Thoughts on Atheism and Apologetics

[Chas]

A guy named Thomas thought the same way. Right up until the moment that he put his fingers into the nail wounds in Jesus' hands.

And in the story, Thomas gets the evidence he needs to believe, but is painted as 'lesser' for requiring more evidence than his mates. If I wanted people to believe a false story I knew I couldn't support and wasn't very scrupulous, I would add a 'Doubting Thomas' to it and make out like it was a little silly for him to actually want evidence. It's been awhile since I read any of his stuff, but I'm pretty sure Joseph Smith used a similar literary device.

Part of the problem here is, you wouldn't think that 'Some guy in my sales pitch was just like you and didn't believe my product worked, but he sure found out it really works! You don't want to be like that overly-skeptical dude, do you?' was convincing in any other context. Or if you would, maybe we can meet and I can sell you some stuff you didn't even know you needed.

Yes, that is the well-known scam of using a shill to help the con.