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Debunking Christian Circular Arguments and Assumptions
Understanding
the Mentality and World View
of the Christian Fundamentalist
Now, those of you
who have
never been devout Christians before may wonder why they believe what
they do,
live the way they do, think the way they do, have such extreme views,
and are
so fanatical in pushing their beliefs onto other people all the time to
try to
convert them. It may all seem so nonsensical and illogical to
you.
Well since I used to be one of them and understand how they think, I
can
explain their mentality to you and give insight on their inner
psychological
makeup. Although the above section on their view of history
should have
given you a good idea, let me break it down for you in
detail.
First
though, let me tell you that when one accepts the Christian faith and
Gospel
into his/her lifestyle, their
view of reality becomes completely
WARPED! Literally.
They
only see the world in terms of God and
Satan, light and darkness, sin and righteousness, the saved and the
unsaved,
etc. I still can’t believe how warped my view of
reality
was when I was a
Christian fundamentalist.
Two powerful
forces
controlling their mind
Basically, the
Evangelical
Christian has two powerful things controlling his/her mind and emotions
– the
fear of eternal punishment in hell and the reward of eternal paradise
in
heaven. Those are
essentially the two most powerful things
that can
control someone’s mind, period. They are the
ultimate
brainwashing tools
ever designed. No question about it. Now keep in
mind that
heaven
and hell are not some abstract concept or theory to them. No,
they are
absolute LITERAL FACTUAL truths! No less true than the fact
that
falling
off a cliff is harmful or the fact that your body needs food and water
to
live. Therefore, they take them VERY seriously
indeed.
It’s no joke
to them at all, especially when the eternal destiny of the soul is at
stake.
And that’s why they are so adamant that you become saved too,
because in their
minds, it is like watching you driving toward the edge of a cliff, and
since
they care about you, they want to warn you of the reality of the
situation. That’s what it boils down to.
It’s
not about disrespect
for your rights, freedom, or choices. It’s really
about
their 1) genuine
concern for the eternal judgment of your soul, and their 2) sense of
duty to
God, after being given eternal life and being saved, to do his will to
preach
God’s message of Salvation to you, which is the least they
could
do for being
given immortality.
Now think of the
implications
of this. Remember that this is all literal factual truth to
them.
Here’s what that means to someone who genuinely believes
these
things. It
means that these are ETERNAL consequences in their minds.
What
that means
technically is that an eternal heaven means a bliss and paradise for
them that is
never-ending without end,
where billions of years or
trillions of years have no measurement at all. After all,
that’s what
infinity means. On the other hand, an eternal hell also means
a
state of
suffering and pain forever and ever. This means that even if
one
was suffering,
tormented, and in extreme
pain in hell for a
billion years or a trillion years, it would still not stop because
eternity
means that time does not exist. It would go on and on and
on. It
NEVER ends, EVER! Think of that for a moment, not as some
abstract theory
that’s “out there” but as a literal fact
that could
ACTUALLY happen to
you! If you seriously see that as a realistic possibility,
you
can
understand why it is a VERY VERY
VERY
SCARY concept indeed! Much more infinitely
terrible
than you can possibly imagine.
Heck, not even Adolf
Hitler would deserve such a predicament, and especially not average
people, and
all just because the original humans ate a fruit off the wrong tree at
the
beginning of creation? Come on now…….
Now perhaps you can
understand and sympathize with the Evangelicals’ inclination
to
try to convert
you and “save” you. After all, if you
believed your
loved ones, friends,
or acquaintances were heading toward eternal torment, you would also be
greatly
concerned about their souls as well, wouldn’t you?
I
remember how
agonized I was about my unsaved parents who wouldn’t
believe. I had many
sleepless nights squirming over their future predicament (in my mind of
course), of being eternally tormented in hell with no end and no way
out, and
regretting that they didn’t listen to my warning. I
loved
them and didn’t
want that to happen to them, but I was powerless to do anything about
it
because they wouldn’t accept Jesus as Savior. I
didn’t think it was fair
of course, but that’s what God’s word
said. It was
very nerve-wracking.
