An Athiest needs less faith because they have proof.

how can we make such a broad generalization?

A Christian needs WAY more faith to believe and have conviction in something that they can't see, can only feel. Having been both, I can speak from experience. Being an athiest, for me, was the total absense of faith. I believed nothing until I saw it. Believing in Christ is harder than you think. Faith has a short shelf life and must be constantly renewed.

Christians need more faith, and they also need more strength to put up with athiests comments. But I guess Christians critcize athiests too. anyone that is different than you is most likely going to criticize your differences. Christians need more faith. I got off track there for a moment.

I think the real question is does it take more faith in order to have less faith. What I do think is that God is a real asshole(or any other derrogatory term) if he choses to do better for those who believe based on probable reward - either way. (Do you really think God prefers those who gamble?) Some of us don't give a damn what God thinks (whether or not he is an evil bastard) - now that takes balls! (better term might be faith in one's self).

They both need an equal amount of faith. An atheist is convinced that there IS no God. They will experience moments of strange coincidence, or serendipidous luck just when they needed it most, or other similar phenomena that would normally be interpreted as the "hand of God" acting in their lives by most believers. Perhaps it is not so much faith that is needed of them to push away the mystical quality of their experience, but more of an intellectual denial. Christians on the other hand, have a strong foundation and much support of other Christians to enhance and cultivate their faith. But they too will see experiences of despair, injustice and horror that will make them question the existence of God. The agnostic on the other hand, the one who states that there may or may not be a God is actually less likely to need a lot of faith. They can respond to experiences of 'grace' and the witnessing of horrors with the perpetual question mark... perhaps there is a God, perhaps there isn't. Perhaps it is not for me to know... but I can continue to enjoy the wonderful mystery of life in spite of the fact that I may never know for sure.

I agree that Christians have to have a fair amount of faith, but they have more support than Athiests. Athiests have to deal with people trying to convert them on a daily basis, so I'm gonna say that Athiests have to have a little more faith.

On the Internet it takes more faith to be a Christian. In Real Life I think it takes more faith to be an atheist.

I think athiests need more faith because Christians are just believing what they've been told without thinking about it. Athiests think about things and believe what they think is true as oppose to just being whatever theie parents were or what was preached in school.

What do atheists believe?? At times I think that they just do not accept the common Christian perception of a personal, controlling, separate from his universe concept of God residing ... somewhere up ... who knows where.

faith is faith. You either believe or you don't. The bible says that to each person is dealt "the" measure of faith. It's how you exercise your faith that counts.

Athiests because they always need proof to even consider something bigger than what has been proven by science.

A christian needs more faith,you can tell by your question,the word athiest is not capitolized,and the word christian is.;)

I think everyone who has answered this would be very interested in an author named Sherwin B. Nuland.

There is a huge leap between not believing in anything and believing that Jesus was born of a virgin, and was sent by God to forgive the sins that he created instead of just forgiving us. There is quite a difference acctually..

Wow. They are both fantastical, but respectable, beliefs in my opinion. The Christian, clearly must have faith to interpret and believe in an ancient writing of our supposed 'biblical history', as documented by man. The Athiest, however, relying purely on science, must have faith that an undiscovered or unproven scientific answer exists to explain everything as of yet unexplained.

It does take more faith to be a christian than an atheist. Faith is 'belief in things unseen or unproven'. Not only must a christian believe in god but they must believe that, out of the hundreds of thousands of gods that have existed throughout the ages (many still believed in), theirs is the right one, and they are worshipping him the right way. Considering the general attitude toward atheism in the US, I'd think it takes more courage to be an atheist than even a muslim over there...

IVF does not proove that the virgin birth was possible. But yes, I agree, IVF makes virgin birth totally possible, it does not proove anything about mary however. If God existed, I am pretty sure he didn't use IVF. Where's your imagination. The guy created the heaven and the earth, but he's stuck with petty man-made tools? Common.

The only thing that defines an atheist is a LACK of belief in a deity. An atheist doesn't need faith at all. That's sort of the point.

By definition, an athiest has an incredible amount of faith - a lot more than me. I believe that God exists and my faith in God is based on evidence, starting with Genesis 1:1. In theory, my athiest friend must, by definition believe that everything somehow made itself by the unobserved, untested fallacy of evolution. To be logical, my athiest friend must also accept that the computer he is using to read this answer could make itself by blind chance, given millions of years - nothing to do with intelligence - just a random combination of metal and plastic, right??

I think everyone's faith is a personal journey and only they can judge how much is enough faith

Mini Kilt, thanks for your answer. You correcly point out the disappointing reality that many Christians believe the evolution story. Most people aboard the Titanic's last voyage believed it was unsinkable. Reality and opinion can often be very different, particularly when on the topic of evolution / creation. Now, can you please give me the evidence for evolution? Looking forward to your answer

Christian.. since the world, contrary to what atheists would have you believe, operates on mostly secular principals not religious.

Mini Kilt, I'm still waiting for your answer to my question -re evidence for evolution?? Do you have any?? Preacher

A Christian definitely needs more faith. Christians believe in a complex and detailed doctrine that has no other support than tradition and the Bible. Atheists do not believe in this, nor do they believe in a Deity. Therefore, they are not believing in something that requires faith.

Undoubtedly the Christian, because the Christian God is much more complicated than the atheist non-God. The Christian has to believe in all sorts of complicated things like the doctrine of the Trinity, virgin birth, that a loving god will allow massive suffering etc. All an atheist has to believe is that if you have looked for something, listened to those who claim to have found it, and failed to find it, then it is probably not there.

Well I believe they need an almost equal amount of faith but I believe that the faiths are very different I personally believe in god and I also have listened to everything from science and I’ve found science only builds up my faith in god and I also find a lot more hope, happiness, and love involved with Christianity (not saying that atheists don't because they obviously do if we are all children of god) but my point is Christians decide on god but atheists have to live in fear of some things, especially death and I don’t think Christianity is being weak and believing in something just so your not worried about death because science has even proven it is strange that we die in the first place when our cells keep reproducing and all of a sudden something signals in the cells for them to start dying etc and this has led many scientists to Christianity . there are hundreds of other scientific reasons why I believe in god but I’ve gotten carried away, anyway my point is that atheists have to have faith in things like the big bang which its direct proof is almost non existent and when you think where did matter come from, how is evolution possible all these scientific theories go against thermodynamics which says matter cannot come from nothing or be destroyed so where did all the matter come from or how is cosmological evolution possible how can all the planets galaxies etc exist by possibility, gravity, evaporation and rain clouds, the miracle of life, consciousness, morality, love, the human eye, etc, Darwinism is very weak today as more and more scientists are discovering that things in the world are only getting more and more complicated like the brain, the universe, cells, etc and that they work as perfect machines and machines only exist if someone makes them. Anyway to make an already long story short science demands more faith because there are so many unanswered and impossible to answer questions out there. Scientists don’t believe and/or agree with faith which is kind of funny when we already demand faith as humans for everything we do (taking planes, people letting there children go out and experience the world) lastly having faith that we are more then unintelligent completely unmoral instinctive and ultimately meaningless animals and that we are imaginative, free willed, free thinking humans that should live and love and that we all mean something. P.S. I was atheist for a long time and my parents weren’t Christian and they didn’t brainwash me like most people believe Christians are. Also people from young now are brought up watching science videos in class usually entitled the big bang and it is taught as fact even though last time I checked it was a theory, funny Christianity is also a theory but it is not forced upon children as fact, just something to think about.