, and logical beliefs are based on our senses. A belief that is based off of our senses can be illogical, but the point is that only logical beliefs can come from our senses. Faith does not come from our senses, and is therefore not logical. Faith takes pride in being the antithesis of logic. Christians are proud when they say, “I have faith in God.” They consider it valuable that they believe in something with no logical backing — and they should be, because this is an incredibly difficult contradiction to hold in one’s brain and not see the glaring error, which is as follows: You can have a reason to believe in God, such as, “It makes me feel good,” or “Hot girls believe in God.” But this is just a reason you’ve supplied yourself with; it’s not a foundation for a belief, because what is not inferable from both of these statements is, “I have faith in God.”
It is therefore not possible to have a logical belief in God, because a belief in God cannot be based off our senses. This is the point most Christians push on others, which is, “You’ve just got to have faith.” This is equivalent to saying, “You’ve just got to believe in something for no logical reason.” Why would I do this? I don’t believe I can fly, that I’m a movie star or that there is a conspiracy of aliens to control the world. There’s no logical reason to believe these things; I’ve never flown, or been in a movie or seen an alien. In fact, if I told one of my friends any of these beliefs, I would be considered insane. If I believe a certain idea that is not based on our senses and therefore the idea is illogical, I will be considered insane.
The statement “I have faith in God” is illogical, because it is not based off our senses. Therefore, everyone who holds the statement to be true, who believes this illogical idea, should be considered insane — for the same reason that others who believe illogical beliefs are considered insane.
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