Rules for Atheists

                                                         +AJPM+

THE CATHOLIC HTOWNER:

After having argued with over 800 atheists in my lifetime, it has become clear to me they don't care about certain concepts in life….such as decency, logic or facts (they really hate facts when said facts don't agree with them).
So consider this my way of putting my foot down and making rules from this point forward on all atheists who come to this site.


1. Don't tell me to read the Bible as if it's going to prove your point somehow.

I do read the Bible every day and I assure you, reading it doesn't prove the atheist point at all. As I've said, I've argued with over 800 atheists and not one--NOT ONE--got any point of the Bible right. The Bible does not hold us back from progress, it's not anti-science or anti-woman or anti-freedom; in fact, the only way you can reach that conclusion is by interpreting it for yourself but it flat out says you are not free to do this (2 Peter 2:16).

Speaking of not being free to interpret it for yourself….

2. Don't try to convince me the Bible has errors or contradictions in it.

Every single time an atheist has tried this, the supposed error or contradiction has either been taken out of context, is from a idiomatic phrase, is talking about two different subjects or comes from two different literary genres. People have tried for hundreds of years to show the Bible has errors and they have all failed.
Trust me: any atheist that tries this with me will fail as well.

3. Do not recommend any pro-atheist book, website or any publication to me.

First of all, I will not heed it. Second, I certainly won't read it. Third, out of all the pro-atheist material I have read…NOT ONE actually knew what they were talking about.

Fourth, any pro-Christian sources I cite, you're just going to dismiss as propaganda, so why should my attitude towards your sources be any different?


4. Don't try that "you only have the faith you have because of where you were born" bull with me.

That might have made sense 50+ years ago when the world was more isolated, but now that we're in a more globalized world, limiting a faith to a specific region no longer makes any sense.
Besides, even if it did make sense, who's ever heard of a society that based itself on atheism? They don't exist.

5. At least make some attempt at having your rebuttals make sense.

Since these are atheists we're talking about, I have to define what I mean by making sense.
By that, I mean your notion has to be accepted by the majority in a particular field (so citing just one person that happens to agree with you will NOT be accepted), and it can't be either a category mistake, a gambler's fallacy, or chronological snobbery.

While we're on the subject….

6. Be aware of the three most common fallacies you're going to commit because you're an atheist.

Those fallacies are (with their respective definitions from Wikipedia):
Category Mistake- a semantic or ontological error in which things belonging to a particular category are presented as if they belong to a different category, or, alternatively, a property is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property.
Example: saying you don't believe in God because God can't be scientifically proven.

Gambler's Fallacy- the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or that, if something happens less frequently than normal during some period, it will happen more frequently in the future (presumably as a means ofbalancing nature).
Example- thinking other gods have been proven false so the God of the Bible must be false too.

Chronological Snobbery- a term coined by friends C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield, describing the erroneous argument (usually considered an outright fallacy) that the thinking, art, or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the present, simply by virtue of its temporal priority.

Example: calling the Bible a "bronze age mythology."