Religious belief doesn't work by logic, so showing logical contradictions is mostly a waste of time.
We need to have effective tactics against Christian aggression.
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Feel free to use this image, unmodified, to push back against Christian belief.
We need to stop using ineffective tactics of showing logical contradictions in Christian belief.
I am not saying there is no value, but what I am saying is that showing logical contradictions is of limited value. Evangelical Christians often don’t accept the logic of vaccination, even at the risk of their lives. Your little logical condundrum won’t matter much.
Leaders of Christians groups have had the contradictions and issues pointed out for 20+ centuries. They have a rationalization for anything and everything.
Persons who are Christians want to believe, and so they will believe, embrace, endorse and proclaim any rationalizations.
It doesn’t matter how obvious the logical contradiction is, it really isn’t going to impact christian belief.
You aren’t the first person to point out obvious logical contradictions, others before you have pointed out the logical contradictions in Christian belief. Do you think you will succeed, when this tactic hasn’t succeeded in the last 20 centuries to bring down Christianity?
I also detect that some do this to prove to themselves how smart they are, and some do it to bolster their waivering atheism.
However, if you are serious about bringing down Christianity, you need to do other tactics.
The image for this post is a criticism of atheist activists.
Again, I am not saying pointing out logical contradictions is all bad. Some atheists might be waivering. Some Christians beginning to give up their faith might be impacted. So, yes, this sort of works in some niche situations.
When I have posted it, a lot, if not all of the atheists think I am criticizing Christianity.
It does critcize Christian thinking, but it is intent is to criticize thinking that an argument will be won with logic. It simply won’t.
They are called Christians, not Aristoleans. They don’t think like atheists.
Atheists tend to be logical and not have an emotional need for religious belief. Atheists became atheists because of logical thinking. However, the basis of your own atheism is generally not going to be the basis of a Christian atheism. It might be in a few case, but even then I suspect they will backslide or move on to another religion.
You might as well try teaching a cat algebra.
They think emotionally, that is your impact point.
I have seen the meme in about 40 different versions where it is discussed that if god knew everything why did he create Satan or some other logical contradiction.
I one time typed the following in a pique of irritation on Facebook and it got a very strong response from a Christian who also imagined they were a serious social justice type person. I typed the following.
If you are a Christian, it is probably because of an empire, Roman, Spanish or European.
It was a threat to the person’s identity, and it threaten to cause two identities to collide, Christian and Social Justice activist. It hit him emotionally. He reacted.
Talk about “fentanyl Jesus,” when talking about how they use religion like a drug. Take about “delulu Christianity.”
I am going to discuss direct identity emotional challenges in the next section. This section will discuss other emotional approaches.
An example:
For the Christian mythology of the flood and Noah, I see endless posts and memes about how kangaroos would have had to get to Australia without leaving any bones.
What would be more effective is what happened to the children when the world was flooded. Parents would be in trees and at the top of hills with their children on their shoulders. There would be screaming as the parents started to be underwater and drown and the children then drowned.
Even the all purpose religious patching compound, “God works in mysterious ways,” probably doesn’t work that well.
This is a post, that does that.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3017364398484728/posts/3892714414283051
This one is somewhat focused on logic, but it also makes the Christian god look like a really unpleasant psychopath and works emotionally also. The repeated reference to incest is key here. Christians like to feel they are good, not in service of a psychopath, and they are very uncomfortable about the discussion of sex.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2092102611098776/posts/3247689882206704
Mocking Christian practice is somewhat good. It isn’t for nothing that for centuries the Christian church as supported blasphemy laws. They recognize that mocking can reach people emotionally and tends to undermine faith. After all, who stands for being mocked, and yet the supposedly all powerful god is allowing mockery. It is an logical contradiction, but emotionally it is felt also.
Calling communion, ritualized cannibalism, is another tactic.
If they get upset, your tactic worked. If they immediately start giving your some argument they obviously have heard in the past, you wasted your time. In fact you reinfored their faith a little by letting them be successful defender and a hero in their minds.
Emotionally hitting their identity is where it works the best.
In my book, “Disable, Defeat, Demolish Homophobic Christianity,” I point out that Christianity is used by people to deal with their failings in life. It gives them a sense of purpose, makes them feel special, gives them a social group It is driven by emoitonal needs.
I think that for many churches, pointing out their self-serving, self-indulgent reasons to avoid recognizing that they are losers is a good tactic.
Pointing out that their Christianity comes from European colonialism or their ancestor’s enslavement is where their identity as being some militant minority member collides with historical reality.
The previous section where emotionally we make visible emotionally what Christianity really is, is a good tactic. However, having their Christian identity emotionally challenged directly is the best tactic.
Summary
Don’t abandoned logical criticism entirely, but recognize they are of limited use. You don’t have to give up logical critiques entirely, in most cases an emotional critique will require logic also.
The more we focus on emotionally challenging their identity and the more directly we do that, the more effective we will be.
We can disable, defeat and demolish Christianity, but we need to have better tactics.
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