saint

I'm confused. How is it that theists (or most people in general) can have faith in one thing (God) but not another (Santa Clause)? The whole concept confuses me. If you are willing to have faith in God, with no proof whatsoever, why should you have any reason to disbelieve any other stories. Why would you not believe in the Easter Bunny, IPUs, ghosts, etc.

Foxhole Atheist

Well saint, don't you know? God is Santa Claus for grownups. Now, don't go bursting other people's bubbles. Don't you remember how you felt when you found out that Santa wasn't real.

Orpheous99

You must realize that there is a big difference between religious faith and normal faith.

Religious faith requires you to accept without ANY real questioning or thought, whereas normal faith is based on the facts of previous experience with a certain person or event. This is not true of religious faith.

saint

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I shouldn't have used the Santa Clause example. I what I meant to say was that theists tend to pick and choose what they want to believe. I understand that they choose what they believe based on their own expirences and morals, but my question is why don't they? How can a Christian, for example, believe in God but not angels. Or heaven but not hell? This is, of course, assuming that they get their beliefs from thier respective holy books.

Foxhole Atheist

saint:

I understand what you meant. At the time I responded to your original post, I was feeling a little foolish and responded in kind. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

Jayhawker Soule

Really? Would you then argue that agnosticism regarding a "Supreme Being" is no more valid than agnosticism regarding Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny?

saint

Yes. Agnosticism is not believing in something without proof (maybe that's too simplified but it should work). So for the same reason I don't believe in Santa Clause, I don't believe in a supreme being.
Foxhole Atheist: My comment was directed more towards the post of Orpheous99

lpetrich

Also, many people with faith in one religion show a remarkable lack of faith in others, often turning into rigorous rationalists.

Jayhawker Soule

Similarly, agnosticism is not disbelieving without proof. Huxley called it a "suspension of judgement". I am not so cautious as to suspend judgement when it comes to the existence of Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny.

Tercel

I would imagine that possible reasons include rational argument, personal experience, emotional need, peer/parent pressure etc.

People who believe things "with no proof whatsoever" don't often worry about little things like reason.

I imagine however that many Christians and atheists are what they are for at least a semi-rational reason. Perhaps they're heard convincing testimonies, or agreed with the argument from evil; perhaps they've had personal religious experiences, or were aware of contradictions in the Bible etc.
Even the averagely unthinking person probably has at least one pseudo-rational reason for believing what they do with regard to religion whether they believe in God or not.

Tercel