Satan Disproves Christianity

[John V]

Have you ever read 1984, John? It concerns an oppressive regime that brainwashes its citizens into compliance, so that they're no longer willing to commit acts that the regime has deemed unacceptable. Would you argue that they aren't being oppressed?

Nope. However, if they prohibited people from doing things that they didn't want to do anyway, no brainwashing would be necessary, and it wouldn't be oppressive.

Again, the desire to commit an act and one's ability to commit that act are different things.

Yep, and if someone doesn't want to commit an act, it's not oppressive if the act is prohibited.

You mean the ones he couldn't commit without punishment, no matter if he'd wanted to or not?

Yes, those. As he didn't want to do them, it's not oppressive that he couldn't.

Do you feel oppressed that you're prohibited from murdering and stealing and all sorts of other things? No - because you don't want to do those things.

Brainwashing is still oppression.

Yep, and no brainwashing took place. You don't need to wash out what wasn't there in the first place.

And what could be a more pure form of the act than creating the brain in question?

Are you arguing that creation itself was necessarily oppressive? This is what I think your position really boils down to.

Okay, let's play this game, since you insist.

Definition of OPPRESSION

1
a : unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power
b : something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power

From our good friend Merriam-Webster. The second definition is the one we'll concern ourselves with: unjust or excessive exercise of power. Since you've admitted that all the sins remain in place in the garden, we can safely accuse god of persecuting thoughtcrime there, among other things. All the sins we atheists find pathetic and petty, you know the ones.

No, as they didn't have such thoughts.

Interestingly, there's absolutely no word of desires or the countering thereof in this dictionary definition of the word. So, which of us is twisting definitions, here?

You are. No power at all is exercised in prohibiting people from doing things they don't want to do. You characterize no power as unjust or excessive power. Quite a twist.