Why do believers so often try to compare having faith to accepting things which can be proven?

Question

As an atheist, I've been asked why I "believe" in air, love, other planets, the heat from the sun, atoms, etc etc. Do theists actually think that we don't believe in god simply because we can't see or touch it, or do they not understand that there are more ways to prove the existence of something than mere visual or tactile observation? Or is it just that they can't find anything else that people accept as true without any evidence that it exists?

Answer 1

Christians do receive spiritual proof for the things they believe in.  It just not the kind of proof that's going to satisfy the majority of nonbelievers as they want physical proof.  But it's still real proof for a Christian.

Answer 2

What else do you expect from people who believe in magic and fairytales? Reason?  

Answer 3

Faith is not belief without proof. That is not faith, that is superstition. You sat in a chair to type your question on a computer. Did you question whether or not that chair would hold you up? No, you never gave it a second thought because "faith" has to do with "trust". In other words, you had faith in the designers of the chair, the materials used to construct it, and the history that it has never broken when you placed your full weight upon it. Faith in God is based on those principles as well.

Faith is choosing to believe the evidence as given and not trying to rationalize it away to suit your own position. Hebrews notes the following regarding faith...

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for."

OK, materialists, what is a substance? It is something you can physically hold--it is a reality. The word "hope" is not "I hope my car won't run out of gas." but rather, in the Greek, it means, "I'm running out of gas, but there is a gas station--I now have hope." So faith is the reality of that which gives salvation.

"The evidence of things not seen."

Do you believe in atoms? Have you seen atoms? Why do you believe there are atoms? Because you have evidence. Evidence of things not seen. That doesn't make you a moron. That makes you a chemist and a physicist.

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Answer 4

Which should have more of a burden of proof- the statement that I have a brother, or that I don't have a brother, or that X exists, or that X doesn't exist, and why? What evidence would suffice to settle this question? How many different forms of evidence could conceivably be brought to bear to resolve these questions?

You're an attorney, right? This should be right up your alley.

Answer 5

I see you've built yourself a nice strawman

Answer 6

That's probably just a way or method of argument.

Some folks cannot articulate too well.

I am one of them.

Best regards.

EDIT: "Because they know they're wrong."

I am not interested in being "right."

I am interested in what's left.

Answer 7

Jesus said even the devils fear and tremble so in reality there is no such thing as an atheist. You're either for God (Jesus) or for the devil, but either way God still exist. He said every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Good luck with that,.

Answer 8

Because that is the whole point of having faith. We have proof. It is all in the Holy Book.

You just have to read the Holy Book and invite Jesus Christ into your life. You have to know Jesus and then only you will have faith.

It is just so easy!

God bless you

:-)  

Answer 9

Isn't that exactly why Atheists are so??

They demand physical, tangible "proof" of His existance. They simply can not bring themselves to take a leap of faith...

Answer 10

Its a way of trying to explain to you how/why we believe.  As a believer, God is very real to me.  I don't have this blind faith of something that I've never seen evidence of.  As a rational, logical, thinking human being I don't think I could maintain belief in something if I never saw any evidence.  But the evidence that I experience isn't something that could be proved in a laboratory or easily shown--thus the attempt to use examples like love, wind, air, atoms, etc.

I know people think believers are these self-deluded, non-thinking, brain washed people blindly following an imaginary thing we made up.

I know God loves me and that He exists.  When I experience tragedy, I do have doubts.  My dad has terminal cancer and I question God all the time why this is necessary, why He is requiring my family to suffer so.  God comforts and reassures me.  No, not audible voices in my head, but I feel His presence, and He sends people into my path that have helped me immensely.  I'll read the same bible passage I've read a hundred times and suddenly it means something so deep and rich to me as if it were placed in the bible just for my circumstances for that moment.  Call me delusional if you like, but that is what believers are trying to describe for you.  In our paradigm, God can be proven.

Answer 11

If it can be proven then it's not faith. Faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. As a Christian, I have much faith because as a Beleiver we walk by faith and not by sight. We trust God to handle all of our problems. Why? because we have faith, and for that we don't need proof. That's why we are Blessed by our Almighty God.

Answer 12

Because they're delusional and indoctrinated.

Answer 13

Because they confuse the subjective with the objective.  They think feeling their god, as in subjectively stimulated by, and feeling the air on your cheeks or in your lungs is somehow the same thing.

Answer 14

Not everyone has the ability to prove things that we can not see... even things that are scientific... the scientific stuff that not everyone can prove is shared through what??? writings on their findings... does that make it less true??? what about the fact that not all people can prove that God is very present in their lives but that some who have had the actual experience, actually put it into words or writings if you would... why all the sudden does that make that untrue???? If everyone gave God the opportunity, there would be more believers.... just my opinion...  

Answer 15

Because they know they're wrong.

They have all sorts of silly loop holes.

Answer 16

Understand that people like you described are delusional.  They are mentally ill.

I know, often they seem almost normal, but when cornered about their beliefs, they turn into stuttering retards.

Get used to it.  I have.

Answer 17

Well, its not just a matter of not being able to confirm a deity with the human senses, as we now have many technologies that can detect and examine things in ways that our senses cannot. Yet, we still end up with not only no evidence for a deity, but more and more evidence that shows, at the very *least*, that a deity is not of any use in explaining the Universe.

Next, many people, mostly theists, use different meanings of "faith" interchangeably, so their uses of that word become free of actual meaning. People don't have "faith" in chairs, TVs, or their friends, in fact, people who trust in such things and people do so because their EXPERIENCE with them shows that the trust is *justified by that experience*, which is NOT "faith" in any religious sense at all.

Since so many theists cannot even use the word "faith" correctly and consistently, it makes no sense to trust their statements on any more complex matters of fact.  

Answer 18

I am a Christian. I have many atheist friends, and they have a rather wide variety of reasons why they became atheists. However, one reason that many of them cite for their non-belief is a lack of compelling evidence for the existence of deities. I would suggest that there is not empirical evidence supporting the existence (or non-existence) of deities. I think the argument, in either case, hinges upon far more than matters of visual evidence. I have an atheist friend who was asked years ago whether or not he believes in the wind, and he wrote about that question as having been the most insipid query he ever encountered. I would tend to agree. It's not a very good question. One can have knowledge of a wide variety of scientifically proven phenomena (i.e., gravity) and still reject the existence of God.

Answer 19

What you are saying and what the refrain here is two different things.