thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

This Myth has at its core one main assumption: Christians blindly accept what they are told - they are brainwashed. The follow-on for this myth is that children who grow up in Christian households simply adopt - without question - the beliefs of their parents. Seriously, are there any people out there today who still hold to this myth? I know the ardent Reverend (sorry, evolutionist) Richard Dawkins has gone on record as saying that your religion is dependant on where you are born in the world. For instance, if you’re born into a Muslim household, you’ll grow up as a Muslim; if a Christian household, you’ll grow up as a Christian.

With sentiments like that, I do wonder why Mr Dawkins never had aspirations to become… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

This somewhat blasé objection goes something along the lines of: I don’t believe in the Christian God for exactly the same reasons you don’t believe in Odin (a Norse god) or the Tooth Fairy.

(This argument is actually a softer variant of Stephen Roberts’s argument: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.)

Firstly, the issuer of this argument (which is actually nothing more than fluffed-up rhetoric) is attempting to pursuade his opponent and/or audience not by reason nor by contradictory evidence, but purely - and unjustly - by association. He is stating, by inference, that only the misinformed, immature and childish… Continue reading Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

Lazy Myth: Christians don’t have fun

[Previous Lazy Myth: Religions are all the same]

Christians just don’t have fun. Christians are spoil-sports, party-poopers and kill-joys. Just when you’re starting to really unwind and enjoy yourself at the start of the weekend, your bible-thumping grandmother knocks on your front door and invites herself in for a spot of tea and some spongecake. Christians are boring; and becoming a Christian automatically renders the rest of your life as one big meadow with rolling hills where Julie Andrews sings tirade after tirade of tunes from the Sound of Music. (Disclaimer: okay. I acknowledge that, for some of you out there, that is your idea of fun, but work with me, okay?)

And further, who wants to live forever in heaven? How can that be fun?… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christians don't have fun