We now continue, from part 1, considering American Atheists’ Al Stefanelli’s article Christian Fundamentalists: Deeply Disturbed Psychotic Sociopaths wherein we learn some interesting information such as that one thing that “True Christians” do is, for example, commit murder.
So now, American Atheists’ Al Stefanelli has to invent his own definitions in order to excuse his academically inexcusable correlation between “fundamentalist Christian and radical Islamic doctrines.” Sadly, this is indicative of his articles which are saturated with an unpalatable concoction of an air of superiority and lack of knowledge of that which he is addressing—he engages in miasmatheism.
Now, to his invented definitions regarding, “the difference between a fundamental Christian and a Christian fundamentalist”:
A fundamental Christian usually believes the bible to be the inerrant and literal word of their god…Jesus Christ…had come to give a new covenant to the faithful that centers around peace, love, charity…Most of them wouldn’t even think of committing an act of violence, let alone terrorism…the advent of Christ means that the laws, commands and examples that are part and parcel of their bible’s Old Testament are no longer needed. These individuals represent the majority of the faith, to one degree or another.
A Christian fundamentalist is a whole other animal…bring shame to the faith…they look upon the worst and vilest of Scriptures for the basis of their doctrines, and it is these doctrines that society must work toward eradicating. It has been done before, and the fact that you don’t see mainstream Christianity calling for the murder of adulterers, homosexuals, witches and the like are proof positive that dangerous doctrines have been eradicated in the past.
Incidentally, note that dangerous doctrines have been eradicated in the past by a more fundamental understanding of the Bible.
With regards to “Christian fundamentalist” he further notes:
They choose violence as their venue and easily find justification for it through the Bible.
Actually, there is no justification in the Bible. Rather, what there is, is people engaging in misunderstandings, misreading, misinterpretations and misapplications based on eisegesis (or isogesis) rather than the hermeneutically appropriate exegesis: eisegesis / isogesis is reading preconceived notions into text which do not contain such notions, exegesis is coming to texts with blank slate and letting the text speak for themselves and hermeneutics is the science of interpreting texts via, for example, considering grammatical context (genre, etc.), historical context, cultural context, etc.
Next, Al Stefanelli takes a page from the atheist’s Debate 101 leaflet: he rains down brimstone and fire condemnation without justification and alludes to some dozen, supposed, Old Testament events without offering any citations or quotations—none at all. He is merely playing off of well-within-the-box-atheist-groupthink-talking-points-de jour which have been discredited time and time, and time, again and again.
For example:
In the Old Testament, Yahweh commands that entire nations be slaughtered for blasphemy, unbelief or worshiping “false gods,”…imagine what it would be like if all Christians participated…There are provisions in the Old Testament for…women who are considered “spoils of war” and are to be kept for sexual purposes.
You see, most self-professed “skeptics” are really cynics who will not check out references or challenge their own beliefs. By not providing quotations nor citations Al Stefanelli is making it easier for them to 1) take his pseudo-authoritative word for it and 2) ensuring that they are all the more likely to not bother with bothersome research.
Who wants to read the entire Old Testament just to find out what he is talking about and then read the text for immediate and greater context, perhaps do some etymological work for the sake of accuracy, etc.? Well, this writer’s hand is up and the results of the research have been posted as:
Atheism, the Bible, Rape and EvilBible.com, part 5 of 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page.
I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help out. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Twitter: #americanatheists, #atheism, #christianity
Facebook: #americanatheists, #atheism, #christianity