One of the main reasons I’m a follower of no religion is due to religious believers themselves. Specifically, their arguments, which tend to range from the absolutely fruitcake batty to the…quasi-absolute fruitcake batty. Today’s exhibit is brought to us by sntjohnny of Anthony Horvath’s Christian Apologetics Ministry, in a blog entitled Why Christians Don’t Believe in Pixies, Fairies, Ancient Legends.
Looking closely at the url of the above, you can see that sntjohnny’s first inclination was to title his blog something along the lines of “Why Christians Don’t Believe in Pixies, Fairies, Flying Monsters”. Truth be told, it’s a title he probably should have stuck with, because by declaring that Christians don’t believe in ancient legends, he essentially claims that the Bible relates accurate history. While safe on theological grounds, such a position is untenable on historical ones. One must search far and wide for any Bible archaeologist who would agree with him. To quote just one such expert:
With most scholars, I would exclude much of the Pentateuch, specifically the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers…much of what is called in the English Bible “poetry,” “wisdom” and “devotional literature” must also be eliminated from historical consideration…Ruth, Esther, Job and Daniel, historical novellae with contrived “real-life settings,” the latter dating as late as the second century B.C. –William G. Dever
Sntjohnny is perturbed by the skeptic’s argument that the reason we don’t believe in the Christian god is for precisely the same reason Christians don’t believe in Zeus, Thor, Allah, etc. Such reasoning, declares sntjohnny, is “stupid” and “idiocy.”
Why? Because the default position one should have is to believe in supernatural agents, until proven otherwise!
The only people assuming that there isn’t a God or supernatural entities before they lift a finger are the atheists…Christians, of course, are already on record believing that ’supernatural’ entities exist. The clearest example would be angels, and their fallen counterparts, demons.
So, since Christians believe in angels and demons, therefore such agents must exist. Take that, stupid atheist!
Sntjohnny continues,
It is entirely plausible, according to the Christian worldview, for there to be other agents besides human agents.
Plausible based on…all that evidence of other (supernatural) agents? Documentary films such as Poltergeist?
Since, however, the Christian proceeds based on evidence rather than presupposition…
Except for Calvinists, but they’re not True Christians™ anyway.
…he might dismiss a recorded instance of a miracle, say, in the Odyssey, not because he knows it can’t be real because the event is so old, but simply because the attestation of that event is very weak. In other words, the reasons why a Christian might reject such things are not the same as the atheist’s.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, the atheist has ruled out reports of miracles because he has declared such things impossible beforehand. No, it couldn’t be that their attestation is very weak, because, as we all know, the Bible and everything in it, has been indisputably verified as history. Further, no Christian has ever become an atheist after a thorough investigation into Biblical claims. Nope, none at all.
It gets richer.
Allow me to give just one example of how this might work: Islam. According to Islam, the angel Gabriel dictated a bunch of stuff to Mohammed. I have no particular reason to believe that Mohammed didn’t receive a revelation. But I do know that according to the Scriptures, ‘Satan masquerades as an angel of light.’ So, I am already alert to the possibility that a fallen angel might be up to no good (see also Gal. 1:8, which is more pointed concerning Mormonism, since Islam has no ‘Gospel’ at all). I note, too, the inconsistencies in Islamic theology with the revelation that has come before, which Islam supposedly believes was delivered. Finally, there is quite the epistemological bottleneck: the only testimony here is Mohammed’s.
And there it is. The litany of the fundie. The Bible says it, ergo, it must be true, and everyone else’s supernatural claims, by extension, are false.
Compare that with something like the crossing of the Red Sea, which would have been witnessed by thousands.
Every one of which, curiously enough, failed to note it in any extra-Biblical record…
Compare that with Jesus feeding 5,000 people at a go, teaching publically in the temples, dying before hundreds, and then appearing- with a new body- before hundreds.
Miracles all vastly attested by the copious writings of contemporary Ancient Near East historians, like Philo of Alexandria. Ok, maybe not. But, dangumit, the Bible says they happened, so, voila, they did!
With apologetics like this, calling skeptical arguments stupid is actually a compliment.
Making My Way 