Survival of the fittest?

Yes, it's an old quote. Something to do with Darwin and the theory of natural selection... though sadly, it is often skewed and used to justify terrible deeds.

There are many examples, The Third Reich, being one of them that pops up at first, but I want to focus on the stupid idea that we have to compete. That the only way that you can have comfort, is if it is through the misery of another. It's bloody everywhere. I hate it! I HATE IT!! I FREAKING HATE IT!!!

And you know what pisses me off even more are the people, with the power to change the system, that are in the system, they are not winners and they are not the losers, they are the ones who have yet to try, who kind of just sit there and shrug their shoulders and say.. meh, that's how the world works. Like hell it does. If that statement had any bit of truth to it, we would still be a bunch of barbarians who thought that killing each other was fun the way things were meant to be(and I mean actually killing each other, not virtually killing each other). The system is wrong, it helps the few and sacrifices the many. You pride yourselves, in having a will of your own, you pride your self in being conscious creatures.. so start behaving like them. The SYSTEM may be the KING but WE are the SYSTEM'S DEITIES, and no that crap about "I'm becoming part of the system to alter the system" rarely works. You need to create another better system, and roll with it until someone else comes up with a better idea. Evolution FTW.. angry rant end.

An Atheist's Argument For Faith

Now, I've spent a good amount of space on my blog defending atheism/science, and arguing against most premises of religion, if not all of it. Though I would like to attempt to defend the idea of faith. Now, I'm sure most you rationalists are thinking, wow, this guy is a mormon, and those of you on the religious right are going to be likely be conjuring some plan to quote me out of context. Those who are moderates, are probably thinking... well, I don't really know what you're thinking.

Now, in recent times religion seems to have hijacked the word faith (they're quite good at that). It seems to have been made some kind of religious virtue to have, and is looked down on by rationalists, atheists, scientists, and so on and so forth.

I would however like to say that it is a very important aspect, and that most of us, to some degree have faith. Heck, I've been an atheist for as long as I can remember. (Course I kept it a secret for a very long time, didn't quite feel like being outcast just yet, though I must say I lucked out in that my family and many of my friends didn't go crazy and stop talking to me, thank Athena for making them all reasonable).

Anyway, back to the topic of faith. I always thought of the word as a type of trust in matters of uncertainty. Not always really a bad thing, and often a necessary stepping stone. For example, when I got my first guitar, I was absolutely terrible. I didn't know anything about guitars (except that they sounded really cool) and that I had nearly failed a guitar class in jr. high.  I had faith (a type of blind trust in myself) that I could in fact learn how to play guitar, and be good at it. It's taken about 5 years but I'm finally a decent player, still have a ways to go, but I likely won't make your ears bleed. The thing is that faith can be a "secular" word, and it can be a very important stepping stone in order to further yourself in situations where there is uncertainty. I still think it's stupid to think that you're right because you have faith, and that it is the pillar of truth, but it is a stepping stone. Let's not throw it away completely.   

Tl;dr  Faith isn't really such a bad thing, as long as it's used as a launching point for gathering evidence, not the verdict.

PS: Like I said before, don't quote me out of context.