Evolutionists, in general, and atheists in particular, will claim that they do not believe anything, but they know stuff based on evidence. They will often go further and claim that creationists believe in Biblical creation on blind faith. They make this claim based largely on a total rejection of any evidence presented by creationists.
However, there are at least two things that none of us can really know, but we have to assume and believe on blind faith. This is simply a question of intellectual honesty, along with the fact that we only experience our own existence, along with what information we get from the outside. Because we can only experience our own consciousness and the input that it gets, we can only accept on blind faith the rest of reality. We essentially have to accept, on blind faith, the existence of an objective reality in which other people are conscious beings. At first glance, this may seem strange, but when you think about it, it is true.
The fact of Individual consciousness.
Consciousness is the property of being aware of one's own existence. The one fact that each of us intrinsically knows without any degree of faith being required to accept is our own existence. This is not only because it is a regular part of our existence, but it also requires no outside information.
Even when we are dreaming, we are aware that we exist, even though what we are experiencing is not real. In fact, if you could cut off all of the neural connections associated with the person's senses without killing them in the process, they would still be aware of their existence. Now, in time, you might start hallucinating due to complete sensory deprivation, but that is a completely different matter. What this ultimately shows is that consciousness is fundamental to our existence.
Is there an objective reality?
Think about this for a second. Everything we know about the world we know through our senses. But how do we know that the information we are getting through our senses is true? Ultimately, it boils down to trusting our senses completely. There is no way to objectively prove that anything we experience represents reality. This can be demonstrated by the fact that when you dream, your experience is much like the real world. Now, sometimes the experience may seem bizarre, particularly once we wake up. This is not claiming that there is no objective reality, but rather that we cannot prove it without blind faith in our senses that objective reality exists.
Are other people conscious?
Now, as individuals, we are aware of our own existence, and we have our own experiences, but how do we know this is true of other people? Once again, we have no direct way of knowing if other people are really self-aware and conscious. In fact, if you have been living on this earth for any amount of time, you have encountered some people who definitely make you wonder whether or not they are self-aware and conscious. This can definitely be the case when driving.
A good illustration of this is that most of us are familiar with video games. If you have played any form of role-playing game, you are going to be familiar with what are called non-playable characters, also known as NPCs. These are characters that are part of the game but do not have a player behind them. In a multiplayer role-playing game, you will encounter some characters that have other players behind them, but NPCs are characters that, no matter how intelligent they may seem, have no conscious entity behind them. So, the question is, how do we know that everybody else that we meet in our lives, including those closest to us, is not just some form of NPC?
The answer is that we really don't. This would be particularly the case if objective reality does not really exist, but even if it does, such a scenario is possible. The point is that we have to assume based on faith that other people we meet are just as conscious and self-aware as we are, but we can't really know because we can never see the world from their perspective. Now, for the record, I am not saying that this is the case, but I am merely pointing out the fact that we cannot really know but have to take it on faith that it is the case.
Why do these have to be accepted on blind faith?
The reason that these two things have to be accepted on blind faith is that there is no direct way that any of us can test them. We assume that the world around us is an objective reality that we all experience, and we assume that every other human being we encounter is themself conscious. But ultimately, there is no way of proving or even testing that either of these propositions is true.
As a result, these are the two blind faith beliefs that everyone has. We all have them, not only because we are taught they are true, but also because of the alternative, which is that we are a lone isolated conscious entity experiencing a fictitious world with fictitious people from some unknown source.
Once again, please note I am not saying any of this is true; my only point is that we can't prove that it is not because we only experience our existence in reality from within ourselves. But it also means we have to believe that we live in a real world with real conscious people on blind faith.
Conclusion
The point of this entire exercise is the fact that there are those out there among evolutionists in general and atheists in particular who claim they do not believe anything on faith. But here are two examples of things we all have to believe on totally blind faith, simply because we have no other choice. So, the next time somebody tells you they don't believe anything on faith, point this little fact out to them. If they have any intellectual honesty at all, they will admit that it is the case, and even if you can't move on with them from there, they may at least start thinking about it.
