jackbauer Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 without turning it into a personal attack of some sorts. A lot of them do it more subtle than others, but for the most part, it all amounts to the same. Their faith can't stand up to scrutiny so they make accusations against the critics. There are quite a few ways they do this. -Go on sanctimonious guilt trips about how those who hate Christians aren't any better than the ones they're criticizing. That they think they're perfect, but that they've probably done something that they wouldn't want out in the open. Granted, people are willing to criticize others for things that they probably would do in certain situations so calling them out isn't always a bad thing. However, Christians often take this to annoying extremes (some claiming that we are no better than Saddam Hussain). It's more of that "we're all sinners" and "all sins are equal" bullshit. They fail to take into account that some everyday person who may have told white lies and stolen a candy bar as a kid is obviously not as depraved as a serial killer who eats people. -Make digs at the motives of the critic. Claim that the person has a bias against Christians or is secretly angry at God. Why are they talking about something they don't believe in? Never mind that person was most likely raised Christian so it played a huge part of their life. And never mind that their gripes are actually valid (don't get me started on the sexual repression!!!). They just think that if they can make the critics look sinester, than they're arguements (no matter how valid) will fall. -Tell the person that their life is crap without Jesus. Heck, this is the entire gospel message in a nuthshell (and also the point of pascal's wager). Life is meaningless, you're not important, you're just a sinner who needs to be saved. Oh sure, the premise is shaky, and God never really answers, but why should he answer your puny prayers? What have you done for God? He's the potter, you're the clay. You shouldn't question his (ie the church's) infinite wisdom. If you don't believe in God, you have nothing to live for. The last one is why I really think Christianity (at least the evangelical ones) is an evil religion. They can't make any (good) arguements for their God so they resort to belittling the person and making them feel completely worthless. When ever God fails, it's always the persons fault for doing something to alienate God. It's basically an abusive relationship. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exevolt Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Another thing they do is when their argument is proven wrong they fall back to "Well I just know." "Well you can't take the bible literally." "It's all a test (or the devil) trying to shake my faith." and my favorite "You're a sinner and are gonna burn in hell!". As TTA had said it's like hey walk around with horse blinders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inqui Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 On another forum I got into an argument with a religious nut. To demonstrate that the Bible is only used when convenient, I said he doesn't steal (since it's in the Bible), but I also said that he's against keeping slaves (despite the fact that it's in the Bible). He got upset by that and said slavery isn't allowed in the Bible, so I came up with four or five verses that either said "keep slaves" or "this is how you can treat slaves". After trying to waffle around about Jesus making the OT redundant (to which I pointed out Jesus's quotes about keeping the law), his final response was to say that the Bible is actually against keeping slaves and there was a death penalty for selling someone into slavery: the verse is "somewhere in the old testament." In the exact same post he accused me of taking select verses out of context and ignoring everything else because it's not what I was arguing. In the exact same thread another guy described arguing with a religious person as "like trying to nail jelly to a wall." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackbauer Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I'm gonna bump this cause I think I realized their strategy; keep anyone who has doubts on the defensive. They have no way to defend their dogma so they make sure that the critic is too busy trying to defend from accusations against them. Example: Ray Comfort's ten commandments test. That's the one where he goes "have you ever lied, that makes you a liar". He instantly puts them in a "cop vs crime suspect" situation. They are too busy trying to defend themselves to realize the absuridy of what he's presenting. If they have doubts, it can be seen as them trying to weasle their way out of their sins. Then he can appeal to fear by letting them know that "god knows your heart" (an expression I've come to despise). Ultimately, it should be them who should defend their extraordinary claims, but because they have such extreme consequences for being wrong (hell), they can spin to where you're justifying your lifestyle to "god" (them). Once you see it for what it is (which is very hard if you've been indoctrinated), you realize how cowardly the whole thing is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I fucking hate Ray Comfort. I kinda like Kirk Cameron as a person, nice enough guy. But I can't believe he aligned himself with that asshole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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