Yeah but those once thought of as idiots were forward thinking, they believed in something man hadn't thought of or invented yet. Believers in religion are the complete opposite, accepting notion which was dreamt up thousandss of years ago.GATOR591957 wrote:
Back from a nice weekend and into a deep subject already.CameronPoe wrote:
'Faith requires ignorance'.
Merriam Webster Definitions:
Main Entry: Faith
Function: noun
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
Given what is in bold above I believe that to be truly faithful one would have to ignore evidence presented that is contrary to whatever it is you have faith in. Hence generally, faith requires ignorance.
Cameron, I would pose a question back to you. Is faith ignorance as you say, or a deeper understanding of what is possible. You see many geniuses were thought of as village idiots in their day.
I believe absolute faith require ignorance. Someone who believes that the Earth was formed after what archaeologists describe as the first agricultural revolution can be decribed as ignorant, of course. However, most people that call themselves religious have a grip of reality. Their "faith" has evolved in line with agreed morality of the day (strange that eh?), so that now women have equal rights and gays can live in peace (in most religions anyway). They cherry pick from their Holy book to suit the modern day and aren't being ignorant to the things that man has proven. They are only having an opinion on the present unproven and thus can't be ignorant as there is a chance that they are right (no matter how slim!).
There will always be religion as long as there are things we can't disprove and how can you confute the existence of an invisible, intangible, impalpable and above all, unpredictable being?
Quote from Richard Dawkins,
"Thousands of years ago, we all believed in many gods, like Thor, the god of thunder. Over time we have crossed these off....well, some of us choose to go one god further"