There are two possibilities my friend, either their is a God(s) or there is not.
All people have faith. Christians, Muslims, Jews, peagans all believe in God(s) and practice almost universally that faith in said god is required to enter the afterlife, at least the good section thereof.
Folks such as yourself, atheists (a fair conclusion to draw from the statement I quoted) practice an equal amount of faith in their stance that there are/is no God(s) to worship or to live with after this life on Earth is over.
Incorrect. It takes zero faith to
not hold a belief. The burden of proof always lies on the person making the claim, not the one rejecting it. It doesn't take faith for you to
not believe in the gremlins, because the burden of proof for gremlins existence hasn't been filled. If you'd like to claim the burden of proof has been filled for belief in god, I'm going to ask for demonstrable proof or make the counter claim that the burden of proof required to justify
your belief in god, is weak.
Each group claims to know something that cannot be known; the existence, or lack thereof, of God.
Most (the vast majority) of atheists don't claim god doesn't exist, that's the stance of a Gnostic atheist, which I will admit, does require faith. The vast majority of atheists are simply skeptics, requiring evidence before the burden of proof for belief is filled. Similarly, I don't believe aliens have visited earth (notice I didn't say 'I believe aliens don't exist'?) There is a very distinct difference between saying, "I haven't seen enough evidence to beleive aliens exist", and "I know aliens don't exist".
Atheism is more often the not, simply the rejection of beliefs put forth by believers. It's my understanding based from experience, that 99% of atheists are Agnostic atheists.... e.g. don't believe in god, but don't claim to know god doesn't exist. This position requires no faith, as rejecting a belief based on the fact it has no supporting evidence doesn't require the belief in something 'unjustified' (i.e. faith). If you have evidence, you don't need faith. That's the entire point of having faith, believing in something even though you never get to see it, or touch it, or communicate with it, etc. If you could just spark up a fatty with god,
no one would have faith, everyone would have a very valid, and demonstrable reason to believe in god.
No one from either camp can actually know, oh they may feel that they know, but they cannot really know if their beliefs are indeed correct.
Correct, but it is usually true that the explanation with the least amount of assumptions is usually correct. The one that doesn't assume that an invisible, all-powerful, omniscient, omnipresent being is pulling the strings from 'another dimension', in an attempt to control how we behave, so he can save us from ourselves (even though he created us with these faults), so we can go to heaven, (instead of hell, which he also created) and spend the rest of eternity in a 'blissful state', with him? It sounds so plausible compared to, when you die your biological functions stop, and you rot in the ground. Albeit, the 'god' story sure sounds more interesting, it makes a million and one unproven assumptions, and is most likely false
due to making all those assumptions.
If there is no god, than religions around the world and throughout time have done a lot of evil for nothing, and in many cases a lot of good also, for no reason at all.
If there is a god, the atheists have really a lot more to lose. Though I never put much stock in the oft made religious point here that you ought to just go along with it and say the words anyway, just incase.
Pascal's wager is a very poor tool to use for showing the validity of a religion.
Faith ought to be genuine.
If there
is a god, and he does exhibit all the qualities stated in the bible, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, (let's not get into the fallacy that is, being omniscient and omnipotent at the same time, we'll save that for another day) then he would know what you're thinking, and can tell
why you have faith. If it's just to 'get out of jail free', don't you think he'd know? Any Christian that just believes in an effort to hedge their bets, is in a way, spitting in gods face..... if god exists.
I had a long struggle with God, and he has shown himself to me in a way that is undeniable, multiple times, and I am better for it, and grateful because of it.
I have no doubt that you've struggled with your faith, and probably convinced yourself that god has answered you via some way that could be completely coincidence, e.g. god showing you a 'sign'.
As a side note; asking god for a sign, and getting one, e.g. asking god for a sign, then winning on a lotto ticket), is no more proof of gods existence than asking god for a sign,
not receiving one, and claiming that as proof that god
doesn't exist.
Atheists are displaying as much faith as any person of religion.
As to abortion, you claim the fetus is not alive, or at least not human yet. At what point does that cease to be and a person, a human person comes into existence?
Million dollar question, and really, it's not an easy answer. I'm not a medical professional, but IMO I think the law should reflect the likelihood of survival, and should also take into account other considerations. I don't think abortions after 24 weeks should be allowed, except for extenuating circumstances, e.g. the mother could die, the baby has an untreatable major birth defect that will severely limit their life quality.... (even then, I'm not so sure, I know there are reasons
not to abort, just liekt here are reasons
to abort)
Knowing the info that I know, right now, I'd say that once a baby has a 50/50 chance of living, it needs to get the benefit of the doubt. It's no longer
more likely to die without the mother.
This reminds me of the question, "If you take atoms away from a table one at a time, at which point does it stop being a table? When does it lose its 'tableness'?