Echo Zoe Radio

Fred Butler: 20 Ways to Answer a Fool

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Fred-Butler-Lightsaber The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good. – Psalm 14:1

Fred Butler, of Hip and Thigh, returns for his second episode with Echo Zoe Radio to discuss a series of articles he wrote responding to atheist objections to Christianity.

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Outline of the Discussion
  • This discussion is based on a series of blog articles Fred did entitled “20 Ways to Answer a Fool,” which was based on a booklet by atheist Chaz Bufe entitled “20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity.”
  • The objections that Chaz raised are common, and Fred sought to show Christians who might encounter such objections just how shallow they are so they aren't shaken in their faith when encountering them, and to show they are fairly easy to address.
  • Christianity is based on fear – People are Christians because priests instill fear into children about demons and hell, etc. Clergy uses this fear to manipulate people. Fred agrees that there is some truth to this objection; clergy and leadership with poor theology do over-emphasize some of the wrong things to manipulate people. Much of it is superstition though, based on terrible Chick tracts, and bad itinerant ministers with poor theology. Christianity is based on a healthy fear of God, and an understanding of His wrath against sin.
  • Christianity preys on the innocent – The idea is that small children are terrorized by Biblical theology. Chaz seems myopic to the historical consequences of his own atheistic, communistic worldview, which terrorized and preyed upon millions of innocent people around the world.
  • Christianity is based on dishonesty – The statement is based on the idea behind Pascal's wager: that it's better to believe in God and have nothing to lose if you're wrong, rather than disbelieve and possibly go to Hell when you die because Christianity turns out to be right. Pascal's wager is popular among some classical apologetic ministries. Atheistic evolution, by comparison, requires an inordinate amount of blind faith to believe. Fred quotes Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin to demonstrate the deliberate blindness required to hold the atheistic, naturalistic, evolutionary worldview:

    Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to the understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science – in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the method and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. [Cited in The Divine Challenge by John Byl, pg. 287]

  • Christianity is extremely egocentric – Another manifestation of the extreme egotism of Christianity is the belief that God is intimately concerned with picayune aspects of, and directly intervenes in, the lives of individuals. Chaz's biggest hangup seems to be God's limitations on sexual activity, confining it to the bounds of natural (heterosexual) marriage. The atheistic philosophers “in Chaz's swimming pool” had a history of extremely self-centered lifestyles, which makes us wonder why he would project this trait upon Christians.
  • Christianity breeds arrogance, a chosen people mentality – We skipped this point, seeing it as rather redundant, another way of saying many of the same things said in other points.
  • Christianity breeds authoritarianism – In another exercise in ignoring his own worldview, this point seems to forget that Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, and every leader that has governed North Korea define the term “authoritarian.” Furthermore, contemporary atheists continue the authoritarian mindset, with men like Richard Dawkins spouting off that Christian children need to be taken away from their families, and similar anti-Christian diatribes that require absolute authoritarianism in order to play out in history.
  • Christianity is cruel – Fred addresses the claims made about the Inquisition and witch trials throughout a 300 year period. While we don't defend witch burning, the numbers cited just don't add up.
  • Christianity is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific – What atheists call “scientific” would more accurately be called “scientism,” a mythology that is based on pseudo-scientific study of the world around us. It was Christians that advanced science in the 16th and 17th centuries and beyond. Fred gives the example of the Christian understanding of the body was starkly different from other worldviews. The Christian understanding of the body gave way to studying of cadavers in order to learn how the body works, which in turn pointed humanity in the direction of medical science as we know it today.

    Fred quotes science writer Boyce Rensberger:

    At this point, it is necessary to reveal a little inside information about how scientists work, something the textbooks don’t usually tell you. The fact is that scientists are not really as objective and dispassionate in their work as they would like you to think. Most scientists first get their ideas about how the world works not through rigorously logical processes but through hunches and wild guesses. As individuals, they often come to believe something to be true long before they assemble the hard evidence that will convince somebody else that it is. Motivated by faith in his own ideas and a desire for acceptance by his peers, a scientist will labor for years knowing in his heart that his theory is correct but devising experiment after experiment whose results he hopes will support his position. [Rensberger, How the World Works, p. 17-18]

  • Christianity has a morbid unhealthy preoccupation with sex; and Christianity produces sexual misery – Fred points to the puritans (often maligned as prudish, non-sexual religious quacks) to show that this isn't the case. The puritans were know for having large families with many children.

    The real issue that atheists have with sex is that Christians follow the Biblical outline for sex: that it should be enjoyed between a man and a woman within the confines of Biblical marriage. They don't like monogamy, and Fred speculates that they are even bothered by age of consent laws.

    Today, like the puritans before us, Christians that home school also tend to have larger families with more children than their unbelieving friends and neighbors.

  • Christianity has an exceedingly narrow, legalistic view of morality – Moral absolutes are troublesome for the atheist. Strangely, the same people that attack Christians for their stance on moral absolutes will come back when a professed Christian commits immoral acts and be absolutely certain that the Christian was wrong.

    Unbelievers often base morality on the civil law. This view falls apart quickly when you point out the horrific atrocities that have been carried out by national governments under the “rule of law,” such as the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe during the Second World War.

  • Christianity sanctions slavery; and Christianity is misogynistic – Atheists project 19th century southern American slavery onto the Bible and the ancient world, and assume they are basically the same. In fact, the “slavery” that was sanctioned by God in the Bible could more accurately be described as indentured servitude, was often voluntary, and was intended as a provision for the payment of debt.

    The atheistic understanding of the Bible's teaching on women is that they are subservient and inferior to men. This is a strange claim to be made by people who advocate for lack of sexual restraint (which requires that women be treated as merely a means to a sexual end.)

  • Christianity is homophobic – Disagreement with a person's favorite sin is not hatred or fear (phobia). Furthermore, homosexuality (and any other form of sexual immorality – as Christians understand immorality) doesn't make sense under even an atheistic, evolutionary worldview. Sexual immorality breeds disease and death, which work against the betterment of the species. It is also a trait that should breed itself out of the gene pool, if the evolutionary worldview had merit.
  • The Bible is not a reliable guide to Christ’s teachings and The Bible is riddled with contradictions – When he speaks of reliability, he's claiming that what we have now is not a reliable transmission of what was actually said by Jesus, the Apostles, and the Prophets. This makes the claim of contradictions humorous if you think about it.

    The example given is an apparent contradiction in the KJV between James 1:13 and Genesis 22:1 over an equivocation of two different uses of the word “tempt;” to lure into sin, vs to put to the test. A simple reading in context makes this apparent.

  • Christianity borrowed its central myths and ceremonies from other ancient religions – This is a more recent and popular argument. Our atheist friend looks to Mithra as an example. Mithraism flourished primarily among the Roman army. It was a mystery religion. Mystery religions didn't take root in first century Israel, as they had been banned after Israel learned its lesson during the Babylonian captivity.

    Christianity was also a public faith, not a private/secret mystery religion as Mithraism was. People were expected to ask questions and examine the claims of Christianity. It was also not exclusive, as the mystery religions (including Mithraism) often were. Paul most certainly would have encountered people who objected Christianity on the basis that it was a repackaging of a mystery religion that people were already familiar with if the atheist's claim held water.

Scriptures Referenced
  • Psalm 14:1
  • Proverbs 19:30
  • Romans 1:18
  • Ephesians 6:5
  • Colossians 3:22
  • James 1:13
  • Genesis 22:1
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