(April 24, 2015 at 2:05 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Um no.
Let me give you another example. On another website I have a guy who has a tremendous fascination with the religions of the Orient especially Buddhism. He thinks "it's complicated" and "how would you know if you haven't studied it" are good arguments to make me read it.
He's not wrong, it is complicated and yes there are tons of different oriental and Asian sects of Buddhism. But so what, I bet this same guy hasn't studied the 10,000 different competing sects of Christianity? So how is it he can rightfully reject the Christian religion? He doesn't want to see the overall pattern I see over the years that every religion makes these arguments.
Once you consider the age of the religions of antiquity it really does not take much to know that humans invent them.
Again, if your argument is valid it should not bother you to give a summary of it, short or long. All good cons inside and outside religion rely on the mark being blind going in.
That's a to-quoque. The fact that person hasn't studied Christianity has no relevance whatsoever - yes some things can be criticized or debated but before you argue against something a bit more complicated try to study it a bit otherwise you risk making wrong assumptions about ideas. If someone wants to argue Islam causes violence it can be done by pointing out to ISIS, but if you read the Quran and know the verses it is so much easier.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
