Dear Internet Diary,
Question:
Did you have a bad experience with your former church or religion that caused you to reject it and become an atheist?
This is a trick question. It's like asking, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
If one is an atheist, but was indoctrinated in a religion, there is little chance that something bad didn't happen. I mean, sure; whose Christian school-teacher didn't tell her that when God made people out of clay, He left some too long in the sun and "ruined" them, and that's where we get black people. The post-hoc assumption the theist desires to make is that the bad experience caused the atheism. The accusation in this is, "The atheist is only an atheist because he interpreted the bad actions of someone as Christianity itself. He/she is guilty of a logical fallacy."
Not that all atheists are logical.
What the Christian or Muslim or whoever is looking for is some kind of juicy gossip that might result in some love-bombing, Christian council, and maybe a good, down-on-your-knees, repentance session. The best possible answer is, "Why, yes! A Youth-Pastor/Priest molested me as a child." If that doesn't prove the truth of religion, I don't know what can! Luckily for the questioner, there are so many hundreds of thousands of these instances, their faith is safe. If a math teacher hurts you, does that make math untrue? If a baker yells at you, does that make cake any less delicious? If an astronaut clocks you, does that make the moon-landing fake?
Unfortunately for the questioner, there are other kinds of "bad experiences with religion." They're called the recognition of logical contradiction, moral and ethical problems, and "breaking the laws of nature." The Problem of Evil. The Argument from Non-Cognitivism. The most ethical priest, the most beautiful-sounding choir, and the tastiest church potluck Jell-O salads can't mask those bad experiences.
6 comments:
Andrea Yates had a "bad experience" with religion: She listened to it.
Yes. If you can follow your religion to its logical conclusion, and you still have a bad experience, that`s a pretty good sign that you`re in the wrong religion.
BTW, the fallacy and refutation of this argument:
Q: "If a math teacher hurts you, does that make math untrue? If a baker yells at you, does that make cake any less delicious? If an astronaut clocks you, does that make the moon-landing fake?"
A: No, but if the person charged with saving and nurturing my alleged immortal soul turns out to be a walking talking piece of human excrement, it does not speak highly of the judgment of the church, and therefore puts all of its teachings in question. Furthermore, it puts the judgment of an allegedly infallible deity in question. If the deity is infallible, then its purpose was served by placing an asocial predator and rapist in a position of trust, and therefore the deity is not benign. If the (alleged) deity is not benign, then the deity is malignant, or at least adversarial. "Satan" is a word derived from a word meaning "the adversary". You are therefore worshiping Satan.
At the very least, it puts the judgement of the church into question. As that church is not supposed to have a judgement at all, because the scripture is absolute, that's a problem, no? It proves that the church uses secular judgement. Unfortunately, it also proves that it uses weak and subjective judgement.
The only thing passed around in worship services more than collection plates, is doublethink.
:(
Sure, all of it is justifiable, as long as you read it in the bible.
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