New Testament arguments

[DeistPaladin]

Hey fellow human peoples, so I need a little help here. I'm trying to form a relatively air tight stance on the illogical inconsistencies of the new testament in the event that all hell breaks loose and I find myself arguing against a christian ...

OK, I'm going to stop you right there. Any time you find yourself arguing with a Christian apologist, be prepared for moving goal posts, an endless stream of ad hoc hypotheses, confirmation bias and a chorus line of other logical fallacies. You'll be looking for rational arguments and find yourself frustrated as you enter their world where facts don't matter and logic doesn't work.

After all, apologetics isn't about finding out what the truth is. It's about finding reasons to believe what you've already decided is true. The rest is mental slight-of-hand, show biz flim-flamery and rationalization. It's about slick packaging, not substance.




The first thing to do if you are serious about debating a Christian (or other religious) apologist is to know the common logical fallacies and be able to identify them. This is important because when they try to pull the rabbit out of a hat or find that ace card you drew, you can announce to the audience where the false bottom of the hat was or where they kept that card in their sleeve.

Second, don't get frustrated when your sincere attempts to reason don't get anywhere. It's been said before that debating a Christian apologist is like playing chess with a pidgin. The pidgin knocks over all the pieces, craps all over the board and then flies away thinking it won. Mostly, the argument is for the lurkers who see the apologist for the idiot he/she is. Once in a great while, you can chip away at someone's faith but the process, even when it works, is very slow and almost imperceptible.

The biggest frustration I've encountered in arguing about Biblical absurdities, contradictions and immorality is that the Christian doesn't read the Bible the way anyone else does. Most people read the words on the page and conclude that these words mean what they mean. The Christian starts with the conclusion that the Bible is right about everything and then reads the same passages with a heavy dose of confirmation bias, ad hoc hypotheses and obtuse interpretations that work backward to that preconceived notion about the Bible.

So expect a lot of "when the Bible says... it really means..." (ridiculously obtuse interpretation ensues). I've even know Christians to produce entire fan fictions, based purely on their imaginations, as they are needed to square the circle.

So don't think for a minute that just because you present a contradiction where Jesus ascends into Heaven on the day of his resurrection in Luke and then waits around 40 days before ascending in Acts that this is a "silver bullet". There aint no such thing with faith. At best, you might spray enough flack into the air to hope for a "golden BB" that brings a Christian down to earth.

Hope this helps.