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Debunking Christian Circular Arguments and Assumptions
Introduction
Hello,
My name is Winston
Wu. I am a former Evangelical Christian Fundamentalist. If
you wish
to read the story of my slow awakening and deconversion long ago,
see My
Rise to
Christianity and My Transcendence From It.
I strongly
recommend reading
it, as many, including Christians, have been moved by it. 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 seek truth on my own. At an early age I deviated
from my
parents’ Buddhist religion and became a born again Christian,
unlike most
people who stick with the religion of their family their whole life
without questioning
it. And when I was 14, I tried debating my church Youth Pastor on
doctrinal issues (which was difficult because although 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, and
plus he kept changing the topic and refused to address my points).
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 girl 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 labeled 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 book 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 book to
share with others.
Anyone
can read this book
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 book 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 book 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. You can see them
in my
article index at https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm.
Now, let me
emphasize that I
am not another hateful Atheist with hardcore materialist views.
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 see my other widely acclaimed
debunking book entitled Debunking
the
Arguments of PseudoSkeptics and Paranormal Debunkers you will see
that I am not a
closed
minded Atheist.
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 book, 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 book 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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