how do I answer this?

[exiled]

“Faith is a device of self-delusion, a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.”

 

[Church_Militant]

Laugh and walk away in search of someone who is willing to have a serious discussion with you.

Notice that is essentially nothing but a rhetorical rant without any support.

Blow the person off and avoid throwing pearls before swine.

 

[Gamera]

No “answer” can be given because the statement consists entirely of conclusions, not arguments based on factual assertions. I suppose you could reply, “No, you’re wrong,” which is just as convincing as the statement to which you’re replying — both are just opinions, not arguments.

 

[brianwalden]

“Faith is a device of self-delusion, a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.”

Maybe ask the person why he believes that? It sounds like it takes a lot of faith to believe what he does. I’d like to hear him make a justification of his beliefs based purely on reason.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Agreed. My response would be, “Really? Could you substantiate that?” You don’t really have anything to work with at this point.

 

[VociMike]

“Faith is a device of self-delusion, a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.”

Just replace every incidence of “faith” with “atheism” and email it back. No kidding. Let the other person defend his position rather than just tossing oration-bombs here and there.

 

[DanteAlighieri]

Just replace every incidence of “faith” with “atheism” and email it back. No kidding. Let the other person defend his position rather than just tossing oration-bombs here and there.

Peace,
Dante

 

[xmydreamsfadex]

yup.
last week at work i noticed a church sticker on the back of a van and my co-worker asked “how can people be so dumb?” which i replied “what do you mean?” he asked “how can they be so blind to truth?” which again i asked him what he meant. he tried to tell me what he thought but failed to make a complete sentence. in my experience, most atheists/agnostics/whatever else is like that.

 

[Teflon93]

“Faith is a device of self-delusion, a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.”

Sounds like my criticism of materialist faith in macroevolution and global warming PRECISELY.

 

[MarcoPolo]

So exiled, have you talked to the person again?

 

[Tomster]

“Faith is a device of self-delusion, a slight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breath life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational men.”

Is the atheist so convinced of the truth of his theory that he never has a doubt? We believe that doubts must arise in the atheist’s heart, and that he can remain what he is only by closing his eyes to the light and his ears to the voice of truth. Cf. Romans 1:20-22.

The proofs for God’s existence are drawn from design, physical laws, conscience, history, and the principle of causality. The atheist on his part has no positive arguments to offer. What he calls arguments are only difficulties or objections.