arming christians to combat atheist objections
If you are a Christian you should equip yourself with not just knowing what you believe but what non-believers think about Christianity. We must view our faith as a constant state of training. (link)
I must admit, I love bullet point posts like these and I love the interesting angles we’re treated to within them. So here we go:
1. There is no evidence that God exists. When people roll out the “something made the big bang so the Christian god God did it” you have to wonder how the logic cogs in their head work. First of all, just because philosophers have strangled words and concepts for centuries to convince themselves that there must be a prime mover, does not make this an evidence-based fact. But most importantly, even if you’re awed enough by the tomes of words required to come to this strangled conclusion, all it would signify is that something did something. Nothing even remotely more specific than this. Nothing about deities; nothing about your favourite deity tradition; nothing about Christianity.
2. There is no evidence that Jesus Christ was a real historical figure. We’re told in this post there were numerous eye witness accounts. That’s it, that’s the evidence. One blogger telling us this. No links, no names, no references. No admission that all they have are a handful of manuscripts written decades to a century or more after the alleged events. If you want to read an honest examination in more detail, try this Conversation article, which also sheds light on the biased approach of renowned Christian scholars.
3. Christianity dismisses science
Is this an objection? I don’t see how. Many scientists have religious beliefs. There are lots of ways to imagine a god that include accepting scientific fact. When someone has to introduce this into the conversation it’s usually because they’ve misunderstood that their particular creationist form of belief isn’t actually “Christianity”, but that their belief system is a hugely ignorant and embarrassing off-shoot that so happens to be popular in their corner of the world. And yes, creationism does dismiss science. And history. And basic facts at every turn.
4. If God was real evil wouldn’t exist. Depends what god you think exists.
5. God is an idea Christians made up to help them feel better about life. That seems quite simplistic and again curiously specific to a small world mindset. Gods, afterlives and spiritual worlds in general certainly seem to be a product of human fear of death and the need for simple answers to a bigger universe. “What happens when I die? You go up to a happy land in the sky.” is certainly a more comforting answer than “probably nothing, just like before you were alive”.
And just to be clear, Christians didn’t invent this particular god, they adopted and amended it to suit their purposes as they went. Sometimes their god wants them to have guns, sometimes their god is a pacifist. Sometimes this god wants them to give up all their money to give it to poor people, sometimes this god wants big rich churches full of rich people displaying how they are rewarded for being good. Sometimes this god loves performing abortions, sometimes, the Christian god hates abortion. From the outside, Christians adopted and amended this god to justify whatever whim they happen to have. Lucky for them, their holy book has lots of scope for interpretation.
So, I thank the author for their entertaining post but humbly suggest that their training isn’t quite robust enough at this point in time. I look forward to future developments.
Depends what god you think exists.
*Hand goes up from the back of the class*
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I did mean to link to one of your posts there but forgot. So here’s the book: https://www.amazon.com/Owner-All-Infernal-Names-Omnimalevolent/dp/1512263524
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Boom boom~!
I’ve said it often enough, dying is like going home … to where you were before you were born. But does anyone ever listen? Noooooooo~!
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Woof
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“If you are a Christian you should equip yourself with not just knowing what you believe but what non-believers think about Christianity. We must view our faith as a constant state of training”
This is bad advise. It is good to reflect on why you believe something and if you have the time and inclination to study up on questions you might have, but putting yourself in a constant state of argument is unhealthy.
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But then again, it’s good to understand why you believe what you believe, and attempting to arm yourself (specifically in the case of creationism) is a good idea. Bound to stumble on facts that matter.
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You are asking for too much.
If all you have is a miracle, then no evidence is required. For example, why do you need evidence Jesus was? It’s a miracle and that’s good enough
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Now, give “evidence,” not opinion, about that miracle. 😕
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Evidence of a miracle? You don’t need any.
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I wellcome all religious people to take a closer look at what atheists are saying. Trying to argue against what atheists are really saying may not necessarily de-convert them right away, but it certainly seems like an opportunity to learn how to face other questions to wich religions often make people woulnerable to, like other superstious woo, pyramid schemes (that are not so different from religions) and just in general empty claims expected to be taken on faith alone.
I have often amused myself by looking at the apologetics of different religions and trained my critical thinking skills by applying them on different approaches. Religions after all, are an easy target by any standard to train critical thinking, as they are based on (frankly, quite silly) assertions, without any actual evidence none what so ever. The critical thinking skills are much more important to be well trained when facing actually hard questions about morality, ethics, or for example economic choises.
However, more often than not, it seems to me, the religious are making an effort to evade what the atheist is actually saying, in place of arguing all sorts of strawmen. It is incredible what sort of mental gymnastics the religious are ready to do, just so they do not have to address any of the questions an atheist might actually raise. I guess, it is their subconscious, rather than plain dishonesty, at work trying to defend their fragile identity to the last breath.
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There is often fragility there though, to be fair. People have had traumatic experiences and religion gives them comfort they can’t find in the physical world. Or they simply can’t imagine how they would cope without a crutch that has always been there. So it can be frightening to confront and properly examine facts when brought before them. I guess the post I link to gives people confidence that someone has answers to tricky questions, when a partial examination reveals nothing of any value is being said there.
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Religions, aaaahhhh … but which is THE one true Truth?
Either none of them—
—or all of them. No?
Religions exist to garner pelf & power. No other reason.
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Or one of them
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Could even be, but I doubt it …
… and then, which one?
(Oh. Your one; dammit. I should have guessed.)
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