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Debunking
Christian Circular Arguments and Assumptions
As we’ve seen
already, Christians
use circular reasoning with unsupported assumptions to justify their
beliefs.
They use these unsupported assumptions to justify each other, in effect
using
"fiction to support fiction". Here is a summary of their circular
arguments and assumptions we’ve covered so far
(summarized in my own words).
Note that this section can also be used as the “short
version” of this book for
those who don’t have time to read it.
Question:
"How do you know the Bible is true? How do
you
know it is the word of God?"
Christian Answer:
"Because the Bible says it is God's word. The
Bible is internally consistent and harmonious. Its writers, who lived
thousands
of years apart, agree on the same message. It also contains many
fulfilled
prophecies from the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New
Testament. The
odds of that happening by chance, according to Christian theologians,
are
astronomical. The Bible also agrees with history, archaeology and
science. It
is the only book that is complete with a chronicle of humanity's
history,
salvation, and future predicament.
The Bible has changed millions of lives. The
Gospel
writers and Apostles were willing to die for their faith. Now who would
die for
something they knew wasn't true? As C.S. Lewis, a Christian writer, put
it:
"No one would die for a lie." The first Christians, many of which
were martyred, also died for their faith.
The Apostles saw Jesus rise from the dead.
500 people
witnessed his resurrection, according to the Apostle Paul. The
resurrection is
what our faith stands on. It is what sets Jesus apart from the rest and
proves
that he was the real deal and the true Son of God. Muhammad's body is
still in
his tomb, while Jesus' tomb is empty.
But the biggest reason for me is that I've
experienced
how Jesus changed my life. The Holy Spirit lives within me. I feel its
truth
and have experienced Jesus in my heart. I was at the very bottom of my
life
when I first heard the Gospel. When I accepted Christ, I was born
again. My
sins were washed away and my life began anew. I became right with God
and felt
a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. I now have a personal
relationship with
God, not a religion. I am a living testimony to God's truth and love.
And so
are many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are witnesses for
Christ.
We can also trust that the Bible is still in
its
original form, because God would protect his word and not let it be
changed or
altered by people. The Dead Sea
Scrolls, found in the 1940's, contained Biblical manuscripts
from over a
thousand years ago that were relatively the same as they are today,
demonstrating that the Bible hasn't changed much.
The decision of whether to accept Christ or
not is the
most important decision of a person's life. Choose carefully. There are
eternal
consequences at stake. Jesus came and died for your sins. He claimed to
be the
only way to God. What will you do with that? Either he was a liar, a
lunatic,
or he was right. If he was the first two, then you can forget him. But
if he
was who he said he was, then your eternal destiny depends on whether
you accept
him or not. Remember that.
Now, based on what Jesus did and said in the
Gospels,
it does not appear that he was a liar in any way. He did everything he
said he
would, and kept his promises. And he does not appear to be crazy in any
way
either, for his teachings were filled with great wisdom. Therefore, the
most
logical conclusion is that he was Lord. He fulfilled the OT prophecies,
and
rose from the dead, proving that he was the one - the true Savior whom
God sent
to bring forgiveness and eternal salvation to mankind. Will you accept
him or
reject him? The choice is yours."
Those are the
standard
arguments and assumptions of Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelists,
summarized
in my own words based on my knowledge and experience from having been
one of them
before. They may sound convincing to someone desperate to believe in
something that
has all the answers in a nice little package coupled with big promises
(i.e. an
eternal father who will love and take care of them, and reward them
with eternal
life). But they are not convincing to objective logical thinkers.
So let’s take
apart the above
point by point:
- First,
the
Bible is not internally consistent. It is not even one book, but 66.
There are
thousands of contradictions and discrepancies. Not all of them can be
explained
away. There are even contradictions in basic theology. For example, the
Old
Testament predicts a Messiah who will become ruler of the Jews and
establish a
physical kingdom on Earth. Jesus didn't do that. What the New Testament
writers
did was reinterpret everything in the Old Testament to make it fit in
with
their beliefs: The Serpent became Satan. Satan became evil. Lucifer
became
Satan. The OT praises and psalms became prophecies of Jesus, though
they
weren't. The Messiah came to establish a spiritual kingdom, not a
political one
(conveniently so, since Jesus failed to fulfill the OT Messianic
prophecies).
Etc. Most of the alleged fulfilled prophecies by Christians were either
imaginary ones that were never intended to be, ambiguous, or didn't
even come
true. (e.g. Prophecies of Tyre's destruction, Moses and the Promised
Land,
etc. See the Fulfilled
Prophecies section.)
- The
Bible was
put together by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which decided which
books were
to be included as canon and which were to be thrown out. Now, what
makes you
think this Council is infallible? Because God was protecting his word?
