RE: Theists: What is the most compelling argument you have heard for Atheism?
March 21, 2017 at 10:30 am
(March 21, 2017 at 10:04 am)Mister Agenda Wrote:SteveII Wrote:Adult conversions is a good measure of how the population overall subjectively assesses the evidence for Christianity. If you have a different theory that would explain the effect, please provide.
A good measure of how many people accept a claim is not a good measure of whether the claim is true, if it were, ad populum would not be a fallacy. It is clear that my care is only whether the claim is actually true or not, and in that respect I'm fairly representative of the skeptical side of this forum, I think. So what is the relevancy of a good measure of how the population overall subjectively assesses the evidence? Once upon a time the population subjectively assessed the evidence for a flat earth as convincing, but you want me to buy Christianity's capture of a third of the population as evidence that their supernatural claims are correct?
As far as a different theory that would explain the effect, how about their missionary work in impoverished countries already rife with superstition is paying off. All they have to do is persuade the locals to accept their supernatural beliefs in addition or instead of the ones they already have. It's not like Christianity is converting millions of scientists every day. That would certainly be intriguing. Converting people who will attend church for food and already believe witches are responsible for bad weather, on the other hand, is not that impressive. The Muslims are right behind you on that count.
Getting stuck on one religion misses the point. The arguments for any religion are all the same.
1. My club is correct.
2. My club has had a long history.
3. My club produces moral people.
4. My club's holy people have insight on the nature of reality.
5. Science doesn't debunk religion.
6. My club has produced scientists.
When religious people cant prove the necessity of their club/holy writing/holy person, they will resort to either attacking science or trying to claim science points to their religion. But that is not just Christians who do that, but every religion in the world, including Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists.
The reality is that human morality is evolutionary, not coming from books or holy people. The reality is also that our species evolved to be curious, so when any religion tries to claim ownership of science they are simply falsely attributing our natural curiosity as coming from a spirit/divine/god world.