Preemptive Carpet Bombing Arguments
Yesterday, I talked about how Christians sometimes carpet bomb with arguments praying that at least one of them sticks. Today, I want to make a preemptive strike that can be used when a Christian starts their carpet bombing of piss poor arguments. Of course there are many more arguments than I can put into one blog, but these are some of the top arguments used and some pithy responses in the form on a letter:
Dear Christian,
In the beginning God did not create the universe, the Big Bang did. The evidence for this is almost as big as the universe itself. Asking what came before the Big Bang is like asking what is south of the south-pole. Space and time are linked and so before space there was no time. The design you think you see in the world is actually a result of your brain looking for patterns. The only design that actually exists is that which has come from a process called natural selection. People are not perfectly designed. Our balls (which are the most vulnerable part of our body) are located outside out body in a very vulnerable location. That seems to be a very poor design. Besides, these arguments don’t even attempt to prove your god, just a god and they fail miserably at that.
I know, I know, I will be singing a different tune when I am before your God and see that he will threaten me with eternal torture for not believing in him based on no valid evidence. It is probably a good bet to just say that I believe, but Pascal’s wager really wouldn’t be able to fool your god anyway, right? Besides, can’t we make that same wager for any god? You should be a Muslim and a Buddhist too, right? I know you think you are trying to save me from this horribly unjust eternal torture. If there was a bomb in your car and I knew about it, I would do everything I could to stop you from going inside. This means that I would actually show you some evidence for the bomb. Short of that, I doubt you would believe me especially if you drove the car a 1000 miles and nothing happened and I still insisted there was a bomb inside and that it could explode any minute… no one knows the time or the day.
The fact is that we all die my Christian friend. Life isn’t Super Mario Brothers and we don’t get free lives. Do you remember what happened before you were born? I have a feeling that is exactly what it is like after you are dead. This isn’t depressing! This is pretty cool, actually. It inspires us to live full lives because we know that life is short. I still look to the future and try to make the world a better place because I have friends and family that I care about. I want to make sure that the world is a better place for them and their children and their children’s children. Besides, who really wants to live forever anyway? Eternity is a long time and you are sure to get bored after a few billion years.
Why would you believe the Bible anyway, we don’t even have the original version. Besides, it was written by people who thought that the Earth was flat and that pi was exactly three. These guys owned slaves and considered women as property and you are relying on them to give your absolute truth? The so called prophecies in the Bible are bullshit. There are no such prophecies in the Old Testament, just ask any Hebrew scholar. Most of the so called prophecies aren’t even related to a messiah.
As for morality, I don’t think the Bible is a very good guide for that. Plus, the god of the Bible is a relativist. If the Bible provides such rock solid moral grounding, then why is it that so many so called Christians disagree on what is is moral and what is not? Besides, I really don’t think that if God came down and said that rape was moral, that it would be so. I think morality is based on human empathy and human compassion much more than it is based on the God of your Bible. Thank goodness for that, right? I mean the God of the Bible doesn’t actually condemn rape, in fact in many stories God seems to actually support the practice. What a jerk, I don’t think I would worship such a god even if he did exist.
In Reason,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist
Filed under: Argument by Design, Car Bomb Argument, conversation, culture war, discussion, First Cause Argument, Preaching, Religion
