Tooth Fairy Bullshit

[Asmodee]

If I approached you on the street and told you about a magic guy who runs around healing people, predicting the future, raising people from the dead and the like, but these claims had nothing to do with what you already believe, would you even bother listening to it?...  Even if they weren't in conflict with what you believe you wouldn't even consider it as possible because you weren't raised from childhood to accept such fantastical claims without question and proof…In that respect a guess an atheist is really nothing more than someone who has rejected the propensity toward belief of certain fantastical claims without question planted in our brains during childhood.

It's unfair to castigate the average Christian in a mainstream denomination for having simplistic notions about theology. The most important thing about the Christian religion isn’t about what you intellectually believe. It’s about the heart. That’s why priests and preachers (in mainline churches) focus on teaching people about a God that cares for them personally and how to honor His loving-kindness. Laypeople don’t need to know the ins-and-outs of Theology or read biblical Hebrew.  I do and I can. But that’s just me. For the average Christian, though, the executive summary is sufficient. Is that so wrong? I have a basic understanding of economics, physics, and art history, but I’m no expert by any means. Nevertheless I can balance my checkbook, mix paint mediums, and appreciate Van Gogh.

Now I wholeheartedly agree with you about street preachers. There is one on State Street (Chicago) who babbles endlessly about the Lake of Fire and who’s going to be cast into it. He is clearly insane. So what? It’s stupid to compare some random wacko’s beliefs and values with those of Wilberforce, Bonheoffer and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Yet many AF members feel quite comfortable doing so. I have no problem calling them douchebags. That's not shutting down discussion. It's shocking you to reflect on your own belief - the one that allows you to equate great people with psychopaths.

I became an atheist in part because our Elders would gather us in the church basement to tell us that Dungeons & Dragons was demon worship and that we’d be tools of Satan if we listened to Led Zeppelin. Some of my schoolmates were Jehovah Witnesses. My AP friends and I had a lot of laughs over their tracts on YEC. They weren’t bad people. They just had bad theology and a piss-poor grasp of science.  They didn’t know any better.

It’s clear that a lot of AF members, like me, had the unfortunate luck grew up in repressive and/or intellectually bankrupt churches. That’s no excuse for going the other extreme. Just because you’re smart enough to know that biblical inerrancy is bullshit doesn’t make you a paragon of Reason capable of evaluating something like Plantinga’s ontological argument. I would bet money that 90% of people that put the words like logic or reason in their self-description haven’t even heard of modal logic. If all you've got is endlessly repeating "no evidence", can't see the obvious category error, even after it's been made obvious, then you're no better than Christians who quote the Bible to prove it's the Word of God.

"Great people" can still be idiots and assholes.  I think Dawkins is a "great man"...and a bit of a dick.  He is not beyond reproach simply because he's great.  He is not flawless.  I actually don't really like reading his writings or hearing him talk.  I'm not a personal fan of the man.  But that doesn't mean he's not a great man, going to great lengths to make the world a better place as he sees it.

An even better example is Bill Maher.  He's a great man to liberals, and a vaccine science denier.  He's a smart man who holds stupid beliefs.  And I don't mind you pointing out those stupid beliefs because doing "great things" doesn't get you a pass on moronic beliefs, so you can quit with the argument from authority already.  A great man and a stupid man can be the same man.

Theists believe in magic.  Most theists don't even know they believe in magic.  A "miracle" is just magic from a specific source.  Yet if you walk up to many, perhaps even most theists claiming to be able to cast magical spells they will laugh in your face because magic isn't real.  In fact, most of them (perhaps all, now that I think of it) I've talked to not only don't realize that "miracle" and "magic" are both proper words to describe the magical bits of the Bible, they actively deny that it's true.  I have been accused of exactly the same thing for referring to miracles as magic.  I'm just being a jerk.  I'm making fun of religion.  But here's the thing, I'M NOT!  I'm pointing out that there is no difference.  By the definitions of the words miracles are magic.  There's no trick of semantics.  There's no cherry picking of definitions.  Both words properly describe "miracles".

So is it disrespectful?  Many theists think so.  But no, it is not disrespectful to point out that the theist has chosen an alternate word to describe this particular type of magic in order to hide the fact that they are talking about magic.  It is not disrespectful to point out a deception, even if they believe it's not a deception.  The comparison between theistic beliefs and other magical beliefs is essentially doing the same thing, albeit in a more direct and often purposefully hurtful way.  There is no more evidence to support the existence of any god than there is to support the existence of fairies.  In fact, as I've pointed out, I've seen MORE evidence for the existence of the Tooth Fairy in my life than I've even been OFFERED for the existence of God.  I've just seen enough evidence to the contrary to conclude that the evidence I've seen was falsified.  But that doesn't change the fact that NOBODY is even claiming to have ANY physical evidence for God.  Not one shiny quarter or disappearing tooth has yet been produced.  Instead they try to slip "logical arguments" and "eyewitness accounts" past me.  They try to shift from science to "a court of law" because they think that will work more in their favor.  They try to trick me by offering me something which cannot be falsified, often even going so far as to claim it is science.  Hell, they're even actually calling their beliefs science now with intelligent design, pretending that "spotting design" in nature is something which can be conclusively done scientifically instead of the subjective garbage it really is.  They are offering their conclusion as the evidence that their conclusion is true.

Eventually we all come to the realization that they're just not going to see reason.  Ever.  They are going to keep lowering the bar for themselves and raising it for us.  They are going to keep dismissing all the actual, objective evidence we present outright and presenting subjective material as if it were "better" evidence.  They are going to keep misusing scientific terms, saying "It's just a theory" as if scientific theory were meaningless in one breath and then saying "This is a scientific theory!" in the next as if scientific theory were no longer meaningless and the garbage they just presented really smells like roses.  They are going to keep moving the bar, changing the goal and changing the rules in every conversation.  They are going to claim we don't understand the content, that we just don't want to believe, that we (or scientists) have some incentive to deny, that there is a global conspiracy against them, that science is the same as religion (this is a favorite target to either devalue science or elevate religion, often both), that we are attacking them, that we are being unfair (usually for requiring they abide by the same standards we do)...ANYTHING but present an honest argument because they know an honest argument will not make someone believe in magic.  Put up with that for five or ten years, put up with the blatant disrespect and stigma of not holding magical beliefs, put up with people trying to convert your children behind your back and without your knowledge, put up with having to fight constantly to keep religion out of the schools, put up with assholes who think BOTH that their tax dollars should not go to abortion and mine SHOULD pay for the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn...put up with that for five or ten years and see how much "respect" you have for the other side.