Hopefully, this
should help
you understand why they take their beliefs so seriously, so that you
won’t be
too hard on them for it. Here’s
some verses that
illustrate this:
Matthew
13:41-42 "The Son of man
shall
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that
offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace
of
fire: there
shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth."
Matthew
25:46 "And these shall go
away
into everlasting punishment:
but the righteous into life
eternal."
Matthew
25:41 "Depart from Me,
ye cursed, into everlasting
fire,
prepared for
the devil and his angels."
2
Thessalonians 1:8-9 "Them
that
know not God,
and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord
Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction
from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power."
Revelation
14:11, "And the smoke
of
their torment ascendeth
up for ever and
ever; and
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever
receiveth
the mark of his name."
Revelation
You see how scary
this can
get if you take it literally? To see an example of how
seriously
a
Christian can take this:
Hell is real
http://www.jesusisthelight.net/HELLISREAL.htm
Here is an example
of a
popular Christian Gospel tract that attempts to use the fear of hell
and
eternal punishment to convert non-believers. The tract is in
easy
to read
comic book form:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp
Fortunately though,
there are
some Christians progressing beyond the traditional interpretation of
hell as an
eternal place of torment. For example:
A Challenge to the
Doctrine
of Eternal Torment
http://www.harvestherald.com/challenge.htm
Hell is Leaving the
Bible
“Forever”
http://www.what-the-hell-is-hell.com/HellStudy/HellChart.html
Besides fear of
this literal
eternal damnation, there is also a fear of losing eternal life in
heaven as
well. Before, the common Christian doctrine was that once
you’re saved,
you’re always saved and nothing you can do will cause you to
lose
your
salvation. Now though, many churches have changed that
doctrine
or are
reconsidering changing it, probably because of the large number of deconverts
from the faith who give it a bad
reputation by
doing whatever they want and claiming to have eternal life with nothing
to
lose. Regardless of church doctrine, it is natural for a
born-again
Christian to have a natural fear that challenging his faith might
result in the
loss of his/her eternal life, or at least the discovery that it was
never real
in the first place. Now think of what that means
too. To
lose one’s
immortality would be like losing a million dollars (though in technical
terms,
immortality would actually be worth a lot more than a million dollars
of
course, but you get the idea). So naturally, one would cling
very
tight
to it. And one would be scared to death of risking either
losing
immortality or being subject to eternal damnation. Hence, it
is
UNTHINKABLE for them to question or challenge this theology or
religion.
And even if they do have doubts deep down inside, they would not dare
declare
them, but instead try to suppress them. (And after all, who are they to
challenge
what God Almighty, the creator of the universe, says anyway?)
Finally, as
mentioned above,
for receiving the free gift of eternal life from God for accepting
Jesus as
their Lord and Savior, they naturally feel a sense of obligation to do
God’s
will and witness to you to try to convert you and save your
soul.
After
all, for being given immortality, that’s so little for God to
ask
of them in
return isn’t it? And besides, if they feel thankful
to God
for being
guaranteed a spot in heaven, they will do this with joyful glee.
Reason becoming
a servant
to belief
As a result of
those two
powerful forces mentioned above controlling the Evangelical
Christian’s mind,
his/her sense of reason no longer rules, but instead serves these
religious
beliefs. In other words, reason serves faith, instead of the
other way
around. Here is an example, straight from the mouth of a
fundamentalist:
“I
believe that the Bible is completely, entirely and verbally the word of
God. I
refuse to stand above and criticize it; I insist rather, on standing
below it
and letting it criticize
(John
Montgomery, then Professor of
3 Montgomery, Damned
Through
the Church: p26
To use a
hierarchical
illustration, their Christian beliefs which they see as absolute truth
are at
the top chain of command, and reason along with everything else falls
below
that. In this setup, reason does not analyze their faith, but
instead
serves it. That’s why they can believe these
extreme
beliefs contrary to
reason without realizing it. And that’s why using
reason to
appeal to
them doesn’t help. And it’s also why if
they read a book like this,
it would not do any good, because they would use just rationalize
everything
said in this book away any way they can, which is human nature
anyway.
