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Debunking the
Arguments of Christian Fundamentalists and Apologists
Introduction
Hello,
My
name is Vinstonas.
I am a former Evangelical Christian, or Christian Fundamentalist,
whatever you
want to call it. We will get into the definition of these
terms later,
but for now, if you wish to read the story of my slow enlightening deconversion long ago, entitled My
Rise to Christianity
and My Transcendence From
It, you can do so at this
link:
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Christian_Story.htm
I
strongly recommend reading
it if you can, for it is unique in that nearly everyone finds moving
and
inspiring, including Christians themselves.
Imagine that – a Christian deconversion story
that Christian believers applaud! Now
that is definitely something rare or almost nonexistent, yet
it’s true for my
story, as many Christians have written me about it in applause and told
me how
much they were moved by it. Thus
that
makes my story worth reading I think.
My
story describes a long
process that involved a turbulent inner nightmare as well. To
make a long
story short, during my childhood I was an Evangelical Christian for
about 8
years, and I used all their arguments to defend and support
it. I was once
so fervent and zealous, as were many ex-Christians that I even did the following kind of
things. Once, I almost wrote Bible
verses on the chalk board of my mom’s Buddhist study center
to try to preach
“the truth and light” to them. In high
school, I even risked getting
physically attacked by Muslim students, by attempting to witness to
them.
One time in an Art History class, after a lecture on Christian history,
I gave
the teacher some Christian gospel tracts to inform him of the true
story of
Jesus, to which the next day, he politely handed them back to me saying that he wasn’t
the right person for me to be
witnessing to. I felt embarrassed going out on a limb like
that, but I
thought I was doing the right thing.
Since
my early days, I’ve shown a propensity to go
“against the grain” and think on my own.
For instance, during school, when all the other students judged their
achievements by their grades (especially Asian students), I choose not
to attach my self-worth to my grades and saw no logical reason
to. Just because society, the school, or my parents told me
to was not a good enough reason to convince me that grades determined
my achievement and self-worth. I had a far deeper sense of
self beyond the shallowness of academic scores. Thus, when I
got bad grades, even D’s and F’s, they never really
affected me. I also deviated from my parents’
Buddhist religion at an early age, becoming a born again Christian
instead, unlike most people who stick with the religion of their family
their whole life, never questioning it. And when I was 14, I
tried debating my church Youth Pastor on doctrinal issues (which was
difficult because though I knew my subject, he had a commanding
presence and daily experience as an orator while I was a shy timid boy,
so I felt intimidated and couldn’t get my point across
properly; today though, I’d cream his ass).
A few years later, at a Chinese American church, I went up to the
Pastor and asked him why he was allowing women to speak in the church
service when the Scriptures said in 1 Corinthians that the women were
to remain silent in church. He looked shocked and annoyed
that an 18 year old would insinuate that he was wrong in doctrine, and
responded not by answering my question or justifying himself, but went
into some tirade about “consistency”. He
asked me if I think Christians should sell all their possessions too,
like the believers did in the Book of Acts. I answered no,
but before I could explain why, he ranted on about why we have to be
consistent with our views on Scripture. Yet he offered no
explanation why one should not obey the commandments by Paul in 1
Corinthians, or why they didn’t apply to today. He
just left it at that, and went about his business. The lady
that carpooled me there told me that the Pastor was probably shocked at
my question.
Although
I often felt that
the extreme beliefs (which they label as "truth") of Christianity
didn't add up, they always gave me a sense of purpose during a chaotic
childhood, and served as sort of a crutch for me to lean on.
However,
after my hellish
time in public school, I no longer needed the crutch. Hence,
I was then
able to view my belief system from a detached more objective point of
view. During this slow deconversion,
I
discovered many things about the Christian religion and the Bible that
I was
never told. This article summarizes what I learned from my
research. This research helped confirm my feelings that the
extreme
doctrines of Evangelical Scriptural based Christianity were not what
their
proponents claimed. Little by little, I discovered a plethora
of irrefutable
arguments that the Christian apologists could never explain
away. I was
surprised at this though, because when I was a Bible believing
Christian, I
thought that there were no credible arguments against the Bible and the
doctrines of Evangelical Christianity. Back then I was
convinced that my
faith and its foundation were unshakable. These discoveries
helped give
me the confidence to proceed in my spiritual/intellectual growth away
from
fundamentalist religion, and toward the evolution of a new
understanding.
I wish to make use of all that I’ve learned by putting it
into this article to
share with others.
