The Atheist Fideist
What the atheist is saying, in effect, is that he or she too is a person of faith.
He or she has faith in the existence of a multiverse as a way of explaining away the undeniably amazing strong anthropic principle and fine-tuning within the universe.
He or she is a person of faith in believing someone like Stephen Hawking, trying desperately to convince himself, and the rest of us, that something like a universe can create itself, totally out of nothing, via mysteriously pre-existent laws of nature and quantum fluctuations.
The only difference between the atheist and the Christian theist he or she so happily maligns, is that his or her appeal to authority is an appeal to a intelligent, yet finite, man like Hawking, whose brain is nothing but a freakish accident of random mutations and natural selection – an advanced monkey mind.
So now, tell me – who is the true fideist?
Phil
on September 9th, 2010
Though Hawking does have the advantage of actually existing. Which is a pretty bloody huge advantage.
Matt
on September 11th, 2010
I don’t see how. God actually exists, too.
Cara
on September 13th, 2010
I thought Tom Harpur was spot on when he said that to be an atheist is as much an act of faith as being a believer in God.
Christian
on September 19th, 2010
Hi, I found this blog through the blogcatalog group Certified Christian Bloggers. Looks like some pretty deep stuff here. I’m sure I’ll be coming back.
There are many scientific principles that were discussed in the bible long before they were “discovered.” To be an atheist is a huge leap of faith, and a huge gamble on eternity. The bible even says that knowledge puffs up. Adam and Eve’s sin was wanting to have knowledge like God. Too often, highly intellectual people get too high-minded of themselves and make themselves their own God.