“ridicule works just fine for Me, thanks”
—ExChristian.Net commentator
At ExChristian.Net I also encountered a group of people who seemed to have a hard time understanding the metaphorical, or symbolic, or correlative, or conceptual nature of making statements such as “…is Dead”—such as “Atheism is Dead” or “EvilBible.com is Dead.”
The EvilBible is dead? Well I guess you’re right, but it seems when they died they got to go to heaven and are still hosting from that special remote locale now…
Nope. You is wrong and/or a liar. Evilbible.com is still online…
Prevaricatoricus EvilBible.com seems to be alive and kicking as opposed to what your pathetic and infantile dumb-**** site claims — you delusional ********.
‘Prevaricatoricus’ – Love it, sconnor! ;-D
LOL! How could Atheism be “dead”? Millions(and growing) don’t harbor a belief in invisible, conscious creator-beings, because they don’t see any credible evidence for such things. That’s not going to change because some idiot has a blog called “Atheismisdead”. Again, ****!…
Atheism is alive and well. It will continue to be alive and well as long as there is one sentient being in the universe that does not believe in gods. It is highly unlikely that anyone could destroy atheism on Earth, because in every generation there is at least one person who doubts the dubious drivel that has been presented to them as “The Truth.” And ridicule works just fine for Me, thanks. Produce empirical evidence for your imaginary friend, or ****…
…”Atheism is dead”, which is untrue. Atheism is alive, well, and growing…
“AtheismisDead”(Atheism is Dead) blog, which, the title itself, is a falsehood, since “Atheism” is alive, well, and growing…
Oooooo….let’s see…”responses” from a disrespectful, disingenuous religious person. One who, no less, advertises bold-faced lies on his blog…i.e…”Atheismisdead”, when in fact, Atheism is not only alive, but growing daily, and hopefully to the point that in a few thousand years people will scoff at “Christianity” like today’s Christians scoff at every other religion. Got-all-muddy!…..if I could only live to see the day! [ellipses in original]…
Not-to-mention, you are a ******* liar. Atheism is NOT “dead”. You have zero credibility. And you can beat your “logical fallacy” drum until donkeys talk…..oops, they already do that in that vivid imagination of yours—-okay, until donkeys fly….your blog title, itself, is a blatant mis-truth(lie). [ellipses in original]…Repeat: “Atheism” is most certainly NOT “dead”. In fact, in the very document by which you claim to know this “Truth”, it assures you/us that there will be skeptics/doubters(Atheists) in its supposed foretelling of the future. Surely, even you see the conundrum this presents for the bible-believer… [expletives removed]
As we shall see, this is no mere oddity but a premise upon which they, very happily, build a fortress of ad hominems.
As for EvilBible.com is Dead I grant that this does not mean that the website is not longer on the www or that it is there but not functioning or that it is not popular. Certainly, it is popular and I am learning that it is popular because the pseudo-skeptics hold it dear and simply refuse to consider evidence to the contrary as it, apparently, does not even cross their minds to exercise skepticism and question its contents and assertions. As for “Atheism is Dead,” there have been many, many, many times that this has come up right here at home. Firstly, I thought that the correlation to Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement “God is Dead” was obvious. Would they argue that since Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that “God is Dead” he actually believed in a mortal God who once lived but was now dead? Was he wrong in stating “God is Dead” since there were and are still people who believe in God? Yes, I claimed that “Atheism is Dead” but I have heard rumors that there are still atheists around. Well, of course. Geocentrism is dead but there are still geocentrists around. Conceptually, atheism is dead for various reasons including that their ultimate answer to any and all of life’s deepest and most important questions is “It just is,” “It just happened,” “It just happened to have happened that way,” etc. I claim that “Atheism is Dead” but do not claim that “Atheists Are Dead.”
Moreover, the more we look through telescopes and microscopes the more atheists insist that “It just happened to have happened” and the more we find evidence of an creative intelligence which we can infer exists outside of our time-space continuum (as I touched upon in my parsed post On the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorns, et al.).
I think that the most interesting of these ad hominems is “Atheism is NOT ‘dead’. You have zero credibility. And you can beat your ‘logical fallacy’ drum until donkeys talk…” To recap; they determine that I have zero credibility merely by reading the title of my blog. This is the same person who later presupposed that I was declaring atheism to be dead based on a “document”—the Bible. But of course, they do not know why I make the claim and as far as I can tell they have never actually read anything posted at Atheism is Dead.
The most fascinating part is that they state I can beat my “logical fallacy” drum until donkeys talk. I am forced to conclude that they are well aware that they are committing, at least one, logical fallacy and simply do not care. It is as if they demand that I provide logical arguments for God’s existence but refuse to follow the very same laws of logic upon which my argument and their critique of it would rely. Apparently, logic is relevant to my argument but not to theirs.
I was particularly taken with the expressed hope that “in a few thousand years people will scoff at ‘Christianity.’” Well, it have been said before and will be said again and here are some of your comrades:
Roman Emperor Diocletian commanded the destruction of the scriptures.
