Re: Anyone got the energy to take this guy to task?

On Oct 2, 3:58 pm, Kermit <unrestrained_h...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The very fact that we exist, apparently perfectly happy without their
mythologies, infuriates them. Those who have true confidence (faith?)
in their stories are far more tolerant.

I don't think we should conflate "faith" with "confidence"; they're
very different things Faith is, by definition, belief without
supporting evidence. Confidence is something else - you have
confidence for a *reason*. I have *confidence* the sun is going to
come up in the east tomorrow, because it has done so uncounted times
before; i.e., there is *evidence* to support the supposition that it
will rise in the east. I don't need faith to get me through the dark
hours waiting for the eastern sunrise.

Over on alt.atheism we've had to be kinda hard-line about this
distinction, since so many godbots insist that we have "faith" in
other things, like sunrises and the internal combustion engine, and
that it's exactly the same thing as having faith in "god" when it
clearly is not.

I'm just sayin'.

Brenda Nelson, A.A.#34
EAC Professor of Feline Thermometrics and Cat-Herding
skyeyes at dakotacom dot net

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