street epistemology

[Delicate]

Are you simply saying my claim that most atheists don't understand Christianity is a lie?

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I have no qualms calling you a liar in this regard.

It is true that most atheists do understand Christianity, have read the bible, because most of us were former theists.

Then why is it that most atheists here can't seem to represent Christianity appropriately when they talk about it?

[Silver]

Then why is it that most atheists here can't seem to represent Christianity appropriately when they talk about it?

How are they misrepresenting the mythology? Please, provide me with a couple of examples, because to be honest I work too hard in real life, which is why I am hardly here any more, to read through pages of tripe just to find what you think I might stumble upon.

[Delicate]

Then why is it that most atheists here can't seem to represent Christianity appropriately when they talk about it?

How are they misrepresenting the mythology?  Please, provide me with a couple of examples, because to be honest I work too hard in real life, which is why I am hardly here any more, to read through pages of tripe just to find what you think I might stumble upon.

For one we're not talking about mythology. Maybe you're working so hard you can't keep up with what we're talking about here.

[Silver]

For one we're not talking about mythology. Maybe you're working so hard you can't keep up with what we're talking about here.

You must have missed the memo where anything in relation that cannot be proven to be real is automatically assigned a wonder tag of being of the fantastical realm created by the human mind.

[Delicate]

For one we're not talking about mythology. Maybe you're working so hard you can't keep up with what we're talking about here.

You must have missed the memo where anything in relation that cannot be proven to be real is automatically assigned a wonder tag of being of the fantastical realm created by the human mind.

Or, maybe you missed the memo where that claim is demonstrably false. Of course, if you knew even the fundamentals of critical thinking you would have realized it already.

[Silver]

Or, maybe you missed the memo where that claim is demonstrably false.

False by way of faith? Spare me the horror of such ill logic.

[Delicate]

Or, maybe you missed the memo where that claim is demonstrably false.

False by way of faith?  Spare me the horror of such ill logic.

False by way of fact.

[Goosebump]

I'm confused... Delicate repeates the same things over and over and yet has not been told about the rock crusher evidence

[Goosebump]

There is evidence in rock crushers that your arguments are false.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

---

a) True. However, your "hard facts" fly in the face of both what we are telling you and the point (which I've made before) below, which is that we are a diverse group, to which your "hard facts" may apply in a number of cases but hardly represent the majority. You are applying strong confirmation bias when you evaluate "how atheists are", and ignore us when we tell you that these statements do not represent the majority of us. I have participated in atheism groups for nearly 20 years, half my life, and I have only known a handful I would describe in the way you describe us as a group. That makes you either so prejudiced that you're incapable of thinking about or treating us reasonably/respectfully, or you're a liar. I'm not sure which would be worse.

b) You reserve the right to think whatever you want, and to listen as much or as little as possible. But as I said, if you insist on going on with your prejudices in the face of what we're telling you about ourselves, it is no better than a child who plugs his ears and repeatedly screams "I'm not listening!!"

c) I have already done so.


a) Many of us here are well-versed in Biblical scholarship; some (such as GoodWithOutGod and Aractus) have degrees specifically in the subject. For many others of us, those of us who left strong faith traditions behind, an intense study of the Bible (in an attempt to maintain our faiths) was part and parcel of that process.

b) In my process, I read the Bible in both the New King James and the New International Version, once cover-to-cover and once as part of a "read the Bible in a year" program, as well as being part of intense Bible study sessions throughout my church upbringing, because my intelligence marked me as a potential apologist or evangelist. After leaving Christianity, I again read the Bible (New American Standard Version, this time) in its near-entirety as part of a "Precept Upon Precept" course (Kay Arthur), which claimed to but did not in fact cover the entire Bible... you could tell because of all the pages that never got highlighter pen marks on them. I also audited (took for free) the head of the Religious Studies department Dr. Mirecki's courses on the history of the Bible (largely about the writings and culture of the Hebrews and the early Christian church) at the University of Kansas, in 2004-05. Because my family is highly religious, I have read pretty much every major book of apologetics written prior to 2001, when my family tried to "save" me during the year before I received my degree in biochemistry.

