It might be why you’re an atheist, but do you think it would have swayed your christian self much? I highly doubt that your post would come near to deconverting anyone. Many religious people believe that souls are essential for creativity and intelligence, and they won’t accept the “you’re wired to see intelligence” argument if they disbelieve in evolution (not uncommon.)
To deconvert people to atheism quickly, I think you need a sledgehammer. I still haven’t found a really good one. Here are some areas that might be promising:
Ask them why God won’t drop a grapefruit from the sky to show he exists. “He loves me more than I can imagine, right? And more than anything he wants me to know him right? And he’s all powerful, right?” To their response: “Why does God consider blindly believing in him in the absence of evidence virtuous? Isn’t that sort of think a made-up religion would say about their god to keep people faithful?”
The Problem of Evil: why do innocent babies suffer and die from disease?
I’ve heard there are lots of contradictions in the bible. Maybe someone who is really dedicated could find some that are really compelling. Personally, I’m not interested enough in this topic to spend time reading religious texts, but more power to those who are.
A few moderately promising ones: Why does God heal cancer patients but not amputees? Why do different religious denominations disagree, when they could just ask God for the answer? Why would a benevolent God send people who happened to be unlucky enough not to hear about him to enternal damnation?
2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles are supposed to be parallels, telling the same story. Yet one of them probably lost or gained a zero along the way. Many christians that see this are foreced to retreat to a more ‘soft’ interpretation of the bible that allows for errors in transactiption etc. It’s the closest to a quick ‘n’ dirty sledgehammer I have ever had. And a folow-up: Why hasn’t this been discussed in your church? Surely, a group of truthseekers wouldn’t shy away from such fundamental criticisms, even to diffuse them.
Problem is, theists of reasonable intelligence spend a good deal of time honing and rehearsing their replies to these. They might be slightly uneasy with their replies, but if the alternative is letting go of all they hold dear, then they’ll hold to their guns. Catching them off guard is a slightly better tactic.
Or, to put it another way: if there were such a sledgehammer lying around, Richard Dawkins (or some other New Atheist) would be using it right now. Dawkins uses all the points you listed, and more; and the majority of people don’t budge.
do you think it would have swayed your christian self much?
Well...it did sway my Christian self. My Christian self generated those arguments and they, with help from Eliezer’s writings against self-deception, annihilated that self.
It might be why you’re an atheist, but do you think it would have swayed your christian self much? I highly doubt that your post would come near to deconverting anyone. Many religious people believe that souls are essential for creativity and intelligence, and they won’t accept the “you’re wired to see intelligence” argument if they disbelieve in evolution (not uncommon.)
To deconvert people to atheism quickly, I think you need a sledgehammer. I still haven’t found a really good one. Here are some areas that might be promising:
Ask them why God won’t drop a grapefruit from the sky to show he exists. “He loves me more than I can imagine, right? And more than anything he wants me to know him right? And he’s all powerful, right?” To their response: “Why does God consider blindly believing in him in the absence of evidence virtuous? Isn’t that sort of think a made-up religion would say about their god to keep people faithful?”
The Problem of Evil: why do innocent babies suffer and die from disease?
I’ve heard there are lots of contradictions in the bible. Maybe someone who is really dedicated could find some that are really compelling. Personally, I’m not interested enough in this topic to spend time reading religious texts, but more power to those who are.
A few moderately promising ones: Why does God heal cancer patients but not amputees? Why do different religious denominations disagree, when they could just ask God for the answer? Why would a benevolent God send people who happened to be unlucky enough not to hear about him to enternal damnation?
I think a very straightforward contradiction is here: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/horsemen.html
2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles are supposed to be parallels, telling the same story. Yet one of them probably lost or gained a zero along the way. Many christians that see this are foreced to retreat to a more ‘soft’ interpretation of the bible that allows for errors in transactiption etc. It’s the closest to a quick ‘n’ dirty sledgehammer I have ever had. And a folow-up: Why hasn’t this been discussed in your church? Surely, a group of truthseekers wouldn’t shy away from such fundamental criticisms, even to diffuse them.
Problem is, theists of reasonable intelligence spend a good deal of time honing and rehearsing their replies to these. They might be slightly uneasy with their replies, but if the alternative is letting go of all they hold dear, then they’ll hold to their guns. Catching them off guard is a slightly better tactic.
Or, to put it another way: if there were such a sledgehammer lying around, Richard Dawkins (or some other New Atheist) would be using it right now. Dawkins uses all the points you listed, and more; and the majority of people don’t budge.
Well...it did sway my Christian self. My Christian self generated those arguments and they, with help from Eliezer’s writings against self-deception, annihilated that self.