If ever a theist stumps you, come here and post what they said. There isn't one argument for God that doesn't come without some fatal flaw.
Today I was having breakfast and listening to some stupid hillbillies talking about abortion and what the bible says. Then it hits me just how far gone theists are. Where would I even begin with this woman? Doesn't she realize men wrote that book? Why do I care what guys 1500 years ago wrote about a guy 2000 years ago? Imagine if people 1500 years ago could come know what we know now. Do you think people today would swallow such stories? Actually 200 years ago a large segment of us swallowed the Joseph Smith story and Arabs swallow the Mohammad experience.
You're all swallowing a 2000 or 7000 year old story if you count the founders of our lie the Jews. Moses is a myth. Let's stop this nonsense. It's holding us back.
I don't believe what they said happened happened 2000 years ago. So stop telling me what your story book says. We don't buy it! So what other reasons do you think "we are the only animals on this planet that God made in his image"
That is what the woman in the restaurant said. What possibly would make her believe this? A 2000 year old story? Imagine how much smarter we are today than we were 2000 years ago. I really hope we aren't as dumb as we are now 2000 years from now
What possibly would make her believe this?
Cultural and intellectual inbreeding from birth
After reading the
Bible, many people are mystified as to why grown, otherwise intelligent adults would believe that it is the direct communication or the "inspired Word" of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being. To many people, it seems absolutely incredible that any reasonable person could maintain this belief in the face of our current scientific knowledge and the contemporary understanding of history, religion and mythology. To outsiders, the phenomenon of Christian belief is a puzzlement.
However, after a bit of research and reflection, the mystery is resolved. It soon becomes apparent that the whole bizarre Christian belief system is predicated, to a large degree, on two compelling ideas. The first idea is that maintaining faith in Bible claims is the most morally virtuous act one can perform and will be rewarded with an eternal life of bliss. The second belief is that doubting biblical claims represents the greatest evil imaginable and will be punished with an eternity of torture. These linchpin beliefs make it possible for Christians to accept thoroughly ridiculous biblical assertions not merely in the absence of evidence, but against the evidence-against reason.
The sanctification of
"faith" and demonization of doubt short-circuits the thinking process. Since it is continually drilled into Christians' brains that faith must be maintained at all costs, anything which contradicts a Bible claim is automatically rationalized away as the arrogance of the "wise," as a ploy of Satan, or as a test of faith from God himself. So when it is explained and demonstrated to a Christian that the Bible is simply a collection of ancient writings masquerading as the "Word of God," this is dismissed as the delusion of unbelievers blinded by their sin. (See
the wisdom of the world) When scientific discoveries are shown to clearly, directly and unambiguously contradict biblical pronouncements, these scientific discoveries are interpreted by the Christian as satanic trickery. If it is patiently and painstakingly evinced to the Christian that the Bible is filled from one end to the other with obscene cruelty and violence, pagan mythology and superstition, blatant contradictions, ludicrous claims and outrageous, blithering idiocy, the Christian smiles in the face of this, confident that his faith is being tested by God and that he will be rewarded accordingly in the Age To Come.
It must be understood that in the Alice-in-Wonderland Christian world view, the more difficult it is to believe in a biblical claim, the more one is glorified for believing it. Faith, believing no matter what the facts say, is
the highest manifestation of moral righteousness. Developing and maintaining one's faith in the preposterous and the incomprehensible becomes the ultimate purpose of life.
Tertullian's declaration, "I believe because it is impossible," is the boast of a man who celebrates his irrationality. While liberal Christians today may pay lip service to the notion of a reasonable faith, the sentiment of Tertullin's inane "I believe because it is impossible" is alive and well and continues to be spouted from church pulpits on Sunday mornings: "Brethren, did not Paul say that
God will make foolish the wisdom of the world, and choose that which is foolish to shame the wise of the world? Brothers and Sisters, did not JEEEZ-ZUSS tell us that unless we become as little children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven, that God has chosen to hide his light from the eyes of the wise and reveal himself to
babes?" Reason and knowledge are ridiculed while biblical absurdities are held aloft as bless-ed revelation. This is how Christianity sustains itself. It is the only way that it can.
Thus the Christian faith's invisible attributes are now clearly to be seen. Behind all the sacraments and the rituals, the organ music and the angelic choirs, the praying lips and the arms thrust heavenward, behind all this, propping it all up, is the monstrous doctrine that gullibility and ignorance are divine.
Please don't try to explain this to a Christian though, for it has been most assuredly foretold that he would be mocked and persecuted for Jesus' sake by the "wise" of a fallen, perishing world. Yea, lo, verily, for it has been written...
Skeptic Ring
