Faith without evidence is detrimental

You have faith that God doesn't exist. Yet you have no proof, as no one does, of such a claim. I can say that, "Your faith without evidence is harmful." I never postulated that God doesn’t exist because I don’t claim to know. Straw man - A straw man is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument which was not advanced by that opponent. The so-called typical "attacking a straw man" argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and then to refute or defeat that false argument ("knock down a straw man") instead of the original proposition. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org... It is through man's interpretation of God, and creation, that we come to have religious texts. From the dawn of intelligent thinking, man has felt something greater than ourselves in the universe. I think the key word in the above quote is “felt”. Because there seem to be a lot of Christians on this site, I will use other religions as examples to establish some points that we can all agree on. Fact #1 Tightly held beliefs can be incorrect. I have “felt” a lot of things and believed unverified “truths” in my life; some of which were incorrect. I think just about everybody has proven to be fallible in various assumption throughout their life so I will assume we can all agree that tightly held beliefs can be false. I also assume we can all agree that Mormons’ underwear is not going to protect them from anything or that Scientologists’ belief that there is an evil overlord named Xenu is unsubstantiated and false. This proves my first premise. Fact #2 People are biased in their beliefs. A Mormon has complete faith that his religion is completely true. He accepts that his underwear will protect him or that Native Americans are descendants of ancient Israelites. Although we would consider his beliefs silly and unsubstantiated, ironically he would consider Islam completely false with unsubstantiated claims in the exact same way. Because everyone that belongs to a religion believes that their religion is the “true” religion, shouldn’t we expect grown adults to ask what proof they have that scientology or Mormonism is true? Now the elephant in the room is shouldn’t we have to ask ourselves if we are guilty of the same folly? If other people who are just as intelligent and otherwise reasonable accept ridiculous notions as a foundation of their life, there is no way to know if you are one of them unless you apply unbiased logic. There is no evidence underwear provides supernatural protection other than faith in their religious texts, which is the same foundation as other religions. People tend to demand proof of others’ beliefs yet demand little proof of their own. This is why very few people leave their religion to convert to a new one. Fact #3 People tend to believe more in what is commonly accepted by the society around them. The geography of one’s birth is the biggest deciding factors of what religion they belong to. If you are Christian, you most likely were raised in region where Christianity was predominant; however, if you had been raised in a country that was Muslim, you would most likely be Muslim. Most people didn’t pick the belief that they build the foundation of their life upon; it was picked for them. Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. Source - https://en.wikipedia.org... Cognitive Dissonance is an obstacle in the development of accurate and critical thought. Someone that has developed the skill of critical thinking will continually rid themselves of cognitive dissonance but both cognitive dissonance and critical thinking cannot exist in the same mind at the same time. It’s one or the other. If someone had a habit of dancing with deadly snakes in a church and, would you suspect they hold on to cognitive dissonance? Is teaching your children to wear supernatural underwear hindering their development of critical thinking? Damage from Faith Various societies throughout the world encourage cognitive dissonance by propagating beliefs that would otherwise be considered insane by other societies and discouraging scrutiny of those beliefs. By teaching their people to passively accept cognitive dissonance, they are by default discouraging the development of critical thinking. The most religious countries in the world are the world’s poorest. Critical thinking is a resource a country needs to develop both economically and technologically. Source - https://en.wikipedia.org... Catholicism prohibits birth control even though overpopulation is threatening to overwhelm our resources. Some Christian sects avoid medical attention for their children with sometimes disastrous results. Many sects of Islam believe that if they blow themselves up and kill infidels, they will go to paradise with 72 virgins. Religion tries to discredit science in the belief that scientific knowledge discredits doctrine. While there are many present day examples, the early Christian church persecuted anyone that promoted the idea that the earth was round and orbited the sun. Secular children treat other children with more kindness than religious children. Religious children are more selfish. Source - http://www.forbes.com... Christians are more likely to reject any science or data that shows humans are negatively impacting the earth’s climate and decry any legislation aimed at combating global warming. Source - https://www.washingtonpost.com... Religion is divisive and creates an us-versus-them mentality rather than a belief that we are all brothers and sisters sharing the same planet. Faith cannot objectively differentiate between true and false. By definition, faith is a belief without evidence. Once belief has evidence, it becomes knowledge that requires no faith. Parents in all religions teach their children the habit of believing what others tell them even if there is no evidence and discourage critical thinking. They call this faith. No theory is too false, no fable too absurd, no superstition too degrading for acceptance when it has become embedded in common belief. Men will submit themselves to torture and to death, mothers will immolate [burn] their children at the bidding of beliefs they thus accept. --Henry George The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief. --George Bernard Shaw Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them. --Peter Ustinov