All the Christian apologetics stuff I’ve read since deconverting...is very obviously not actually targeted at actual atheists.
That isn’t necessarily true. I have personal experience with some people who write these sorts of materials, and mostly they just have a really terrible time modeling non-Christians. Some don’t even believe that non-Christians exist, really—they seem to think that non-Christians are just people who are resisting what they subconsciously know to be true, out of twisted pride or hopeless despair. I think it’s either too optimistic or too pessimistic—I can’t decide which—to conclude that the people writing these arguments must know at some level that they wouldn’t be persuasive to non-Christians. I don’t think they understand non-Christians well enough to make that leap.
I am reminded in particular of one gentleman, otherwise ordinary in intelligence, who honestly could not understand why 2nd Timothy 3:16 (“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”) would not persuade an atheist of the inerrancy of the Bible. He understood the concept of circular arguments, but could not apply his knowledge to our discussion.
Indeed. I thought it was all directed at convincing their own doubters, e.g. the spectacularly awful Arguments from Wishful Thinking Because Modal Logic!! of Plantinga—the stuff is so trivially bad I could see no other use for it. Then an acquaintance who just happens to be an atheist philosopher doing a Ph.D in parts of Plantinga’s work that don’t suck (apparently there really are some) said no, Plantinga really does write this unbelievably terrible shit for an intended audience of professional philosophers. So, um, yeah. All I can think is that they write this stuff to convince themselves, and they’re so pleased with it they have to show the world.
That isn’t necessarily true. I have personal experience with some people who write these sorts of materials, and mostly they just have a really terrible time modeling non-Christians. Some don’t even believe that non-Christians exist, really—they seem to think that non-Christians are just people who are resisting what they subconsciously know to be true, out of twisted pride or hopeless despair. I think it’s either too optimistic or too pessimistic—I can’t decide which—to conclude that the people writing these arguments must know at some level that they wouldn’t be persuasive to non-Christians. I don’t think they understand non-Christians well enough to make that leap.
I am reminded in particular of one gentleman, otherwise ordinary in intelligence, who honestly could not understand why 2nd Timothy 3:16 (“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”) would not persuade an atheist of the inerrancy of the Bible. He understood the concept of circular arguments, but could not apply his knowledge to our discussion.
Indeed. I thought it was all directed at convincing their own doubters, e.g. the spectacularly awful Arguments from Wishful Thinking Because Modal Logic!! of Plantinga—the stuff is so trivially bad I could see no other use for it. Then an acquaintance who just happens to be an atheist philosopher doing a Ph.D in parts of Plantinga’s work that don’t suck (apparently there really are some) said no, Plantinga really does write this unbelievably terrible shit for an intended audience of professional philosophers. So, um, yeah. All I can think is that they write this stuff to convince themselves, and they’re so pleased with it they have to show the world.