emphryio

Ideally, stupidity leads to pain. And all pain can be considered evil. On the other hand, intelligence leads to pleasure.

In practice, good or bad luck plays a large role. There are many happy idiots. But so what? I don't wish my happiness to be determined by luck. So ideally the above is true.

Now I define faith as belief in something that there isn't enough logical evidence to warrant a belief in. Some people give it a much broader definition. Some people feel belief in your senses is an act of faith. I would suggest that this means that we are acting on faith every second of our lives. If we are acting on faith every second of our lives than to say, "You've got to have faith," is the equivalent of saying, "You've got to have consciousness." This would be a very silly and meaningless thing to say.

Nevertheless, if people wish to broaden the definition of faith to the point where it has numerous meanings, thereby making philosophic communications concerning the word faith close to impossible, I can't stop them. I can only say that when I refer to it, I am using the definition I described above.

I have also seen faith described in dictionaries as: a strong belief. I think this definition is incorrect in that it makes the word faith uselessly redundant. I feel faith is also commonly misused where the word hope would be far more appropriate.

But hey, who am I to try to change the definition of words? Feel free to give the word faith numerous different meanings, thereby making philosophic communication impossible.

Anyway, the faith I'm referring to obviously leads to stupidity. Or I could say, "Belief in something that there isn't enough logical evidence to warrant a belief in, leads to stupidity."
Not withstanding luck, which isn't how I hope to achieve happiness in life, stupidity leads to pain. And that which causes pain can be considered evil.

Therefore faith is evil.

So next time you meet a Christian remember to inform them…

FAITH IS EVIL! Therefore they are immoral for practicing faith. And the Christian religion is immoral.

(Of course, make sure said Christian isn't your boss or has a gun, or is anyone that you're afraid might attempt to hurt you in some way, or is someone that you hope to dishonestly befriend in order to gain something from, etc.)

NOVAMONDAY

you believe in luck? hmmm...
(just picking )

seebs

What consists "enough" evidence? I see no a priori necessary way to answer this question.

echidna

Emphryio, maybe you’d like to re-read your post and re-think it so the grown-ups understand what you’re talking about.

Just because it’s an atheist website doesn’t mean that atheist rubbish isn’t still rubbish.

excreationist

Well a belief in fairies or that Jesus died and rose again for our sins would involve faith... I guess those people are evil.
What about someone who is badly behaved but not quite "evil"... e.g. they are rude to others or drive recklessly.
So does that mean that the behaviour of those who have faith is worse than those who have behaviour that is not quite evil?

99Percent

Enough evidence means evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

If you are going to have have faith for faith's sake you might as well believe in Santa, UFOs and the IPU too.

braces_for_impact

I don't concurr. I don't think faith in and of itself is evil. I do think it is irrational. To believe in something without evidence to me doesn't make much sense. I do think that faith can become dangerous. Because one relies on faith, and faith may be misplaced, and isn't based on evidence, one can come to an erronius conclusion about a great many things.

SmartBlonde57

Faith is not evil per se; however, it can lead people to do evil things. (See Sept. 11.)

When you think you have God on your side, you can justify anything. :-/

-- Mary

[ June 07, 2002: Message edited by: SmartBlonde57 ]</p>

emphryio

Thanks for the advice echidna, but if I ever write something that you actually comprehend and enriches your life, it will be an accident. In the future, simply don't bother reading my posts. I'll do the same for you. BTW, in one sentence you managed to make two incorrect assumptions plus an insult.

Excreationist, concerning evil. In the sense that none of us are perfect all-knowing beings and are therefore to some degree "stupid", in this sense, we all have some "evil" in us. So there isn't any "almost evil" person. Not concerning the point I'm making anyway.

Also I repeat, what I assert is only true ideally. In reality luck/chance is involved.

Braces-for-impact, you say you don't concur. But then you start a chain of reasoning that not withstanding luck/chance, would seem to lead eventually back to what I have asserted, unless you don't think that stupidity/irrationality ideally leads to pain.

Jesus Tap-Dancin' Christ

Actually, stupidity is happiness, and intelligence is pain. To be more precise, ignorance really is bliss. Have you looked at the world lately? I do constantly. And it doesn't give me this warm, fuzzy feeling. People are:
starving while Americans (yeah you!) throw away enough food every year the feed them
Killing each other over where they were born, or the color of their skin
Voting Republican

Globally:
India and Pakistan are going to start nuking each other sooner or later (sooner, more likely)
George W Bush is still in office and has managed to bungle his war on terrorism from day 1
Osama bin Laden is still at large
As are his numerous cronies (see GW Bush)
China still oppresses human rights, tortures numerous people, forces abortions, etc.
India still is overpopulated and poor as dirt.
Saddam Hussein still steals aid from his people, leading to numerous people starving. Note that in areas where the UN directly supervises aid efforts, there has been no mortality rate changes.

I see this crap. I know what it means. I wish some days that I wasn't able to see it or understand it, but I can. Knowing is pain.