Saturday, February 13, 2010

Dumb Things Village Atheists Say:

Collected from Craigslist:

"Atheism is guided by logic and reason, while Christianity is based on superstition and fear".

It's a popular canard that there's no logic or reason involved in religion, when the opposite is proven through the interviews of believers. Christianity also has more than its share of incredible intelligent philosophers.


"Religion is irrational".

Not according to the MDS IV, the master catalogue of mental illnesses referred to by all who practice psychology.


"Religion and intelligence are diamteric opposites."

Pope Benedict XVI has an IQ in the 180's.


"The Bible was written by Bronze Age goat herders".

Gee, I didn't know the Greek scribes, who penned the New Testament, were Bronze Age goatherders. In fact, I thought Bronze Age goat herders had a tendency to be illiterate.


"Religion was invented by men for the purpose of controlling people."

Anthropolgical studies have dealt extensively with religion, which is a hallmark of human culture. For example, religious belief is part of discovering one's "purpose", as well as explaining the world around us.


"The Bible is a whole bunch of fairy tales with a few facts thrown in to make it look legitimate."

The Bible is a collection of 66 "books" which were written as historical accounts that detailed specific events. The books document real people and places that have been verified through archaeology and references from other ancient writers. There is no historical evidence to support the idea that the writers of the Bible were intentionally deceptive.


"Atheists have been proven statistically more intelligent than religious believers."

There are some surveys taken that suggest a slight majority of intelligent people are atheistic, with a wider gap being shown between atheists and believers in the hard sciences. But does that really prove only stupid people are religious? There are certainly a multitude of brilliant believers, like Isaac Newton, who'd beg to differ with this black-and-white statement by Village Atheists.


"Religion is the main cause for war."

A historical analysis of war shows virtually all wars are fought to gain territory or political power.


"There is no evidence for the existence of Jesus outside of the Bible."

Wrong. Roman historians Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus both made reliable references to Jesus.


"Church offerings are used only to support the Pastor's salary."

Wrong. Churches also employ people that are paid. Churches don't get free electricity or water, either. Churches also perform local welfare functions as well as supporting missionaries at home and abroad.


"Religion is the biggest cause of human suffering."

Those honors go to war, disease, and famine, not religion.


"Believing in God or Jesus is no different than believing in Santa Claus."

So, where are all the Santa Claus Rescue Missions?


"The Bible preaches hatred, bigotry, and intolerance".

Funny, how a book that teaches hatred, bigotry, and intolerance inspired some of the world's greatest humanitarians, including Albert Schweizer, William Booth, and Mother Teresa.


"As societies become more logical and evolved, atheism will overtake religion."

The Soviet Union was an atheistic society and a spectacular failure. Atheism fails to address human certain human needs that only religion can touch, such as the belief by most people that they possess a soul. Atheism also has no moral standards. That is why America's Founding Fathers stressed that no civil society could survive without religion.


"Religious believers think they can do whatever they want because they'll be forgiven anyway."

This comment belies a complete ignorance of salvation and forgiveness, and what that means. The thief on the cross who begged Jesus' forgiveness didn't get his sentenced commuted. He DIED, paying his penance for his earthly crimes, but his soul was saved for all eternity. An atheist who curses God all his life can be saved through a "deathbed confession". Atheists need to READ the Bible BEFORE they lecture on it.


"The world would be much better off if there were no religion."

Really? Would the world be better off with out the good religion has inspired? Atheists love to point out the bad things, usually ancient historical bad things, but seldom if ever mention the good things that religion has inspired. It's a very one-sided, skewed worldview.

"Religion has held back scientific advancements. If it weren't for religion, we'd be living in a futuristic "Star Trek" like world right now."

Star Trek was just a TV show. Most of its major "scientific" advancements are impossible because they violate the Laws of Physics. There is no evidence to show that religion held us back technologically. Many of the greatest thinkers we know believed in God.

4 comments:

Graphic Designer said...

What a lot of Twaddle

The Stoogemaniac said...

I agree, sir! The silly things things atheists say in places like Craigslist ARE a lot of twaddle.

Anonymous said...

Yeah um. Joesephus and Tactus [sic], do not provide reliable accounts of Yeshua.

1. Joesephus accounts have been show to most likely than not to have been added later.

2. Tactus is more of "I heard about this Yeshua guy" than personal accounts. It is his report where he repeats what he heard from the xians of that time.

You are playing word games when people say, "bronze age sheep hearders wrote the bible." But I will humor you and correct it. The bible is a bunch of oral stories that originated by nomadic sheep hearders, later written down by the Hebrews and later translated by the Greeks.

Your examples of Xian goodness
1. Mother Theresa was not a saint. Not by a long shot. http://www.fitz-claridge.com/Articles/MotherTeresa.html

Also, I have seen victims of rape do incredible service for rape victims. Does this make rape "good"? By your reasoning, it should.

You are intellectually dishonest. lmao.

The Stoogemaniac said...

Anonymous:

Yeah, um. If you actually studied what what has been said about Josephus on some place other than an atheist website, you'd find out a little more.

According to F.F. Bruce, if you remove all the obvious church words added to the Josephus passage about Jesus, you'd discover that there is still enough of the original wording to certify that Josephus knew of a famous preacher named Jesus.

As for Cornelius Tacitus, arguably Rome's most through historian: do you seriously believe that Tacitus was stupid enough just to toss the reference in there based on hearsay? He was making an important point about Nero's incompetence and dishonesty.

On top of that, the passage about Jesus in the Annals isn't friendly at all towards Christians, who the Romans considered backward and vulgar.

Your example of Mother Theresa is hackneyed. Guess what? She wasn't perfect. She still did more for the poor than 1000 atheists would ever do. Deal with it.

Your equivocation fallacy about my reasoning is just hilarious.

Nice try. Next time, swallow your condescension and try thinking a little harder.