FreThink

One of the most common reasons I hear from theists who are beginning to question their faith is their discomfort with the notion of the absolute rightness of their beliefs. They know and like gay people, they may be liberal politically; something in their life doesn’t quite mesh with the absolute morality of their faith.

Religious beliefs allow, even encourage, people to accept unproven allegations as absolute facts. In most every other aspect of our lives we reserve our strongest beliefs for those things that have the most evidence. The more solid evidence we have to believe something, the more passionately we believe that thing. Except in the case of religion.

Religious belief introduces the concept of absolute without justification. It cannot philosophically justify an absolute state other than to contend that because they believe it, it has to be true. “Absolute” exists in the abstract to be sure, but theism cannot offer physical evidence of absolutes which would establish absolute as more than simply a philosophical hypothetical. “Absolute knowledge” is solely the province of faith.

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