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Liar, Lunatic, Atheist Argument

Posted on January 24th, 2011 by Staks

Christians sometimes argue that everyone “knows” there is a God. I always find this line of argument comical for so many reasons.

First, it is sort of childish. I could just as easily declare that the Christian knows there isn’t a God. It is an assertion which needs no justification. The argument can’t go anyway. It just dead ends. I think it really is a poor form of argument to assert to know what someone else believes especially when they are claiming that it is not what they believe.

This leads to my variation on the old, Lord, Liar, Lunatic Argument. I call it the Liar, Lunatic, Atheist Argument. When a Christian claims that I really know that God exists, there are only three possibilities (not really, but go with me on this).

The first possibility is that the professed atheist (me) is lying. I don’t think I am lying. I am pretty sure that I am doing my best to be honest when I say that I lack the belief in deities and outright don’t believe in the Abrahamic deity.

The second possibility is that I am a lunatic. Perhaps I am crazy and don’t know when I am telling the truth or lying. This would mean that reality and fantasy are jumbled together in my mind and I am just nuts. This is certainly possible, but I am fairly confident that I am relatively sane.

And that brings us to the final possibility, that I must be an atheist just as I profess to be. I really must not believe in a deity.

Of course there are more possibilities, but we won’t talk about them because that is not how the Lord, Liar, Lunatic Argument works. 😉 So next time a Christian tells you that you secretly believe, try the Liar, Lunatic, Atheist Argument on them and let them argue against their own Lord, Liar, Lunatic Argument for you. It’s fun.