Again,
that is a circular argument, especially since it has not been
established that
the Bible is God's word or infallible in the first place.
- The
Bible
does not really claim to be God's word or divinely inspired. If you
look at the
beginning of them, you will see that many are simply letters sent to
some group
or church. Or they are introduced by name or not at all. There are only
3
verses that are used to claim that it is God's word, but they do not
even
clearly say that, or apply to the whole Bible. (See Argument
# 1 for a
full
explanation and analysis) The funny thing is that Christians heavily
emphasize
Biblical inerrancy and divine inspiration, while the Bible itself does
not. But
even if it did make that claim, so what? I could write a book and at
the
beginning start with, "This is the word of God..." But that does not
make it so.
- As
to the
Bible agreeing with history, archaeology and science, see Argument
# 4.
In
short, just because a written work contains real places and cities,
does not
make it all true, especially the extreme parts. Greek mythology
includes Mt.
Olympus, which is a real place, but that doesn't mean all the stories
about the
Greek Gods were true. Any book can include historical events and
places, but
that doesn't make it God's word or infallible in any way. It is easy to
mix
fact and fiction together. This is a no-brainer. For example, the story
and
film, "The Wizard of Oz" features Dorothy in Kansas. Now, just because
Kansas is a real place does not make the entire story true and
accurate. You
see what I mean? Plus many historical events described in the Bible are
unproven and ambiguous, such as the captivity of the Israelites in
Egypt, the
parting of the Red Sea, the resurrection, King Herod's census in
Bethlehem,
etc.
- Lots
of lives
have been changed by other religions and belief systems too.
Christianity is
not unique in this regard. They always forget that, conveniently. Why
is a
Christian's testimony any better or more valid than a Muslim's or
Mormon's?
Christian's never address the testimonies of people in other religions,
except
by saying, "Satan can come as an angel of light", which is their
typical copout.
- Plenty
of
people have died for lies throughout history. Many soldiers died for
the war
propaganda that they were fed. In Vietnam, 60,000 American troops died
for a
lie for example. And many cult members have died for their beliefs too
(Jim
Jones, Heaven's Gate, David Koresh, etc). And in the Middle East wars,
many
Muslims have died over petty religious feuds. So this is a silly
argument. Many
throughout history have died for things that often were not true.
Therefore,
dying for something is not proof that it is right or true. People are
easily
brainwashed and deluded. Plus we are not even sure that the Apostles
did die
because we do not even know whether they existed or were just myths
themselves,
which Christians fail to consider.
Now
I know Christians will respond with "I meant no one would KNOWINGLY die
for a lie that they knew to be a lie."
My
response to this would be: Well now, how do you know they weren't
deceived? But
most importantly, how do you know that they even died or existed at
all? You
see, you are assuming that everything in the Bible is true and that all
events
in it are a given as stated, when in fact that has not been proven to
be so.
That's the big catch you missed. Anyone can write anything. You
gotta
remember, there is no historical basis for these events outside the
Bible.
Thus, your assumption is totally circular and unsupported. It is like
taking a
fiction book and automatically assuming that everything in it is a
given as
stated, and then using each part of it to support the other parts,
using
"fiction to support fiction, so to speak". That's the CHIEF problem
you overlook.
- As
to the
resurrection of Jesus, the same as above goes. No one knows who wrote
the
Gospels. There are different theories. So you gotta ask, "Why would
anyone
writing such an important book to save the world be anonymous rather
than put
his full name to it?!" Does such an anonymous writer expect to be taken
seriously? Again, just because it's written in a book, doesn't mean
it's true.
Why not take the Koran or Book of Mormon as truth by default too? I can
write a
book that says that you gotta believe in me to go to heaven too. But
would that
mean it's true?
As
to the resurrection witnesses, well they simply exist only in the
Gospels.
There is no independent verification of them, or of the resurrection
itself. No
non-Christian sources attest to them. Paul says that there were 500
witnesses.
But one man claiming that there were 500 witnesses is not the same as
500
people claiming to be witnesses.
Again,
this is a classic case of Christians "using fiction to support
fiction". I could use the same arguments to prove that Superman had
super
powers. For instance, I could say that Superman stopped a runaway train
according to one story, by grabbing it and slowing it to a halt. When
he did
so, there were many passengers on board who were eyewitnesses to what
Superman
did. This proves that Superman had super powers. See how easy that is?
Moreover,
even if a person with supernatural powers were to come and do amazing
things,
including seemingly dying and rising again, that doesn't mean he is God
or
infallible or controls the eternal souls of everyone. Magicians could
do such
things (e.g. David Blaine, David Copperfield) and Extraterrestrials
with
advanced technology could come and amazing things with their technology
that defy
our explanation too. But that doesn't mean that they are Gods. I'm not
saying
that Jesus was an alien, but just saying hypothetically. The point is
that just
because someone has more technology than you, or more "powers" than
you, does not make this person or being right about everything,
nevertheless
infallible.