Most importantly of all, I can read and compare the difference in how I absorbed verses and "Biblical Truths™" before and after I stopped looking at the scriptures through rose-colored glasses, and spot the same thinking errors I once committed whenever I listen to (or read) Christians saying the things I once would have said. It is why it is so offensive that you would claim we don't understand religion, and why it's so infuriating that you boil all the effort and emotional struggle it takes to leave a faith into trite phrases like "You still believe but are just angry at God."


a) I confess I do like to caricature and use hyperbole to effect, but I don't think I've been called upon to show that the things Christianity teaches are wrong, yet, during our discussions. If you'd like to go into the problems of what the Bible claims about the origin of man (and thus, of course, Original Sin), the physically impossible concept of a global flood, or how it gets how genetics works absolutely wrong in Genesis 30, I'd enjoy that sort of discussion. However, if you're referring to the Christian claims of moral superiority via the Ultimate Lawgiver who allegedly caused the human authors to be "inspired to write divine scripture" (as the claim goes), you'll be stuck defending slavery in both testaments, as well as a host of other concepts that are distinctly against the US Constitution, which I have given my solemn oath to defend... one example is "no other gods before me", in a nation that guarantees freedom of religion. Neither is a winning argument for a Bible defender, except when surrounded by sycophants and the credulous.

b) As I said, skepticism is applauded around here. I don't mind a bit that you disbelieve me. However, you can't simply ignore what I say and keep repeating "examples please", without being more specific. If you'd like to ask me questions you'd like specific answers to, go ahead, but this playing coy shit has got to stop if you want me to take you seriously enough to continue beating my head against what appears at the moment to be a brick wall, metaphorically speaking.


a) We are a diverse group, as I have explained. Yet there are some things we generally have in common, based (as, again, I have already explained) on the rejection of magical thinking and the acceptance of the Scientific Method and rational skepticism. There are some traits that are more common than others, among us, which I certainly recognize. But at the moment your statement is itself a generalization that's far too broad to generate a pointed response.

b) However it "seems" to you, it's based on 20 years spent among atheists, both online and in real-world organizations. You may not like that we don't fit your observer-biased presuppositions about us, but you don't get to use a few examples and say it applies to the group. It'd be like saying Christians are all secretly like Westboro Baptist Church, even though most Christians despise them as much as we do. Honestly, think about it, how would you view such a claim by a non-Christian?


a) Then you're an agnostic adragonist, just as I am an agnostic atheist. You don't think it's possible to know, but your opinion is that they most likely are just the product of human imaginations. It's not simply "intuitively implausible", it defies everything we know about the history of life on earth-- not the least of which include the inability of creatures that size to fly under their own power, the inability of any creature to breathe fire without severely damaging itself, and the lack of hexapedal body-forms  found anywhere on the planet. But get real; you'll never convince me that you really think that, despite all of the above, dragons might be more than the product of human imaginations. Hell, just like we can watch new religions being created by con-men (Mormonism or Scientology, anyone?) today, we can watch people creating new dragon stories to tell. It's not rocket science! I'm sorry you don't like the conclusion to which this thought-process leads, and so I can understand your claim of agnosticism on the question, but I'm afraid I still think you're an adragonist.

b) No I will not. I think you're being deliberately coy about a huge number of things, your entire style is irritating, and you have not yet shown anything that looks like an ability to treat us as your equals. I think you're using this final plea as an attempt to gain advantage, in that you may take umbrage if I do not accept, which I cannot do as I am fiercely against censorship of any kind. I do not need a pact with you to call out my fellow nonbelievers when they step over a line, or are unfounded in their claims and/or are unfair. I have done so in defense of (decent, respectful) Christians on numerous occasion on this website and its sister site. But I will not make a pact with you, based on the behaviors I have witnessed from you thus far.

---

Let's settle some issues:

It's not enough to simply tell me, or assert something. You have to be able to support it. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence, right? So why should I accept your claim with no evidence?

You shouldn't. You also shouldn't ignore when we do provide evidence, a tendency I've noticed in you. We eventually quit listing specifics when dealing with you, as we know you'll just gloss it over to say something like the above.

We can also settle the matter of specifics: Are you simply saying my claim that most atheists don't understand Christianity is a lie? Or is there more?

