I came to this website with the hope that I would learn if it's still considered gauche to wear linen after Labor Day. Instead, I keep seeing the same pointless quote in posting after posting.
This quote annoys me:
"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."
1. "slight of hand" should be, "sleight of hand" and,
2."trying to breath life" should be, "trying to breathe life."
Even more annoying is that person's definition of faith. Below is the definition from the Bible. I am taking the definition from the Bible since the quote's author appears to be criticizing people of faith, and the faith group most frequently attacked is Christians:
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
-- Hebrews 11:1
Using that quote, most of us have faith in tomorrow, as we believe that the hope we have, that there will be a tomorrow, is a sure thing. We exercise faith every time we step into an elevator, assuring ourselves that the elevator will not plummet down the shaft and kill us.
I can understand the quote's author writing what he or she did, however, because, as a Christian, I know the following to be true:
". . . For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."
-- I John 3:1
As far as believing that those of us who have faith are deluded, ignorant, unthinking, emotional, and irrational, I can only feel sorry for the author. Look at the great lengths he or she has gone to in an attempt to put down those of us who have faith.
What is even more remarkable to me, however, is the large number of people who have used that quote in their postings, as well, like lemmings to the sea. Where is the thinking, rational wisdom in that? Why has no one else remarked on the obvious misspellings? Why are so many eager to post another's badly-written essay? Have all the posters read the quote for its true content? And if so, why would so many people agree with it, when the quote is simply an emotional reaction to people of faith and shows no basis in logic?