Unsure if relevant, since this is a meme post, but for anyone interested: faith is quite a complex concept. And this silly atheist vs religious conflict is so pointless. It does nothing but elevate some people’s egos and infuriate others.
Sadly, both sides are heavily uninformed. Most atheists spent at most 3 seconds studying religion, while most religious people never questioned a single thing about their religion. How can you understand somebody and their point of view, if you haven’t even imagined yourself in their shoes, let alone walked in them?
Short story is: to ‘believe’ in God, or any other religious entity, does not mean ‘to think He exists’. In fact, you can ‘believe’ in any god, while being completely convinced they don’t exist. Fact and faith are fully separate.
At least some confusion here is intentionally created by religious institutions, like the Catholic Church. Most of what they do goes against the Bible and Jesus’ teachings, but it’s not like they care. Focusing on Christianity here, because that’s what I studied the most (my country is Christian). Same applies to Judaism and Islam. Other religions less, since these three have the biggest, most organized official structures (massive red flag in case it wasn’t obvious).
Anyway, I invite everyone to read about and learn their so-called enemies’ ways instead of blindly ridiculing them.
What you’re saying is completely true, but in no way contradicts what I said. I was referring to the fundamental idea of faith. I never said people adhere to it, and that nobody actually thinks God, or whatever else, exists.
Obviously, a lot of people do. Just like a lot of people think the Earth is flat or that chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows. A huge number of people are uneducated, have been fed propaganda and manipulated for years. I don’t think anyone needs any convincing that churches lie to and scam people on a daily basis for personal gain. But doesn’t make faith or religion itself a lie.
Similarly, there’s quite a few self improvement gurus who make up false ideas about self improvement and feed lies to their many, many followers. But does that make self improvement itself a lie, or a pointless dream?