Voltaire wrote, “Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth!”
Thomas Paine wrote, “Fifty years after I die, the Bible will be obsolete.”
John Lennon stated, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right, and I will be proved right.”
Sam Harris looks forward to a time when “making religious certitude look stupid will be exploited, and we’ll start laughing at people who believe…We’ll laugh at them in a way that will be synonymous with excluding them from our halls of power.”
And on they go.
Lastly, if I also disregarded logic this essay would mere consist of one sentence which would read thusly,
The title “ExChristian.Net” is false since there is no such thing as an ExChristian and therefore, everything hosted on that website is discredited.
That would certainly be convenient a first class ad hominem and a first class evasion. Perhaps, I could even state, “you can beat your ‘logical fallacy’ drum until an entire fine-tuned universe comes from and by nothing, until life comes from nonlife, etc.”
A friend wrote a succinct essay entitled No such thing as an ExChristian which may be elucidating at this point.
Note that at ExChristian.Net I responded by stating “Indeed, atheism is alive and well since it is very appealing as the ultimate consoling delusion” and received some very telling and affirming responses to which we will come in a moment, after considering the ad hominems to which I referred above.
I had commented that,
Responding to my evidence which discredits evilbible.com by besmirching the title of my blog is what is known in logic as an ad hominem or genetic fallacy: it means that you are attacking the source of the arguments whilst ignoring the argument itself.
Some responses were as follows:
…the name of your blog (in the link you provided) contains the phrase, “Atheism is dead”, which is untrue…So, if the mere title of your “information” contains a blantant [sic] lie, why should I believe that the “information”, itself, isn’t full of them? I guess what I’m saying is that you have zero credibilty [sic] as far as I’m concerned…
Call it whatever the **** you’d like—if your blog “title” contains misinformation(a lie)..i.e..”Atheismisdead”(Atheism is dead), then I have good reason and every right to be skeptical…
Indeed, they have “every right to be skeptical” and I only wish that they were. These responses provide us with text book examples of ad hominem / genetic fallacy; they got that logical fallacy down pat—now they should get beyond it and actually engage upon reasoned discourse. Understand that the issue is that I challenged them with information that claimed to contradict that which they hold dear. A true and honest skeptic would jump at the opportunity to have their position challenged, considering the challenging information and then determine, in a logical, scholarly and reasonable manner, which comes out unscathed. What is evidenced in the comments is an attitude of: I do not want to have my beliefs challenged, I will not consider anything that contradicts them and since someone claims to have a good defeater I will simply find an excuse for not bothering exercising skepticism.
I could build a blog and title it “2+2=5” and yet have the content of my blog state “1+1=2”—the title is false but the content is true which is why one must not commit the ad hominem as it is a diversionary attempt to sidestep the issue at hand. Sentiments to the effect of I will not bother considering your arguments because you made them within a blog that is titled with words with which I disagree is a perfect example of an ad hominem. Thus, they are content to and proud to admit that they will not allow challenges to their beliefs and they are doing so based on a logical fallacy 101.
Along these lines someone else wrote,
You’re either a spoof or one who is intellectually immature; albeit, intellectual immaturity isn’t limited to the ‘faithful’, take politics for instance.Anyway, you charge a web-site with ad hominem, yet, you then ad hominem that web-site and promote your views.What you also fail to realize, is that many intellectual people, can dismantle fiction using hard logic and reason. This is true for both religious books and criticisms of religious books.
I certainly do not understand the point that I “then ad hominem that web-site and promote your views” since this assertion is generic and does not provide examples. I honestly do not see how this is the case since I never neglected to consider the contents of evilbible.com or ExChristian.Net based on my disagreeing with the website’s titles. Indeed, many intellectual people, can dismantle fiction using hard logic and reason but I am still waiting for such people to tackle the actual proposed issue at hand.
Another response was,
And for the record, your problem isn’t with “Atheism”—-no, you’re problem is with non-christians [sic]. If every Atheist on earth adopted the belief that the Holy Qu’ran is the last word of the Almighty Allah, you’d then have a blog devoted to “debunking” them…perhaps calling it, “Islamisdead”, knowing that there are millions of followers of the Islamic “faith”. This, being the brilliant man that you are. [emphasis in original]
I think that the reference to my brilliance may be sarcastic. In any regard I actually have no problems; I am just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. I should, perhaps, point out that I did have a blog devoted to discussing Islam but have transferred its contents to my Christian Apologetics blog: find it here.
Thus, my friends, I tried, I really attempted to get someone, anyone to confront my argument, the information that I provided on eviblible.com—but alas. I had also commented thusly,
The majority of comments to me are typical of the pseudo-skeptical brand of atheism which replaces reason for ridicule.If anyone has actually practiced true skepticism and considered both what evilbible.com has to say and my dissection of their contents? Or are you all simply pleased to be just like those “religious” people whom you besmirch and conclude that evilbible.com said it so it must be true and I will not question them.
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