How can you be an athiest? (friendly discusion)

Faith is Irrational: In Hebrews 11: 1 we read “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (1) Notice the lack of evidence is inherent in the definition provided of faith. From this we see that the Biblical concept of faith is to hope for things that are unseen. Things that the evidence for is absent. As much as it may seem pedantic or overkill to quote a dictionary, it is worth doing in this case. Evidence is “that which tends to prove or disprove something; ground for belief; proof.”(2) Thus we see that the notion of “walking by faith, and not by sight” (3) is to believe in something without grounds for belief. This is clearly nonsensical. Can I tell you to walk without the means to walk, or to see without the ability to see? Surely not, but here the concept of faith is just that. To believe when one should not. We see than that faith is unreasonable. The great danger in faith is the blind obedience that accompanies it. In James 2:17-18 we read that “Faith without works is dead.”(4) Thus it is not enough to profess belief in something without grounds to believe, you must act on it. Let say, for example, I have faith that the world is to end tomorrow. This means that despite lack of evidence of any kind I believe that the world is to end. I must now act in a way that demonstrates this belief. No matter what evidence is provided, rational reasoning, persuasion or whatever, doesn’t matter. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than man” I am to have my faith override all. (5) This makes those acting on faith unable to be reasoned with… unreasonable. I have shown that the concept of faith taught from the Bible is unreasonable. Additionally it causes those who adopt it to act unreasonably. There is no rational way to contend with a religious concept that requires "faith." This is because Faith as taught by the Bible is unreasonable. I would like to present Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s new clothes.” “A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid". The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.” (6) The issue of Faith is much like the “clothes” in the story. I have repeatedly pointed out the issue of faith to which, the “faithful”, like the emperor must see this issue, but choose to ignore it or don’t mind believing a bare assertion or acting unreasonably. Sources: (1) https://www.lds.org... (2) http://dictionary.reference.com... (3) https://www.lds.org... (4) https://www.lds.org... (5) https://www.lds.org... (6) https://en.wikipedia.org... Issue of Literalism: The Bible: Evidence is overwhelming that many stories of the Bible are fabricated, ahistorical, and false. The Creation Story immediately comes to mind. If you take the story literally, and believe the earth to be only six thousand years old then you believe that which has been disproven. Another easy example is that of the World Flood in Noah’s story. Not only could it not have happened; it has been demonstrated to have not happened. In February of 2014 Bill Nye authenticates this position in his debate with Ken Ham. (1) Thus we know that Noah’s ark did not happen. Due to these example and many others it is obvious that scripture should not be taken literally or historically. It is worth noting that there are many who claim parts of these books to be figurative and not literal. This is an untenable position. Considering that only taking scripture figuratively seems to undermine the entire concept. If one does not believe the Bible to be literal what reason do they have to believe Christ's suffering brings salvation. How can one say, well obviously the creation and Noah’s flood are figurative, while in the same breath profess the resurrection of the dead and walking on water as literal. It is far past time for someone to point out that to do so is void of logic and is a prime example of the Cherry Picking Fallacy. It seems clear that to believe in scripture implies to take them literally. (1)