FAITH

Some people have faith  in their religion, for others, their faith rests
in science and its findings.  Though both believers have faith, they
have different types of faith, as explained below:

Blind faith is the belief and trust in something without any basis in
fact.  A christian has blind faith.  A christian must put his/her faith
(hope, trust) in that belief system, and hope things turn out for the
best.  A christian hears stories about life after death (heaven and
hell), hears stories about an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god
that created everything in six days, hears stories about long dead people
coming back to life, hears stories about ships carrying the future of
all life on Earth inside them for forty days and forty nights; the
christian hears lots of unsubstantiated stories.  There is no factual
evidence for these stories.  There is little to do with reality in these
stories.

Reasoned faith is the belief and trust in something based in fact.  A
person that has faith in science is one who has reasoned faith. A
scientist (meaning a person who follows and/or practices science) does
not blindly accept stories, instead he/she investigates claims, and uses
logic and reason to ascertain the validity of such stories.  Scientists
do not espouse every  wild claim made, and scientists do not stick with
a belief system simply because it is venerable, or because many people
subscribe to it.  Scientists change their views according to new
information and the new analysis of that information.  Scientists are
constantly learning more about life and the universe around it, thus
some world views get outdated, such as christianity.  Scientists are
also constantly under peer review and scrutiny.  If one scientist starts
making claims, the others investigate the claims, instead of blindly
believing and following them. This whole process of gathering
information, analyzing information, forming conclusions about
information, and peer review is called the Scientific Method.  It is
the most logical and powerful tool we have to investigate everything.
It is not to be taken lightly.

You may say "I believe what I believe, and that's that.  No one can take
away  my faith!"  That is fine, but you are only making a mockery of
human intelligence, and insulting thousands of years of human endeavor.
Progress has not come from the church, or religion, or god.  It has come
from humans;  humans using reasoned faith, not blind faith.


                      For more information write:
               Louisville Area Secular Humanists  (LASH)
               P.O. Box 91453, Louisville, KY 40291-0453
               Louisville Freethought BBS (502) 635-0204
                       Email:  lash@thepoint.com