"I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist"

The title of this post, or other similar statements, are some of the strangest, yet most pervasive, arguments I have yet heard. Skeptico briefly unpacks the statement into an argument regarding the creation of the universe, and comes up with a different rebuttal than one might otherwise have expected. To that unpacking, I might have added a reference to Socrates -- wisdom begins with appreciating the fact that you do not know everything -- and that you do not have to.

It's also interesting that the very people making this claim are also the ones who go out of their way to explain that they do have faith in God and what a great thing it is that they do. Maybe it is a great thing to have faith in God, but if you are among the people who do, you probably lack faith in (say) Isis. Or the Tooth Fairy. Which means that you already know what it is that an atheist feels about there not being a God. And that feeling is not one that can properly be called "faith."

UPDATE: Cectic hits the same note I did. With bonus comic-book vulgarity!