Atheism Central for Secondary Schools

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God."

Martin Luther

"Faith is an absolutely marvelous tool. With faith there is no belief that cannot be justified."

Rev. Donald Morgan
Atheist theologian

"'War is a blessing for the world and for all nations. It is God who incites men to fight and to kill. The Koran says, 'Fight until all corruption and all rebellion have ceased.' The wars the Prophet led against the infidels were a blessing for all humanity. Imagine that we soon will win the war. That will not be enough, for corruption and resistance to Islam will still exist. The Koran says, 'War, war until victory! . . .' The mullahs with corrupt hearts who say that all this is contrary to the teachings of the Koran are unworthy of Islam. Thanks to God, our young people are now, to the limits of their means, putting God's commandments into action. They know that to kill the unbelievers is one of man's greatest missions.'

Ayotola Khomeini
Mohammed's birthday, 1984

"The man who says to me, 'Believe as I do, or God will damn you,' will presently say, 'Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate you.'"

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Belief is a feeling of certainty that something exists or an opinion that you feel sure about. There are two reasons for believing in something - one based on reason and the other based on faith.

For example, I would believe in something when the evidence of my senses tells me that my sources of information are reliable enough to believe, except when there is direct evidence to the contrary. I would believe a scientist when he tells me that radon gas can be found on Dartmoor in Devon even though I cannot see the gas myself. The scientist is able to substantiate his claims by presenting a body of evidence which can be tested by any critic, or by fellow scientists who routinely check to see if the results can be duplicated. My belief in the scientist is based on reason. In the same way it is perfectly reasonable to say "I do not believe in god" since no evidence can be provided for its existence.

Many people do not require evidence on which to base their beliefs. We say they have faith. Faith is a strong feeling of confidence, trust and optimism about a person or a thing when that feeling has no other basis. People have faith when there is not evidence to provide proof. Faith, therefore, is not based on reason. Bizarrely, in Hebrews 11.1, the Bible sees the existence of faith itself as evidence of the truth of something - "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This point of view has no rational defense because it is self-contradictory (it lacks coherence)..

People base their belief on god on faith since there is no direct evidence of the existence of god. They find it reasonable to place their trust in the people who tell them there is a god. This is not faith in god but faith in the people who tell them there is a god.

However, theists usually see faith as insufficient. They appeal to evidence to substantiate their claims. The evidence takes two forms - miracles and prophecy.

Miracles are are seen as objective proofs which we can believe in as a result of observing them directly. (It is important to note that we cannot always trust our senses, especially in stressful situations). Verifiable miracles would satisfy any doubts we might have if we ourselves could witness one of them. Unfortunately we cannot do that because miracles always seem to have taken place in the distant past or lack verifiability (such as the 'miracles' at Lourdes, in France). In this way the faithful have to place their trust in those who act as intermediaries between those who witnessed the miracles and themselves. These intermediaries are the priesthood of the religion. The concept of witness, however, is very strong in the various branches of Christianity, and used to substantiate faith. It would appear, however, that faith is needed to be a witness since verifiable evidence of miracles cannot be presented to science.

Prophecy is usually limited to successful prophecies of the past (e.g., the coming of Christ) or of the apparently distant future (the second coming of Christ). Religions that prophecy events in a foreseeable future always get egg on their faces. It is just as difficult to prove the existence of successful prophecies of the distant past as it is to prove miracles from that time.

In the absence of any reliably proven miracles or prophecies a believer must base his belief on his faith, or trust, of those who instruct him. This is because, by definition, the existence of one of the many gods must exclude the existence of the others. It is not possible to believe in two different gods each claiming sole sway over the universe. It is not possible at one and the same time to believe in the three-in-one god of Christianity and the all-by-himself god of Allah. By believing in one god and not another theists are all non-believers who dismiss the claims, miracles and prophecies of other theists by saying they are false. This cannot be described as rational and so belief in god must be a matter of faith.