"Within mathematics, individuals exercise agency in respect to proposing a path from point A to point B. Traveling that path, however, requires that the individual take on an agency greater than themselves. The path does not come from internal efforts, it forms from the external existence of mathematical law. Though I exercise agency when I choose where I begin and end, I must traverse the agency of an outside source and record its workings in order to present my case in an acceptable form to my mathematical community. If I claimed that personal agency was exercised at all times, I would be claiming, with great arrogance, that I constructed the laws by which I worked, and, ultimately, constructed the connection I found as opposed to discovering it."
"Math is based on axioms such as the law of identity, that an object is what it is and will remain so, and that sets, collections of those objects, interact in stable ways. In other words, math is based on the universe being ordered and understandable. Math, considered on its own, is unable to justify the truth value
of its axioms."
"'The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry' (Dawkins), is to propose a belief without a strong, reasoned foundation."
"Reason is not, as Richard Dawkins seems to think, a shining objective testament to truth. Reason is the ability to negotiate information while staying true to the underlying assumptions of a given field. Rationality is an attribute that arises from consistency of reason, refusing to believe what you know is false. Claiming that faith violates these principles entails redefining the words themselves, and, fundamentally, projecting personal beliefs."
Faith has a wide spectrum of definitions. Atheists invariably choose the most restrictive definition, that of “blind” faith. They refuse however to acknowledge any use of faith themselves, even in their belief of certain probabilistic propositions, from “the sun will rise tomorrow”, to “science will explain everything”, and paternity of dinosaurs to birds. They do not have faith that there is persistent consistency in the laws of the universe, nor in their own persistence from this moment to the next. They do not have faith in the persistent, consistent truth value of mathematical relationships and natural laws across time and space. Faith within the philosophical materialism of the Atheist is just not a permissible concept. It is rejected a priori.
But wait, they do have faith that certain molecules became replicators and then became anti-entropic, animated and even sentient. So maybe they must admit to a certainty that is based on speculation, on hope, on speculated probability of certain conjectures. Because if these things – not proven – are actually not true, then an entire worldview crumbles. And whether or not that happens, it was most certainly based on an unproven faith.
Denial of faith is not rational.
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