- Christians
forget one important thing. Jesus didn't write down anything, at least
not that
we have today. All that they know about him were written by others, his
alleged
followers. We do not even know if any of his direct disciples wrote
anything
down. Therefore, the stories about him are all hearsay by unknown
sources. No
one knows who Jesus really was, what he said, or if he even existed,
since he
has so many resemblances to ancient Pagan Gods and mythologies, and his
teachings have so many parallels with Buddhism. This is why secular
historians,
while they believe in a historical Jesus, do not believe that the Jesus
depicted in the Gospels existed. This was also the conclusion of the
Jesus
Seminar.
- Regarding
Christian personal testimonies, changed lives, and miracles, well they
exist in
all religions. Christians seems to insinuate that their faith is unique
in this
regard. But it is not. Many Muslims and Mormons will tell you that God
touched
their hearts too and that they've experienced him in their souls as
well, which
proved to them that their faith was true. So what? Even Scientologist
members
have made such claims. I don't doubt that some kind of spiritual or
psychological purification happened to these people. The
point is, since
testimonials and changed lives are NOT unique to Christianity, they
cannot
claim it as proof that their faith is the "only way to God" or truer
than others. After all, why is a
Christian's testimony more valid than a
Muslim's? Each calling the other "deceived by Satan" is not a valid
reason at all.
- Claiming
that
the Bible has not been altered because "God would protect his word"
is a circular reason and baseless assumption. First, they have not even
established
that it is God's word in the first place. So even if it remains
unaltered, it
doesn't mean anything. Lots of ancient books and recent novels remain
unaltered. That doesn't make them true.
Plus,
the original Bible manuscripts must have been in Hebrew. But the copies
we have
in existence are in Latin. So there is no airtight proof that we even
have the
original manuscripts.
Furthermore,
why would God need people to write down "his word"? If he had a
"word" can't he write it himself or materialize it like the Q does in
Star Trek? Or better yet, just appear in person and tell everyone his
word?
That would be much fairer than being invisible and judging people by
their
willingness to give blind trust and faith in unseen things, which is
not
reasonable at all. There are hundreds of questions like this I could
ask, cause
the Bible version of reality makes no sense at all, and contradicts the
notion
of an all-loving, all-wise, all-powerful perfect God.
- Now
we get to
the final ultimatum point about the eternal consequences of accepting
or
rejecting Christ. Notice how Pascal's Wager and the Trilemma argument
are used.
Pascal's Wager states that if you deny Christ and you are right, then
you lose
nothing. But if you deny him and you are wrong, then there will be
eternal
consequences. So you're better off betting on Christ just in case you
are wrong
if you don't. Well gee, that is such a small-minded hackneyed argument.
I could
spin that around and say to Christians, "You'd better accept the Koran
just
in case, because if you don't, there may be eternal consequences." So
what
should they do then? Become both Christian and Muslim, which both say
the other
is false? lol Plus, you can't really believe in something out of fear
of
punishment. The heart doesn't work that way.
As
to the Trilemma argument - Lord, Liar or Lunatic, originally proposed
by C.S.
Lewis (author of the Narnia Chronicles), gimme a break. I know
Christians think
this one is irrefutable. But it's not. Again, it takes a fictional
story and
gives one three choices, assuming that the story is real. What
Christians
forget, is that historians believe in a fourth explanation, that the
Gospels
are myths and not historical events. Therefore, it should be a
Quadrilemma -
Lord, Liar, Lunatic, or Legend. And Legend is the most logical
conclusion,
since no historical evidence or sources support these alleged events.
Again,
I could do the same for Superman and say that Superman was either a
Liar,
Lunatic, or Super Hero. In the comics and movies, Superman never lied.
He was a
good person with values who always told the truth. Even Lois Lane said
so. He
never acted crazy, but was always rational and responsible. He did what
he said
and demonstrated his super powers over and over again in full public
view. Therefore,
he must be a Super Hero. I can take any work of fiction and do that.
Finally,
as mentioned before, just because someone or some thing has unexplained
powers,
does not mean this being is infallible or right about everything, or
has power
over your soul.
Conclusion
So you see, these
Christian
circular arguments and assumptions are nothing more than fiction used
to
support fiction, presumed true by default, when they are not. That is
their
primary fallacy. Brainwashing and mind control tactics usually contain
such
fallacies. You've got to learn to question things, otherwise you are
easily
fooled and duped. So check both sides of an issue before jumping to
conclusions. Ask experts on both sides. Seek evidence. Don't take
anything on
faith.
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