RE: The illogicality of belief revealed?
April 3, 2012 at 5:31 am
(This post was last modified: April 3, 2012 at 5:33 am by pgrimes15.)
I struggled for years to comprehend that intelligent educated people seemed to believe whole-heartedly in fairy tales and magic, no matter how hard you tried to point out how mind-boggling obvious it was that it was all nonsense. It was as if an adult that you knew still doggedly believed in Father Christmas and had an answer for every objection you pointed out -
- It's your parents who leave the presents, their writing is on the labels.
- No, they leave some but not all, and don't you think Father Christmas can copy their handwriting if he wanted to?
- People live in Lapland and they have never seen him.
- Just because they haven't seen him doesn't mean he's not there.
- How can he visit millions of houses in one night?
- His sleigh is powered by magic tinsel.
- Where and how does he get all the presents . . how does he fit them all in his sleigh . . how does he get into houses or apartments without a chimney . . how does he eat 1.5 billion mince pies , and drink 23 million gallons of sweet sherry in one night ?
- Oh you,ve just got a closed mind, you have to take a leap of faith, you might not believe in father christmas, but your presents will be there all the same, .....
However after much reflection, I decided to think of the stubbornly religious as having had a belief system indoctrinated into them as a young child, and they are in many cases stuck with it - it cannot be shifted. When I thought of them as being brainwashed, everything became clearer. Their unwillingness to engage with the real world made sense - it was like Father Christmas, but no-one had told them he was just pretend until it was too late !!
Because of this brainwashing, it can be said that it is not their fault, and they are to be pitied because of the tortuous logic they have to use to reconcile their indocrinated belief with the real world, (God can't reveal himself because we must have free will, innocent children die in agony because it is all part of a mysterious plan . . .). Furthermore, it is my suspicion that all Christians have had this indocrination, even the ones who claim to once have been an atheist. I have found that people who make that claim equate "atheism" with simply not going to church. Likewise, people of my experience who claim not to have had childhood indocrination simply mean they were not made to go to church very often (despite having very devout parents).
I suppose what I am saying is that using logic with these people is of little value, but it is worth persevering because, you never know, something you say may stick in a Christians' mind. Just saying something like "Does prayer really work when Gods' plan is already decided ?" may give someone cause for pondering in private and begin the road towards shedding that brainwashing.
Regards
Grimesy
- It's your parents who leave the presents, their writing is on the labels.
- No, they leave some but not all, and don't you think Father Christmas can copy their handwriting if he wanted to?
- People live in Lapland and they have never seen him.
- Just because they haven't seen him doesn't mean he's not there.
- How can he visit millions of houses in one night?
- His sleigh is powered by magic tinsel.
- Where and how does he get all the presents . . how does he fit them all in his sleigh . . how does he get into houses or apartments without a chimney . . how does he eat 1.5 billion mince pies , and drink 23 million gallons of sweet sherry in one night ?
- Oh you,ve just got a closed mind, you have to take a leap of faith, you might not believe in father christmas, but your presents will be there all the same, .....
However after much reflection, I decided to think of the stubbornly religious as having had a belief system indoctrinated into them as a young child, and they are in many cases stuck with it - it cannot be shifted. When I thought of them as being brainwashed, everything became clearer. Their unwillingness to engage with the real world made sense - it was like Father Christmas, but no-one had told them he was just pretend until it was too late !!
Because of this brainwashing, it can be said that it is not their fault, and they are to be pitied because of the tortuous logic they have to use to reconcile their indocrinated belief with the real world, (God can't reveal himself because we must have free will, innocent children die in agony because it is all part of a mysterious plan . . .). Furthermore, it is my suspicion that all Christians have had this indocrination, even the ones who claim to once have been an atheist. I have found that people who make that claim equate "atheism" with simply not going to church. Likewise, people of my experience who claim not to have had childhood indocrination simply mean they were not made to go to church very often (despite having very devout parents).
I suppose what I am saying is that using logic with these people is of little value, but it is worth persevering because, you never know, something you say may stick in a Christians' mind. Just saying something like "Does prayer really work when Gods' plan is already decided ?" may give someone cause for pondering in private and begin the road towards shedding that brainwashing.
Regards
Grimesy