Yes, I am saying it is a lie. But I am also saying why that is so. There are so many thousands of version of Christian theology that it's impossible to completely agree on points of doctrine, even if you and I were both devout Christians. Yet when an atheist gets something "wrong" (which is correct under Denomination X, but not Denomination Y), you say we simply don't understand the religion. You claim you have all this experience with stupid atheists, but I think you are lying because I have twenty years of almost exclusively dealing with atheist groups, and I have found that a great many of us have a very deep level of understanding (see my own education, listed above), while the vast majority have a well-above-average understanding. This isn't just me saying this, though... it's backed up by actual research. One example:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2...-religious

Likewise, you're welcome to pick a topic of your choosing from the list you've provided (origin of man, original sin, etc) so we can discuss it. In fact, I can even broaden the topic to discuss the scientific method and rational skepticism you brought up, and how the scientific method is more compatible with theism than atheism, and rational skepticism, so far as it is rationally justifiable, fails to render religious belief irrational.

So... like, every other thread ever created on this forum? I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks, in an hour or so, but I'll be glad to hold any or all of the above discussions, when I return.

So far as our differing views on what atheists are like, you're welcome to disagree with my findings, as I am with yours. Keep in mind this is not to say all atheists are idiots. I'm more comfortable saying a significant majority are, at least as reflected on the internet. And I don't mean this as a slur. I mean it as an objective assessment of their rational competence.

I'd venture to say that most PEOPLE on the internet are idiots. Why you think this applies to atheists exclusively, I can only speculate (prejudice? bigotry? confirmation bias?), but I can say that even given the nature of internet conversations, I have not found atheists to be less intelligent. What I can't figure out is why you hold so much hatred in your heart.

As for adragonism, I reject the adragonism label completely, just as I reject the dragonism label. I really am just an agnostic on the existence on dragons. I see no need to bring dragonism or adragonism into the picture so far as my views. Can you say that mere agnosticism about the existence of dragons, without invoking adragonism, is incorrect? On what basis?

Okay, okay. You refuse to say that dragons are imaginary. Got it. See? That's the difference. When you tell me something about your beliefs, I listen and change my ideas to fit the new information. As to the basis for thinking dragons aren't real, I have already listed them. Why do you have such a difficult time with reading comprehension, such that you will ask me to provide evidence of something in the very next post after I have done so. Short version: the versions that fit the mythological description of "a dragon" are too big to fly under their own power via the laws of physics/aerodynamics, fire-breathing creatures are impossible (perhaps a Bombardier beetle type of caustic chemical spray, but not fire), and there are no hexapedal reptiles. It defies everything I understand about how physics and biology operate... but it is also clearly identifiable as a good story, so it's an easy conclusion that they're not real.

As for my final request, for us to eliminate hatred tout court, I find it strange how eliminating "theistic hatred" has your support, but you call eliminating hatred period to be censorship. Can you explain this inconsistency in your views?

No, I find telling my fellow board members what they can and can't say to be censorship. I don't support prejudice and biased thinking in general, and strive to eliminate it as much as possible, but I consider actively censoring or otherwise controlling people to be a worse act than tolerating the presence of a few people who like to express their prejudices. As I said, I'm happy to point out such thinking errors, doing to them as I do to you, but I try to be tolerant of all persons who are not seeking to harm others actively. That's derived from my Secular Humanist beliefs. Atheism is a lack of beliefs, period; Secular Humanism makes several positive assertions based on our understanding of the common nature of humanity and philosophies which stem from that ideal. The two terms are often confused, because SH are atheists, in general, but they're not the same thing (it's the Bill Gates is a Wealthy Person but a Wealthy Person is not necessarily Bill Gates bit).

In any case, as I've said elsewhere, I'm about to pack up the truck and head to Louisiana for my Christmas/New Years's vacation to see my extended family, inlaws, and parents. I'll be gone until January 3rd. I'll try to check in via my smartphone and laptop, but frankly I'll likely be too busy to want to chat on here until then.

Merry Christmas to you, and Happy Holidays to everyone else.

Oh yes, and to be fair, rock crushers do prove everything you've claimed is false. Sorry but the Argument from Rock Crushers is a tough one for theists to beat.