Is there some legendary Sword in the Stone that only a true atheist can pull out?
Well, I don’t know what the Hadron Collider is, so I can’t answer that possibility. But I doubt there is any such “sword in stone.” The metaphor implies a magical set-up which is anathema to atheists. But by scientific knowledge, logic and reason, we gradually chip away at the validity of faith as a way to believe something. The only valid reason for believing something is that it fits the facts better than any other possible belief. I will include in that something I call “conditional” faith: a decision to behave as if something is true for its functional value. I said something about faith being inappropriate to a rational mind in front of the leader of the St. Louis Ethical Society, and she replied, “Well, I have faith in the value of each human being in spite of plenty of evidence to the contrary.” I saw that she was right: sometimes it is worthwhile to take a position in spite of evidence to the contrary.
