RE: The Reasons why "Just Following Jesus" Doesn't work
July 3, 2015 at 3:41 am
(This post was last modified: July 3, 2015 at 3:41 am by Salacious B. Crumb.)
(July 3, 2015 at 3:33 am)Redbeard The Pink Wrote:(July 3, 2015 at 3:18 am)robvalue Wrote: I came up with a rather neat way of describing this recently:
They are strawmanning themselves! By putting forward a phoney version that they don't really care about, it can be safely chopped up without affecting their actual position. It would be too dangerous (and possibly embarrassing) to come clean about the real reasons, if they are even aware of the real reasons. But surely they must be aware that these bogus arguments are not the real reason. Right!?
Yes, and the real reason is "they have faith in it because they are afraid to let go of it." All the arguments are just defenses for themselves. They're not trying to change your mind, they're trying to keep you from changing theirs (whether they realize that's the strategy or not). If they can convince themselves they argued better than you did, then they don't have to consider your actual arguments or the evidence.
Exactly. In general, the open-minded people fall out of religion and the close-minded ones argue against all reason and logic to defend their unjustified beliefs, and seem to be incapable of looking at their religion objectively. If only they could look at their own religion as if they were looking at another’s religion, religion would practically not exist in the civilized world.
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' -Isaac Asimov-