“Apologetic Reasoning”

[Zzyzx]

.
Here is a list of common statements or attitudes that I have encountered in debating apologists or reading debate threads (not arranged by frequency of occurrence or degree of irrationality).


1. I can’t think of a reason for it so god must have done it.

2. The bible is true because it says it is true.

3. All other gods are false gods because my god says so in the bible.

4. The bible is inerrant because god doesn’t make mistakes.

5. All other “holy” books are fakes and frauds, only the bible is sacred

6. Prove my claims false or accept them.

7. Christians are superior to Non-Christians, but we are humble and don’t say so in public.

8. Don’t question what I say because I speak for god and the bible

9. You can’t detect god unless you believe in god.

10. God works in mysterious ways.

11. Complexity requires creation.

12. If you can’t explain it, my god did it. If you can explain it my god still did it.

13. My god is omniscient – but changes his mind and needs to “test” the faith of humans.

14. My god is omnipotent – but can’t defeat armies if they use iron chariots.

15. No I can’t “verify” miracles or they wouldn’t be miracles.

16. Stop asking me to verify that what I say is true. It is true because I say it is and I am a Christian.

17. The bible makes no mistakes even though some parts don’t appear to make sense.

18. There are no inconsistencies in the bible even though it says one thing in one place and different things in other places. That is not contridiction if it occurs in the bible.

19. Just believe on faith alone and ignore what you know about nature

20. You must believe in my god the way I believe or you will go to hell when you die

21. My god is perfect and good, but is willing to kill all of humanity if humans do not worship him.

22. Anyone who doubts my stories about my god must be inferior or stupid or both

23. Morals and ethics must come from my god because humans are incapable of developing such things without divine guidance

24. The answer to any difficult question is “goddidit”.

25. God created man in his own image – (evidently meaning jealous, hostile, angry, indecisive, elitist, intolerant)

26. Killing and warfare in the name of god are admirable.

27. You are going to go to hell unless you start believing like I believe.

28. You can save yourself if you will read the bible and pray for forgiveness. Otherwise you are going to hell

29. Every person has a “soul” that lives on after they die (and goes to heaven if they “accepted Christ as their savior”).

30. Education and thinking can turn people away from god and make them think that they are responsible for their own lives.

31. Anything good that happens is god’s doing. If bad things happen somebody sinned (perhaps generations ago) or the devil did it.

32. There is a high mountain from which “all kingdoms of the Earth” can be seen.

33. God used to do “miracles” but hasn’t for a long time. There is no evidence of miracles because they are miraculous.

34. God made the Earth stop rotating to allow his favored people to win a battle and kill lots of people. There were no adverse effects because goddidit.

What other common apologist “arguments” have I overlooked?

[Goat]

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What other common apologist “arguments” have I overlooked?

Atheists can't prove that King Tut or King Alexander existed, therefore Jesus did, and got raised from the dead.

[upallnite]

1. If reality disagrees with the bible, reality is wrong.

2. There is no such thing as a logical fallacy and shifting the burden of proof ain't on of them.

[Fallibleone]

God operates outside of reality and so can not be held to human definitions of words (such as 'omnipotent', 'omniscient' and 'omnipresent'), even though I might use these words to argue in his favour.

I have been saved and you will be too - you just haven't done part of the ritual correctly. Or it's not time yet. Or your mind is closed.

Evidence of God is overwhelming.

[Cmass]

I've heard variants of the following:

#666. Zzyzx is one of them scientusts and we all know them scientusts cain't be trusted cause they is all god haters to begin with.

#666.6. Zzyzx is just tryin' to stir up trouble. It's all his fault.

[Furrowed Brow]

You reject the supernatural because you have an anti supernatural bias. Therefore your anti supernatural conclusions are bias.

[severusinfurs]

Don't use scientific methods or rational thinking to figure things out. If something is unclear, well, it's simply because God planned it that way, end of story.

[McCulloch]

God's justice | wisdom | other attribute is so far above human justice | wisdom | etc that the carnal mind just cannot understand it.

as an excuse for blatant injustice or stupidity attributable to God.

[OnceConvinced]

Don't use scientific methods or rational thinking to figure things out. If something is unclear, well, it's simply because God planned it that way, end of story.

Hi Severusinfurs. Welcome to the site!

Yeah, that one really annoys me too. It's like trying to rationalise something is a terrible thing. It's this whole teaching that we should "have faith" and that having faith is more righteous than anything else, which breeds that way of thinking.

[JoeyKnothead]

Theist: See it says so here in black and white.

Me: But what about here where it says the opposite?

Theist: Oh that, yeah that's out of context.

Me: :censored: ](*,)