Re: Do Agnostics and Athiests simply reject faith?
The ThinkFactory
Assuming there is a God, He must be perfect.
A perfect being is perfect in all he does.
So, if God created the world, he created a perfect world.
That means, all events of the world are related in order to produce the perfection of the ALL. Even if an isolated event may seem to us wrong or unfair.
A miracle, by definition, is an action that changes the natural order of the world: no one would consider a miracle that I, living in Lisbon, have suffer no damages from a bomb explosion in Madrid. But if I was in the place were the explosion occurred, near someone who got killed, and I didn't suffer any injury, then I could consider the possibility of the miracle.
But then I would have to accept that God, through miracles, introduces "exceptions" in the natural order of it's perfect world. And doing that, he makes the world not perfect.
But we have accepted that God only can create a perfect world.
So miracles are impossible.
(as you have noticed, this reasoning is from Leibniz).
About faith.
I refuse God, because I think it is an empty concept. It doesn't mean anything. It has only a symbolic value, that anyone can fill according to his own wishes.
But when I say I have no place for God in my life, I don't mean I believe it doesn't exist. To say that some entity exists supposes we can give a definition of that entity. And, in the case of God, we cannot.
Existence or not existence are, in here, not the question

. God is an empty word to be used according anyone perspectives.
So, how could I have faith? Religious faith is blind: is faith in the unknown, faith in what we cannot define or even express, faith in the absolute mystery (mystery created by ourselves).
TTF, I am a man without faith. My education, my father, helped me to be critical. I reject the religious faith, the faith in History of the hegelians and marxists, the modern faith in science and technology, so common in UK and US.
But why do you not express your own reasons to have faith? I remember our past discussions, and your philosophical knowledge. I think you should expose your perspective in this topic you have created.