Is atheism a faith?

I’ve been mulling some of the comments left by our Leftwing alphabet soup posters in times gone bye-bye: the outright hostility of the Left to religion in the name of “science” (never mind that some of the world’s greatest scientists were religious people).

 

I am a scientist by training. I also consider myself a very religious Christian, ergo I believe in a “designer” deity. I am very comfortable in my faith – I long ago had all my questions regarding God’s presence answered for me to my full satisfaction. For me, the absolutely incredible wondrousness and complexity of creation serves only to confirm the existence of God the designer.

 

For the Left, however, it has to be accepted as absolute dogma that creation is the product of random reaction (otherwise, there would have to be a designer). Now, I use the following example (it’s not mine by the way, I borrow this analogy from another thinker from long, long ago) to illustrate my point: if someone was walking on the moon after the first moon landing and found a lap-top computer lying on the ground, would that astronaut’s first reaction be, “Gee, look at this interesting example of what random creation created…marvelous!,” or would it be, “Hey, who developed this computer and left it here?” In fact, life and creation are far more complex than any laptop computer could ever hope to be – the enormous complexity of creation surrounds us day-in, day-out.

 

To me, it would take a greater leap of faith to believe that such a lap-top computer was produced by random events than to believe that it was designed and manufactured by a creator. Now, I understand that some atheists are atheists by omission, in that they just refuse to factor a creator into their world view. Others, however, come up with complex rationales to express hostility against any kind of creator (I am thinking of the mother who, just today, asked her child to ask Texas Governor Perry “why he doesn’t believe in science”?)

 

So, here’s my question: is atheism a faith?

 

And, if so, should it be classified as a religion under the First Amendment?

 

Third question: how would that change the debate about religious rights of expression?