Bad Christian Logic: Even the Smart Ones Do It

Albert Mohler may be one of the most intelligent humans on the planet. If Mohler weren't a Christian literalist, he might also be one of the best scientists or historians alive today. Sadly, his mind has been hijacked by the religion virus, which seems to have rendered him incapable of true logical thinking.

Mohler's most recent article is about Genesis, and asks whether Adam and Eve were literally the ancestors of all humans. He builds up a very powerful chain of logical arguments, based on history, philosophy and Biblical evidence: if Adam and Eve weren't real, then Christianity falls apart. Jesus' sacrifice would have been meaningless. Without Adam and Eve, there would be no original sin, and no need for anyone to accept Jesus as their savior.

To a scientist or historian, this is a beautiful chain of deductions, the sort of stuff that all scholars aspire to:

Adam and Eve --> The Fall --> God's curse --> original sin
  --> Jesus' sacrifice --> redemption --> Christianity

It's a very nice bit of scholarship so far. But ... then Mohler makes a terrible mistake.

A real scientist or historian would look for independent evidence for Adam and Eve to prove they existed, and then follow the chain of logic forward to prove the conclusion (that Christianity is true). But Mohler does the reverse! He claims that Christianity is true, and then follows the logic backwards to "prove" that the story of Adam and Eve is true.

It's an embarrassing intellectual error.

He also asserts that all true Christians must reach this same conclusion. Mohler claims that

Laurel's Wager

Today's blog is by guest blogger Laurel. It's a tribute to her younger brother who died two weeks ago. This is dedicated to all the young people in our lives.

I recently read about an interesting philosophical position called Pascal's Wager. Basically, it says that reason dictates that you should live your life as if God exists, whether you believe in Him or not. It's kind of on a par with the “chicken soup” theory, i.e. it can't hurt, and it might very well help, so go ahead and hedge your bet in this Grand Game of Life by either believing in Him, or at least acting like you do.

Well, here's “Laurel's Wager”....

Live every single minute of your life as if there is no God, whether you believe in him or not. Live it as if you do not get another chance at it. Live it as if you have to leave this earth a better place than what you found it because your kids and grand kids and moms and dads and sisters and brothers and friends and loved ones have to stay in it after you are gone.

Live it as if you need to savor every single drop of it... the joy, grief, laughter, tears, work, failures, successes...all of it...because you may not be reincarnated after you throw this one away, and there may not be either a heaven or a hell or a big loving Daddy Person in the sky passing out the warm fuzzies you just couldn't find a way to get while you were here.

Fight just as hard as you can to stay healthy; don't do drugs or abuse booze or fill your veins with fat and salt and sugar and nicotine. What if your body isn't just a temporary vessel to hold your spirit until it gets to go some place more fun? What if it happens to be the only medium by which you get to stay here for as long as possible, and when it's broken and battered so badly it no longer works, you end...forever...?

Hold those you love close to you now, and don't count on being able to smile down on

Dishonest Christian: Dr. William Lane Craig Swindles Audiences

R. Brad White challenged me the other day when I called William Lane Craig (the famous Christian apologist) "devious and dishonest," and I promised to respond.

Dr. Craig's most offensive tactic is that he relies on the ignorance of his audience. He knows they're not trained in philosophy or deductive logic. He knows they're not trained in mathematics. He knows most don't know the Bible's history all that well (they know its contents, but not who wrote it and why) ... and so forth. And Dr. Craig uses his audience's ignorance, knowingly and deliberately. He knows he can confuse his audience with arguments they can't understand.

Dr. Craig counts on the fact that when his opponents prove him wrong, the argument will be too complex for the audience to comprehend.

As Russell "Kazim" Glasser wrote on Atheist Experience:

Mormonism is Wrong

There's a persistent Mormon named Seth Rogers who is well known to atheists bloggers. Criticize the Mormon religion in an atheist blog, and Seth is right there to set you right. Three months ago I wrote a blog about the Mormon Church's immoral stance on homosexuality, and the debate is still going on.

After I wrote my final response in that thread, I realized it was blogworthy, not something that should be buried in a long tirade of Mormon apologetics, so here it is.

