How to argue against a particular delusion.
Hello everyone,
A friend of mine is a pretty die-hard Christian (shock horror, both of his parents are missionaries/vicars) and he often posts little sayings of some kind or another on Facebook, which I usually ignore. However, today he posted something that really irritated me for some reason:
"The more I look at science, the more in awe of God I become."
And just to make that worse, one of his Christian friends commented "Boom" as if he had made some kind of infallible argument. Somehow, I feel as though nothing I say will make any difference because they must be incredibly deluded already to believe that God just "invented" science. Basically, this is the guy who thinks he's a "modern and intelligent" Christian by saying that things like Noah's Ark are "just stories and aren't meant to be taken seriously by Christians". But if that is true, then why take ANY of the Bible seriously and where does he draw the line between stories and (what he believes is) the truth?
In the past I asked him and his friend where the evidence was. He claimed science (yes, seriously) helped prove Christianity and that Christianity was about "opening yourself" to it and believing, and then you "feel God" or whatever. How do you argue with someone like that??
What do you all say to religious people (not necessarily just Christians) who claim that science is just an invention of God? Is there a specific way to argue with someone who twists everything to awkwardly suit modern day thinking?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Karl Mugele on -
I'd also argue the point you erroneously make that people "invented" science. That's not strictly true. It would be like saying that people invented walking. Science is the method by which we investigate the way things function. How exactly do the religious gain knowledge of things that at first are unknown?
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
I believe it's more accurate to say that people discovered science --
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Permalink Reply by Richard Bohn on -
Touche'
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Permalink Reply by Richard Bohn on
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I meant that the Scientific Method' was invented by people, specifically scientists...but I see you want to split semantical hairs, you know what I mean. God gave us an intellectual curiosity, how we use it, i.e., by what we invent, is up to us. If we invent cleverly articulated arguments to try to diminish God as creator, well good luck with that...God will remain sovereign.
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Permalink Reply by Marc on -
Richard,
This God which you refer to, it's an intriguing concept. Where did you first hear of such a thing? Tell me more of this concept its a novel idea please explain, really.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on -
God will remain sovereign (king). One symptom that Christianity is going by the wayside is this constant talk of sovereigns, kings, princes, etc. It's just so fricken medieval.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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"God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance,
that gets smaller and smaller as time goes on."
-- Neil Degrasse Tyson --
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Permalink Reply by Gallup's Mirror on -
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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I assume by "design" you mean the way stars are arranged to look like glitter spilled on a black floor? the way so many fetuses die spontaneously in the womb?
The truth is, people like you will try to find in anything that isn't patently chaotic a magical sorcerer who brought it into being through giving it what you see as order.
BTW, there is so little order on the quantum level that we can only describe it statistically.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Bohn on
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And people like you will dismiss the obvious with weak rhetorical flourishes 'spontaneously dead fetuses'. All pain and suffering is a result of prideful, disobediant humans. We chose our way over God's way, and blame Him that our biosphere is so corrupted.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on
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All pain and suffering is a result of prideful, disobediant humans.
So you're saying that overweening pride and disobedience (to their husbands?) cause women to have spontaneous abortions, not physical or medical matters?
I don't suppose you have any proof(?).
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Thanks for stopping by, Richard.
I presume you mean the observable universe is teeming with examples that provide evidence for God in that these examples have exclusively supernatural explanations.
If you don't mean that, please clarify. If you do mean that, please provide one example.