After all, we all tend to rationalize away what we don’t want
to
believe and
find excuses to justify believing what we want to believe. In
that sense,
human nature can be inherently selective.
For example, no
matter how
much sense you made to them that their extreme beliefs just
don’t
hold up, or
bring up any of the arguments of this book to them, they will just
quote
verses such as these.
1
Corinthians
1
Corinthians
Thus invalidating
anything
you say that contradicts their faith no matter how reasonable, with the
simple
quote of a verse.
Ego
gratification and
self-esteem fulfillment
Another factor at
work here,
which Christians tend not to like to admit for obvious reasons, is that
all
this notion of them being special to God, the chosen people of God, the
children of God, the saved ones, the light of the world, etc. is very
gratifying to their egos, sense of self-esteem and
self-worth.
After all,
in a materialistic and competitive society like ours, our egos and
self-esteem
can be quite fragile, and anything that can solidify this is greatly
welcomed.
For people who are
insecure,
wandering in life, lack self-esteem or self-worth, lack identity, feel
no
purpose or meaning in life, live in fear or oppression, etc. etc. this
Christian faith can be very appealing to them, offering to give them
what they
need to feel whole and purposeful. It gives them the crutch
they
need to
get through life. It validates them, makes them feel special,
and
gives
them a definable sense of purpose. And that’s
another
powerful factor
that keeps their belief system in place.
Children especially
are
vulnerable to this, because they are taught from birth to listen to
adults
because they know best. Therefore, when they are told by
their
parents or
chapel ministers that if they just ask Jesus into their hearts, they
will
receive the free gift of eternal life just for the asking, who can say
no to
that? It opens the door for the powerful influences described
above to
take control of their mind and will.
The benefits of
extreme
belief systems
Now, this is not
all
bad. There are pros and cons to extreme belief systems such
as
this. As mentioned above, the Christian faith does give
people a
sense of
purpose, identity, and meaning. It is true that many people
have
been
helped by Christianity and made happier as well. So there are
benefits of
this faith, even if the doctrines it’s based on are in
error. What it
does is take the chaos and uncertainty out of life and the world for
people,
giving them a solid sense of purpose, a definite future in heaven, and
a
guaranteed outcome in the end.
Some people have a
need for
that. That’s understandable. In general,
I think that
extreme
beliefs appeal to insecure people the most, because it helps make up
for an
extreme need, and compensates for what they lack. It gives
them a
sense
of purpose, drive, motivation, and even fulfillment that can be an
emotional
security blanket. However, the flip side of this of course,
is
that
extreme beliefs also close and narrow the mind, causing it to cast
judgment on
other people as well. In addition, it uses fear to keep you
from
learning
about the values and benefits of other belief systems and
views.
For
instance, Christian ministers use fear to warn that following
non-Christian
religions and ways of thinking could lead you to Satan’s
trap,
thus no progress
in learning is made. And spiritual / intellectual growth is
stinted. So as you can see, there are pros and cons to
extreme
belief
systems that portray the world in black and white.
Anyone knows that
the worst
examples of this these are the Nazis and other fascists throughout
history. And uncannily enough, there are many parallels
between
Christian
fundamentalism and fascism.
The world as a
battleground for souls
The Evangelical
Christian and
Christian fundamentalist sees the world in a very different way than
the
secular person. Here is how they see the world.
They see it
as
basically a gigantic chess board between God and Satan. It is
a
battleground for souls where spiritual warfare is taking
place.
God is
trying to save as many souls as possible through the message of Jesus
Christ,
and Christians are his soldiers for doing so. And Satan is
trying
to take
as many souls with him to hell as possible, by deceiving both believers
and
non-believers with doubt, greed, materialistic values, anti-Christian
beliefs,
other religions, etc. Both sides are trying to do this as
soon as
possible before the Judgment Day comes, when the world will be
destroyed and
the saved will be sent to heaven while the unsaved to hell.
The
Christian
sees as his/her duty on God’s side to help save as many lost
souls as
possible. And that’s what the world is all about in
a
nutshell for many
Christian fundamentalists. This simple model of the world
puts
everything
in neat little simplistic boxes, as well as gives them an exact
definable
purpose in life. It simplifies everything and takes away the
complexity
of the world, because in the end, this spiritual warfare is all that
matters,
and the salvation of souls is all that will remain for eternity!
