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Comment by ekiminmo | Hacker News Reader

The definition I’ve been given of faith is that is is a “belief which is acted upon”. To “have faith” is then to believe something and act accordingly. Taken out of a religious context it’s clear that in order accomplish anything in life you must first believe in something and then act upon it.

Under this definition, faith can be a path (or perhaps the only path) to new or prevoiusly undiscovered truth. For example to prove P = NP (or P != NP) one must first believe that such a proof exists and then act on that belief in search of a proof.

You are right though in that it’s a stretch to call faith a “reliable” source of truth. For every truth that is believed and acted upon there are far more falsehoods to believe and act upon, some of which are really popular.

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To me, faith is the reason people give when they don't have a good reason for believing in something.

Aren’t belief and non belief two sides of the same coin? One fan believes his sports team will win, and another thinks they’ll lose. One person believes there is a Creator, and another believes there is no creator.

That's an argument to false equivalency.

As a non-religious person, I simply have no belief in the concept of a creator, nor any other supposed supernatural concept. I also don't have a belief that there isn't a creator, nor in any sort of "atheist doctrine" or "atheist gospel". I'm a non-believer, in other words.

Religion simply isn't a part of my life or world-view, other than as a mild curiosity and fanciful concept for stories and legend.

What I do do is put my trust in the scientific method and falsifiable proof, which doesn't require belief to work. And I adjust my world-view according to the findings and proof presented, so it's not set in stone. Obviously I don't just do that blindly, it does require convincing proof. Bigger claims need bigger proofs.

What matters is the amount of evidence to justify belief.

And no, belief and non belief are not two sides of the same coin.

Belief is a positive claim, that needs to be proven.

Not belief is just the rejection of such a claim, and doesn't require any supporting evidence.

Here is a quick example: imagine we walk in a park and I tell you that the number of grass blades in this lawn is even. Do you believe me?

Probably not.

Does that mean you think that the number is odd?

No. You're not making any claim. You are just rejecting my claim because I can't support it with evidence.

People with a non belief in god (atheists) are simply rejecting the claim that a god exists. It doesn't necessarily mean they imply that gods don't exist (some do, though, but that's a positive claim that requires evidence).

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