Faith is Not The Same As Trust, But is the Same As Bigotry

So pretending we had another one of those "Philosopher and the Theist conversations" here where the theist makes this argument:

Theist: You non-believers criticize faith, but you use faith just as much as we do!

Firstly, this is a Tu Quoque fallacy. To throw the claim back at the person when your beliefs are threatened is not an argument, and often this counter claim is just not correct.

Secondly, notice the definition of faith is different from something else like trust. This is an equivocation fallacy because there are two meanings here and the theist above is trying to tie them into one word, but the two have different definitions. Faith is believing something without evidence and even where this counter evidence in abundance. Having trust in something, on the other hand, requires at least some evidence that makes it reasonable to reach the conclusions.

I will give a simple example that should demonstrate the differences.

Trust: Getting into a taxi and knowing that this person is trained and paid to get you where you want to go, or is at least very likely to get you where you want to go. Taxi drivers can and have gotten lost occasionally, but this is not very likely. Taxi drivers are also wanting to get you to your correct location because they know their job depends on it.

Faith: You get into a car that is not a taxi but a plain car with some nutty guy with a blindfold over his eyes. He tells you "I can take you wherever you want to go for free!" and you ask "And how will you do this?" and he replies "Because Jesus is my GPS and I just know we will get there! It never fails!". Now you are so convinced that this guy will for sure get you there you put some faith in him and tell him do take you where you want to go.

In the first example there is plenty of ample evidence to believe the taxi driver will get you where you want to go. Even if a taxi driver is not always going to do his job well, chances are good most taxi drivers will get you where you want to go and if you need somebody to driver you to your location a taxi driver is an ideal option.

The second option clearly exposes how one would have to have faith in the blind-folded driver because there is zero evidence such a person could ever get you where you want to go. To believe this in spite of the overwhelming evidence against this is just bigotry.

What is bigotry? Faith is very much what bigotry is, only dressed in nicer clothes. A bigoted person has their conclusions about a particular topic with a lack of evidence or in spite overwhelming counter evidence to the contrary. With bigotry one is compelled to have intolerance and prejudices against those arguments and conclusions that differ from theirs.

Religious people are unfortunately set up in this position. If one really believed that there was a god and that this being is all powerful and can do anything, why get upset when anybody wants to counter that? For that matter, why believe in such a being when there is lack of evidence and there is continually mounting evidence against there being a god? Even if there are nice theists who appear tolerant, their religions doctrines are not. All religious dogmas claim to be the only correct one (they can all be wrong, but they cannot all be right at the same time). Some of the more mainstream religions like Christianity and Islam clearly state in their holy books that non-believers are to be put to death for not believing or even believing in the wrong god. How is this not bigotry?

I firmly trust that 1+1=2. I have no need at all to get upset with somebody if they just come by and assert that 1+1=564,677. I may think them strange, but I am confident in the methodology of mathematics that 1+1=2. Now, if you could show me mathematically that 1+1=564,677 and perhaps a few real world examples I would be more than happy to agree with you and disregard my previous conclusion as mistaken. That's how reason and evidence works as opposed to bigotry.

I know bigotry is an ugly word and faith is a nicer sounding word, but they are exactly one and the same. To those who reading this as a religious person I am very sorry that you have been set up this way. It is a pity that you were raised with these religious conclusions forced on you. I was there once, now I encourage you to challenge your beliefs. Faith is an invisible thread that is holding on to nothing but a false conclusion. Further, it is connected to often ugly knee-jerk reactions towards anybody pointing out anything contrary. Please question and use your better judgment.