How convenient! The bible is full of passages that emphasize the necessity for faith and believing entirely without evidence. All Christian believers are pre-suppositionists in that they start from the premise that their God is the one and only true God. One of Christianities top, if not the top apologists William Lane Craig made this abundantly clear in interviews and in his book entitled 'Reasonable Faith.'
It is thinking like this that makes Christianity and reasonable argumentation impossible. Basically, unless you start with the premise that God exists then you get caught up in an endless loop of circular argumentation. Evidence as viewed from this position takes a back seat to faith and in these types of discussions become moot and irrelevant.
Here is my analogy about faith and Christianity. Imagine that you are told that leprechauns exist and that you must believe in them. Being a true skeptic you ask a few questions. What evidence do you have for the existence of leprechauns? You are then told that rainbows are evidence of the existence of leprechauns and that there is a pot of gold at the end of every one! You then inquire about whether or not this person has ever seen a leprechaun to which you receive a negative reply. You are then told that leprechauns have never been seen because they possess magical powers that make them invisible to man and that they are good at hiding. Finally, you ask this person where they obtained their belief in leprechauns to which they reply that they have read about it in a book of lore and myths!
Christians based their beliefs entirely on the lack of knowledge regarding the origins of both the universe and of life itself. The argument from ignorance states: absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. This argument from the outset in my opinion solidifies William Craigs statement above while at the same time betraying the Christian mentality as irrational as well as illogical. Noted cosmologist and author Victor Stenger refutes this argument quite competently in this artice he posted on The Huffington Post
If you scroll down on that articles comment section you will immediately see a good example of some of the things that I have expressed in this article regarding Christian rationalizations. Finally, I was contacted by a Mr. Jim Morrison who is a high school teacher on world religions. He has some interesting posts which I think you may enjoy. I am providing a link to his blog for your reading pleasure http://teachnotpreach.com
Love the leprechaun analogy & thanks for the links. I am familiar with WLC's book but having seen his ideas in debate videos I have decided not to read his book. What he calls "reasonable" is in no way fitting with the definition of that word.
ReplyDeleteI have never read a WLC book. Like you I have seen many of his debates and yet I think his so called "logic" is fatally flawed. He starts with the presupposition that God exists based on the so called witness of the Spirit.
DeleteI once debated a theist about the existence of Christ and he recommended that I read Lee Strobels 'The Case for Christ.' I got a free ecopy of the book and didn't make it past the first chapter. His books are so biased towards the confirmation of his faith that it is a waste of time to even read any of them. In fact, I don't read any so called xtian scholarly texts for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteFor my part, I see religion (any religion) as an addiction. Same symptoms--dependency, denial, imagined need, failure to acknowledge the harmful aspects, and myriad other excuses for not doing something about it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that in most cases it is spoon-fed to new generations of children practically from birth, and so becomes very difficult--impossible for far too many--a habit to break. Imagine the outrage if alcohol or heroin were introduced in similar fashion.
"... leprechauns have never been seen because they possess magical powers that make them invisible to man and that they are good at hiding."
ReplyDeleteActually the truth is no one can look upon a leprechauns face and live. Wait!! That's the same thing their god said! Come to think of it, have you ever NOT seen a leprechaun and a god thing at the same time?
Coinicidence? I think not.