Anyone
can read this article
of course. But who I had in mind when I wrote it
are: 1) Former
Christians in the process of deconverting
and leaving
their faith who need information and solid arguments to give them
confidence
and assurance that they are doing the right thing, 2) Christians who
are having
doubts about their faith and looking for other answers or who wish to
see
things from a broader perspective, 3) People involved in arguments or
debates
with Christian fundamentalists or apologists who are looking for
irrefutable
arguments and ammo to use against them, or who want to know how to
answer their
arguments, 4) Any researcher with any purpose.
Now,
of course I don’t expect
this article to convince any devout Christians happy with their faith
that
their beliefs are wrong or false. That just isn’t
possible. People
will rationalize away what doesn’t fit in with what they want
to believe, and
find reasons to believe what they want to believe.
That’s human
nature. One way they rationalize any good arguments against
their faith
away is to see them as the words of fallible humans, and compare them
with the
word of an infallible God. After all, who can argue with the
creator of
the universe, they think? What they don’t realize
though, is that
fallible humans also wrote their Bible. Therefore, no matter
how
convincing the arguments in this article are, no matter how many debate
points
I score against them, they will always find reasons to maintain their
current
beliefs and rationalize away my arguments. Generally, people
don’t change
their beliefs unless they are looking to or are dissatisfied with
it.
Only the dissatisfied or the seekers are open to contrary information.
Since
my deconversion,
I have always been a critical opponent of brainwashing tactics, after
having
been brainwashed myself
a number of times but learning
from it each time. As a result, I’ve written
against scams and shady
business practices such as extended warranties and multi-level
marketing.
See The
Truth Exposed About
Sears Maintenance Agreements and other extended warranties
(or the Consumer
Affairs edited version at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/retail/sears_maint_con.html)
and 12
Reasons Why
Sears Maintenance Agreements are a Scam. Also The Truth Behind
the Smoke and
Mirros of Multi-Level and Network Marketing.
For my other
writings and links, see my home page at http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm.
Now,
let me emphasize that I
am not another hateful Atheist with hardcore materialist views such as
the
authors on The
Secular Web (http://www.infidels.org/).
In fact, I believe in God but not that any one organized religion has
all the
answers, though they may have wisdom in them and contain certain
truths.
I am also into non-organized forms of spirituality and exploring
esoteric phenomena.
I wish to try to make this as objective as possible, sharing with you
what I've
learned. If you wish to read my other widely acclaimed
debunking article
entitled Debunking the Arguments of Paranormal Skeptics and Debunkers, which
refutes 30 of the
arguments of pseudoskeptics, closed-minded debunkers,
Atheists and scientific materialists, you can do so at this link
here:
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Contents.htm
(updated version)
Let
me first clarify though,
that I am not attacking God, but rather the Christian fundamentalist
religion
which claims infallibility, exclusivity, and condemns other
faiths. Nor
am I attacking Christian people in general. But rather, I am
attacking
Christian doctrine and theology. In fact, I believe in God,
but in a more
non-traditional and non-dualist sense. I am a
pantheist. The reason
I need to clarify this is because while I am able to separate God from
religion
and God from Christianity, most devout Christians are not.
Instead, they
see the Christianity and God as the same thing, and therefore if one
attacks
the faith/religion, then it is an attack on God. That is
where we differ,
but it can’t be helped on their part due to how they see it.
In
this article, I wish to
prove the following assertions.
1) The Bible is not
infallible and
inerrant. It contains huge internal discrepancies and
contradictions,
scientific and historical errors, unfulfilled and failed prophecies,
atrocities
by God and his followers too barbaric and monstrous to be of an
all-loving
all-wise deity, and other errors that make it obviously the creation of
fallible imperfect humans. Even if the people in the Bible
did encounter
God or a divine deity, at best it only represents their
interpretation of
God.
2)
Christianity’s theology, doctrines, and
dogmas evolved over time with the people and society who shaped and
influenced
it. They were not a direct divine revelation from God that
has been the
same for all time.
3) The teaching that we
are all sinners and
going to hell unless we believe that Jesus died for us is a technically
false
teaching contrived by humans, not by God.
4) The Bible is not the
ultimate authority on
truth that we must all submit to. It is not the sole
representative of
God’s word, will and message to mankind. It is not
the only way to God or
to true wholesome spirituality,
and neither is Jesus.
I
believe that if you
consider all the evidence and arguments I present here with an open
mind, that
you will agree that I have made a compelling if not conclusive case at
the very
least.
Although
this article is
written more for the general reader rather than the scholar, I will
include
links and references to more scholarly works for further study of the
subjects
and issues discussed.
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