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Originally posted by 99 44/100% pure
This may seem obvious, but once I noted my own absence of "faith" I found that this was a condition which permeates my being, not just my religious beliefs (or lack therof). With interest, I noted that those of my friends who are truly faithful to their religious convictions (not just "following the rules" and who don't try to "prove" that theirs is the right or only way) seem to have remarkable amounts of "faith" or "belief" in other areas of their life, as well.
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I am an example of another variety... I have great faith in many things, just not in a Creator, at least not in the sense that the Creator is a sentient, all-knowing, all-seeing being which intentionally created All That There Is. Such a being would understand me, and would therefore know that I cannot accept His/Her/Its existence without solid evidence.
I have faith in my friends. I have faith that doing good things will bring one good fortune, whether you want to call it Karma or just a side-effect of society. I have faith that the laws of physics which I depend on for my very life will never change. These faiths, like many others, may be misplaced... but I have these faiths based on my own observations. I have good, solid reasons to have these faiths other than the fact that I want to, and/or that it makes me feel happy and whole.
I am aware of no religion which claims that the Creator will greet us in the afterlife, regardless of how wrong we were about everything, put to us the question "What did we learn from our time on Earth?" and accept us as we are. Such a religion might appeal to me, because it allows me to just go through life as a good, decent person without fearing the irrational wrath of a God who felt ignored... nevermind that He/She/It supposedly sent me here, removed my memory of Him/Her/It, and commanded that I worship Him/Her/It based on zero substantial evidence. If there is a God, I cannot accept that He/She/It would be foolhardy enough to create such an obviously dead-ended scenario. Thus my conclusions.
I don't know about other religions, but in Mormonism, it is considered a great sin to ask God for evidence that He exists. Hah! The needle on my bullshit-o-meter is getting bent from spending so much time against the peg. Bah.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a loving, forgiving Creator. I just don't like the idea of suspending logic and reason in favor of said Creator.