Binary religious thinking

[robvalue]

This is something I've mentioned sporadically, but I think it's worth its own topic.

I've noticed a tendency for some religious theists to have a very binary, black and white approach to various aspects of life and the universe. I'm not accusing every theist of this, and not every person who is guilty of one of them is guilty of all. But there are several extremely common oversimplifications that get made, which I encourage people to think about. I think this happens partly because religion benefits from encouraging people to think this way, and that things appear simpler to deal with when neatly put into two distinct categories. Often, I hear the argument from discomfort; if it isn't this simple and binary, I don't like the consequences of that. That's not a defence, it's an admission that your emotions are running the show in that instance. Things are rarely black and white, we live almost constantly in the grey area, whether people want to admit it or not.

Here are some examples. Again, I'm not saying every theists thinks all of these. Just that some theists think some of these; or at least appear to.

1) If you don't worship God, you worship Satan.

2) Something is either objectively morally good, or objectively morally bad.

3) There must be an easily understood and instantly available explanation for an event or situation; or else it was done by magic.

4) You either believe in God or you pretend not to believe in God.

5) Things are either in a totally controlled order, or there is utter chaos.

6) People say what is objectively true, or else they are willfully lying.

7) Things (like the bible) are either completely true or completely false.

8) You either believe in God and worship it, or you don't believe in God.

9) Either science can explain everything down to the minutest detail with absolute proof, or God did it.

10) If there is no external or eternal purpose to something, it is completely pointless.

11) You either have an objective list of morality to follow, or you have no meaningful morality at all.

12) You are with us or against us.

13) You get an eternity of bliss or an eternity of torment.

14) Something is either a sin deserves eternal punishment; or it is not a sin and deserves no punishment.

15) Either Jesus existed and was God, or he didn't exist at all.

16) Either the universe appeared out of nowhere, or God made it.

Feel free to discuss, and add any of your own. I would really like to shake up this binary thinking and get people guilty of it to look at the bigger picture.