Mormon apologists make the classic mistake that's repeated over and over by religious apologists everywhere: they assert that the burden of proof is on the non-believer.

Mormonism makes a staggering number of amazing claims that defy both common sense and the historical and archaeological records.

Beware of Oprah!

Wow, it seems Oprah is dangerous to true Christians! She's one of those sneaky types who uses Christian terminology and ideas, and makes seductive claims that lure innocent Christians into paganism! Pantheism!

Worse, Oprah teaches a "hodgepodge of personalized faith," emphasizing the spirit within us all, urging us to listen to our conscience. And (*gasp*) there are many paths to God, not just the Christian path!

Can you imagine? What's Oprah thinking? We all know that thinking for ourselves leads to sin. And the Christians' God is the only god who has this Absolute Truth.

This would be funny if it were from the 1950s, but sadly, it was from a lecture given to 1,500 people at McLean Bible Church near Washington, D.C. last week. Christian apologists Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett gave a lecture blasting Oprah's teachings, and "correcting" any incorrect theology she might have taught her listeners.

To an outsider, one of the most fascinating things about various religions is how you have to do things exactly their way, or you're out, going to Hell, damned forever. The sheer arrogance is stunning, and would be funny, except that these people aren't kidding, and they're not a minority.

I admire Oprah's philosophy even though I'm not a religious person. Many of my close friends and family share her views on spirituality and religion, and strange though it might sound, I think Oprah's view is very close to what atheists, agnostics and deists think, too. We all need to look inside to find the truth, to find our moral/ethical core, and to do what we know is right. Some look to a core essence that's larger than their physical existence, and some don't, but we all know that morality comes from within.

The arrogance, the sheer hubris, of these ultra-religious people, is offensive on the face of it. They are hugely and glaringly wrong, yet not only can they not see it, but they don't even know how foolish their claims look to most people. The idea that their particular brand of religion, among all the many thousands that people have invented around the world and down through the ages, is the only correct one, is so silly. How can they take themselves seriously?

The Five Dumbest Arguments for God

Today it's a bit of fun – my top-five stupidest arguments for God and/or religion. There are a lot more, but these are the ones that really bug me.

1. If it makes me really happy, it must be true

This is best captured by the Heaven meme: You make up some cool story that says, "You don't really die, you go to this magical place where you'll live forever in eternal bliss." And you tell this story, over and over, to little children. And they really, really want to believe it, because it's really a cool story! So it must be true, because it would make use really sad if it wasn't.

2. If I say it often enough, it must be true

Also known as Proof by Repeated Assertion. If people don't believe you, just say it again ... and again, and again and again, and get other people to say it, and pretty soon everyone starts to believe it. Most people want to fit in, to be part of the crowd, and if everyone else believes, and is saying something is true, then it must be true!

3. If everyone believes it, it must be true

This was, and continues to be, a serious claim by Christian apologists! They say that so many people believe in Jesus' divine birth and resurrection, in God and Mary, that it couldn't possibly be wrong. They claim that you could fool some people, or even quite a few people, but if millions of people believe something, logic dictates that it must be true.

So let me get this straight: If I can convince enough people that the moon is made of green cheese, then the moon will actually BECOME GREEN CHEESE! Very cool!

4. If you can't prove it's wrong, it must be true

Also known as, "You can't PROVE that God doesn't exist!" This argument is one of the favorites of theists when they're trying to prove that an Atheism is a "faith" just like belief in God. Never mind that this is a grave philosophical error that would get you booted out the door of your freshman philosophy class. It's been refuted so widely and resoundingly that Christian web sites caution "the faithful" not to use this argument any more ... but they still do.

5. If I believe it, it must be true

Seriously. I've heard people say this, although it's just slightly disguised: "We know the Bible is God's inerrant word, because He wouldn't lead us down the wrong path." Or, closer to home, I heard a Church of Christ member claim that their specific doctrine had to be correct, because "we trust God, and know He wouldn't mislead us."

I guess God doesn't feel the same about the rest of the hundreds of millions of Christians around the world who don't go to the Church of Christ.

Tags: religion Christianity Judaism Islam apologetics atheism atheism