“Are Christians Delusional?” By Richard Carrier
6 Questions with which to Stump Conservative Christians
- A man can marry a woman, and a woman can marry a man, but who can a hermaphrodite marry?
- Does the Bible prohibit cannibalism? Please include chapter and verse.
- If you are 8 months pregnant and the rapture occurs, will your baby rapture with you, or will it be left behind, unsaved?
- The Bible says to worship God (obviously) and to obey your mother and father, but what do you do if your parents tell you to worship other gods?
- Where in the Bible does it say that raping someone is wrong?
- You say abortion is murder. If you succeed in making abortion illegal, what should the punishment be for women who have illegal abortions?
Christians are not easily reasoned out of religion since they are not usually reasoned into it.
The Christian Delusion, p. 44.
The rise and fall of religions can be understood in economic terms. Believers sacrifice time and money in exchange for both spiritual and material benefits. In other words, religion is rational, but it is governed by the rationality of trade rather than of argument.
Rodney Stark
Doesn’t evolution requires as much faith as creationism?
Claim:
Because evolution has never been observed, the theory of evolution requires as much faith as creationism does.
Response:
- The theory of evolution is based on evidence that has been observed. There is a great amount of this evidence. When evidence is found to contradict previous conclusions, those conclusions are abandoned, and new beliefs based on the new evidence take their place. This “seeing is believing” basis for the theory is exactly the opposite of the sort of faith implied by the claim.
- The claim implicitly equates faith with believing things without any basis for the belief. Such faith is better known as gullibility. Equating this sort of belief with faith places faith in God on exactly the same level as belief in UFOs, Bigfoot, and modern Elvis sightings.
A truly meaningful faith is not simply about belief. Belief alone does not mean anything. A true faith implies acceptance and trust; it is the feeling that whatever happens, things will somehow be okay. Such faith is not compatible with most creationism. Creationism usually demands that God acts according to peoples’ set beliefs, and anything else is simply wrong (e.g., ICR 2000). It cannot accept that whatever God has done is okay.
