Who was the first President?

An Atheist named Clamflats wrote:

"You state that the Bible is 'the only TRUE word of God.' You state this as if it is a fact. I contend that this is a statement of faith which you believe but cannot be a fact in the same sense that 'George Washington was the first President of the United States’ is a fact."

When I asked "Can you please offer evidence that George Washington was the first President of the United States?" she answered:

"I didn't give much thought to my fact example except to quickly pick out a statement of what I believe is an indisputable claim. But it is a pretty good example now that I think about it. I have no direct personal knowledge that this is true. I was not alive in the 1780's. So why do I believe it? And what about it justifies my belief? In order to continue you will have to agree that there is a country called the United States that has had a succession of Presidents and therefore someone had to be first and that George Washington was an actual person. Agreed? (I guess you could disagree with all of that or ask me to prove it but it would be essentially the same type of argument.) My evidence that this is a fact is that I have seen or heard literally hundreds of times that George Washington was the first President and not once heard the opposite. I have no reason to suspect that this is not true."

In other words, Clamflats heard it from people who believed it, and she believed their testimony, even though she had "no direct personal knowledge that this is true." She so believed that she referred to it as an "indisputable claim."

Another Atheist, Steven J., gave his evidence on why he believed that George Washington was the first President:

"The George Washington Papers collection at the Library of Congress includes a number of papers from his presidency, including his first inaugural address in his own handwriting. There are surviving copies of newspapers from his alleged administration covering his actions as President."

Steven believes that the Library of Congress have genuine papers from the presidency of George Washington. He has unwavering faith in the workers at the Library of Congress when they tell him that what they have is his personal handwriting. He also has great faith in old newspapers, and asks:

"...why should we doubt that it was George Washington, when there are no rival claimants to the title (nine Presidents of Congress under the Articles of Confederation didn't hold the same office as the modern Presidency)?"

He whole-heartedly believes (with no doubt at all) that there were no rivals claimants. Why? Because the history books say so. He is a man of great faith in the testimony of men.

When skeptics say something like "The Counsel of Nicaea met in AD 325!" I ask "How do you know that?" The confident skeptic suddenly looks confused as he realizes that he doesn’t know. He just believes what history books tell him. He accepts as gospel, the testimony of men.

The truth is that no one knows the identity of the first President. We simply have people who believe the testimony of history books written by men.

Steven is one who has unquestioning faith in short-term history books. But like most atheistic evolutionists (who say that they don’t have any faith), he has unquestioning faith in what fallible men say about what they believe happened, in what they believe was in the (unbelievably) long-term past.

Do you remember signs in stores that said "In God we trust. Others pay cash"? It's a wise person who trusts God and doesn't totally trust in man. The Bible says to make sure you do that (see Psalm 118:8). So, where is your faith?

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son" (1 John 5:9-10).