Why deconversion
is slow and difficult psychologically and emotionally
By now, you should
already
have a strong idea of why it is so difficult for a Christian
fundamentalist to deconvert
from their
beliefs even if they want to.
But let me try to explain to you what it’s like to deconvert,
which some call a “recovering fundamentalist” using
examples from my own deconversion.
Let me first put it
this way.
A recovering fundamentalist is essentially recovering from a
“trojan horse
virus”, which began as a Gospel message presented in a loving
light, but entraps
you in fear afterward. Basically I’d summarize the process like
this:
A non-believer is
offered the
gift of eternal life for accepting Christ, which is difficult to
refuse. (Children
are especially susceptible since they are conditioned to believe that
whatever
adults say is right.) The Gospel message is usually preceded by
church
choir and singing, which helps hypnotize the audience to make them more
suggestible. Then the Gospel message is presented in an eloquent
passionate
manner with guilt and fear inducing techniques, followed by a message
of hope.
(e.g. “You are a lost sinner. Christ died for you. All you have
to do is accept
him and you’ll be saved. It’s that simple.”)
After giving in to
the plea
to accept Christ, you subconsciously without knowing it, give up your
reason
and intellect, in order to “be saved and have eternal
life.” So even when you realize
that there is no proof to support your religious beliefs, you don't
care and
believe anyways because you don't want to lose that eternal life you
were
promised. No one wants to let go of the gift of
“immortality”, and that's why
it's such a sophisticated form of mind control. You're given
something for
nothing, not realizing the old saying, "If something sounds too good to
be
true, it probably is." And
once you're in, the offer of eternal life compels you to stay no matter
what,
while the fear of hell keeps you from straying from the path.
This form of mind
control has
been effectively used by the Catholic Church for centuries to keep the
masses
under control. So, when a person recovers from this and the
“trojan horse virus”
is gone, that person feels a sense of relief for getting his/her
intellectual
liberty and freedom to think back again, but at the same time, fears of
God's
wrath and damnation still preside in the back of his/her mind. That is
essentially what goes on with the mind of recovering fundamentalists.
Now as for me, the
recovery
was not only that, but also of the burden and confusion of believing
that my
family, which were non-believers, were going to hell simply because
they
weren't Christians. My parents are the most honest decent
caring
people
in the world, and I was burdened with the thought that they would go to
hell,
so there was pressure on me to try to convert them, and it almost made
me
crazy. Thank goodness that after I recovered from
fundamentalism,
I felt
a huge relief to have that burden lifted off my shoulders. I
knew
that
those fears weren’t true after all, and that God never said
those
things, but
people did. But since I didn't want to lose my belief in the
immortality
of the soul, I turned to New Age, reincarnation, and alternative
spirituality
to keep my beliefs in eternal life, but in another form.
Here are the
psychological
dynamics involved in the deconversion
process.
First, the ministers, preachers, and pastors have instilled into the
Christians
a fear and paranoia of Satan. They are told that Satan is
constantly
looking for ways to make them fall from their faith, using their own
family,
friends, temptations, other religions, even their own mind,
etc.
Therefore, they are told to never trust anything except for God, Jesus,
and the
Bible. Everything else could be used as a weapon of Satan,
even
your own
mind. Therefore, if you doubt your faith, then you are
warned, “Watch
out! That’s exactly what Satan wants you to
do!
Don’t fall into his
trap! Don’t even trust your own mind, which Satan
can use
against you!
Trust only in God and the
Bible!” When
this fear and
paranoid
become ingrained in you, it becomes hard for you to walk away from your
faith
even if you want to.
Second, Christians
are also
instilled with a feeling of obligation and love to God. This
is
done by
using GUILT in a powerful way that is both loving and
condescending. They
are told that God loved them so much that he became flesh and died for
them on
the cross. This was the ultimate act of love for them, giving
up
one’s
life, so they could be forgiven their sins. Therefore, it is
insinuated
that only a horrible person, a monster so to speak, would turn their
back on
God after all he did for them! In effect, they even equate
betraying the
Christian faith and turning your back on the God of the Bible with the
act of
betraying your own parents and stabbing them in the back!
