Re:A Manual for Creating Atheists: A Critical Review (2014)
by abecedarius on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @12:02PM
(#26003490)
The article's invocation of trust is pretty interesting. 'Trust' is a word with positive vibes; life is clearly better in a high-trust society than a low-trust one. Extending trust to someone builds relations with them; visibly distrusting them does the opposite. So characterizing faith as about trust goes together with thinking of religion as about community.
The article uses these positive vibes rhetorically without ever really contesting, it seems to me, the "[Boghossian says] faith is belief without sufficient evidence". Its supporting link about faith-as-trust goes to the Catholic catechism saying "Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said [...] because he is truth itself."
I'm reminded of "trusted computing" -- a positive framing of something you want to minimize your reliance on.
I wonder if it is fair to say conspiracy theorists "trust in a certain kind of claim"