{"id":2066,"date":"2011-01-24T09:11:47","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T14:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2066"},"modified":"2011-01-24T09:11:47","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T14:11:47","slug":"liar-lunatic-atheist-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2066","title":{"rendered":"Liar, Lunatic, Atheist Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christians sometimes argue that everyone \u201cknows\u201d there is a God. I always find this line of argument comical for so many reasons.<\/p>\n<p>First, it is sort of childish. I could just as easily declare that the Christian knows there isn\u2019t a God. It is an assertion which needs no justification. The argument can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>This leads to my variation on the old, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/atheism-in-philadelphia\/atheism-101-how-to-respond-to-the-lord-liar-lunatic-argument\" target=\"_blank\">Lord, Liar, Lunatic Argument<\/a>. 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).<\/p>\n<p>The first possibility is that the professed atheist (me) is lying. I don\u2019t 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\u2019t believe in the Abrahamic deity.<\/p>\n<p>The second possibility is that I am a lunatic. Perhaps I am crazy and don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Of course there are more possibilities, but we won\u2019t talk about them because that is not how the Lord, Liar, Lunatic Argument works. \ud83d\ude09 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\u2019s fun.<br \/>\n<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><br \/>\n<a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=dangeroustalk\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=dangeroustalk\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2064\">The Ontological Argument for Disproving God<\/a> (dangeroustalk.net)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=1970\">You Can&#8217;t Prove Santa Doesn&#8217;t Exist!<\/a> (dangeroustalk.net)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/pharyngula\/2011\/01\/why_isnt_anyone_talking_about.php\">Why isn&#8217;t anyone talking about the weakness and stupidity of the New Theism?<\/a> (scienceblogs.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/arizonaatheist.blogspot.com\/2010\/11\/christian-apologist-asks-atheism-doesnt.html\">A Christian Apologist Asks, &#8220;Atheism Doesn&#8217;t Lead to Immoral Behavior &#8211; Or Does It?&#8221; No, it Doesn&#8217;t<\/a> (arizonaatheist.blogspot.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=32d2c9ae-e500-4f70-8718-676555532589\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2066\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christians sometimes argue that everyone \u201cknows\u201d 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\u2019t a God. It is an assertion which needs no justification. The argument can\u2019t go anyway. [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,589,554,739],"tags":[278,2215,84,37,1349,319,2214,1264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}