What a
horrible
thing to equate! And that’s what makes it so much
more
difficult, because
it’s so ingrained in your conscience that to try to leave the
faith instills a
sense of guilt in you. To view an example of this, read this
online tract
in easy to read comic book format from Chick
Publications:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0295/0295_01.asp
You can view many
more tracts
such as the above to get familiarized with Christian beliefs and
mentality at: http://www.chick.com/catalog/TractLookUp.asp?Language=English
Christians try to
portray those
who deconvert
from the faith as similar to
a Jedi
Knight in the Star Wars movies converting to the Dark Side of the
Force!
Like Yoda and Ben Kenobi, they try to equate turning away from the
Christian
faith with the path to darkness and evil! The nerve of them!
Here’s an
interesting
contrast in perspectives. From the Christian view, the term
for a
deconvert
or former Christian is called a
“backslider”. So when someone they know deconverts
or falls away, they say that he/she is
“backslidden” which
implies a fall
downward from somewhere higher. However, many former
Christians
will term
their deconversion
as becoming more
“enlightened” or
“evolved” implying that they moved to a higher
level not a
lower one.
It’s such an interesting contrast of perspectives.
Another reason is
that when
you become a devout Christian, you are taught to deny yourself and live
for
Christ. When that becomes your way of life, or you live and
breathe that,
eventually you might lose sense of who you are, so that if you left the
fold,
you’d have nothing left to go back to. In the book Fundamentalism:
Hazards and Heartbreaks one
account of this is described: (page 8)
“The
comment of a former fundamentalist who appeared on a 1986
‘Donahue’ television
show provides perhaps as poignant a view of their pain as any former
fundamentalist could express. Billy Jackson told a national
audience his
impression of how fundamentalism had been practiced in his
church: “We
had to become like Jesus Christ and die to ourselves. In
other
words, you
kill your own personality off and try and replace it with Jesus
Christ.
When I did leave I had killed myself off to such a point that there was
nothing
of me left, and that’s what keeps you in there because you
can’t relate to
anyone else.””
In addition, there
is of course,
always the fear in the Christian turning away that his faith may have
been the
truth and he may be wrong and therefore he may be struck by lightning
or
punished in some way for deconverting.
That
thought can easily creep up in his/her mind from time to time.
These above reasons
are why
the deconversion
process for the Christian
who wants
to turn away from his/her extreme beliefs or feels they are no longer
true or
necessary, is so slow and difficult. They do not suddenly
decide
to deconvert
and announce it to their
peers. It doesn’t
work that way at all. For me, the deconversion
process took about two years before I was finally rid of the
psychological
baggage and brainwashing instilled into me. After you decide
that
Christian doctrine and theology is not true or not right for you, you
usually
are afraid to not tell anyone about it at first, for the reasons
mentioned
above. For me, I was afraid to tell anyone about it for
almost a
year
because there was too much fear and guilt attached to my former
beliefs.
It was only after much research, did the confidence about my decision
increase
gradually to the point where I could confidently declare it to others
without
fear or guilt or the sense that I was joining “the dark
side”.
In spite of all
this though,
there are many who have successfully deconverted.
You can read books about these people on this list:
http://www.infidels.org/infidels/products/books/christianity/ex-christians.html
Knowledge is
power and protection
from fear
The good news about
all this
though, is that there is protection from the extreme fear imposed upon
people
by the Evangelists and Fundamentalists, and that protection is from knowledge.
If it were not for the knowledge I have which I share in this book,
for
instance, I too would still be living in fear of eternal punishment
that these
preachers declare. Fortunately, the knowledge I gained from
research,
which I’ve shared in this book, slowly gave me the
confidence
to overcome
this fear, which is of the worst kind (what fear could be worse than
that of
eternal punishment?). By gaining knowledge yourself, you can
too.
And that’s good news for those recovering fundamentalists who
want to turn away
but are too fearful to do it or declare it.
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