I'm Rather Pagan At Present

"I'm rather pagan at present. It's just that religion doesn't seem to have the slightest bearing on life at my age." - This Side of Paradise

If you ever wondered what my favorite novel is...

I found a mirror image of myself in the character of Amory Blaine. Amory, hero of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, is one of the few literary figures I have genuinely identified with. He is moody, he procrastinates and overthinks, he reads, he writes, he complains, and he lives beyond his means. He stubbornly adheres to his beliefs and principles. He has difficulty making friends but is staunchly loyal to the ones he has. And for the purposes of this post, he also shares my religious skepticism.

I am on a spiritual quest for answers. I believe in the existence of a higher power, some deity who created some sense of order in the world and guided its formation. I do not, however, currently profess a belief in any one religion though I was raised in a Christian home.

My list of thoughts and doubts would be interminably long for one post, so I will focus on Christians' inability to scrutinize their own religion through the lens with which they scrutinize other belief systems. 

I found a witness guide on the 10 most common fallacies made by Muslims. [Original post can be found here: http://www.chick.com/information/religions/islam/fallacies.asp] It has an ever so slightly patronizing attachment: Note: The average Muslim does not know that his arguments are logically erroneous. He is sincere in his beliefs. Thus you must be patient and kind in sharing with him why his arguments are invalid.

I was compelled to try an experiment. What would happen if I switched Islam and Christianity? If I replaced "Allah" with "God", "Muhammad" with "Jesus", and "Islam" with "Christianity"? I did not change ANY wording except the religion in question.

Here are the highlights from this little project:

Common Logical Fallacies Made By Christians

Muslims must be prepared to answer the typical objections made against Islam. Most of the objections are based on simple logical fallacies. The following is a list of some of the most common fallacies used by Christians.

Note: The average Christian does not know that his arguments are logically erroneous. He is sincere in his beliefs. Thus you must be patient and kind in sharing with him why his arguments are invalid.

2. Arguing in a circle: If you have already assumed in your premise what you are going to state in your conclusion, then you have ended where you began and proven nothing.

Examples:

#1 Proving God by the Bible and then proving the Bible by God. 

#2 Proving Jesus by the Bible and then proving the Bible by Jesus. 

#3 Proving Christianity by the Bible and then proving the Bible by Christianity 

4. The Fallacy of Irrelevance: When you introduce issues which have no logical bearing on the subject under discussion, you are using irrelevant arguments.

When Christianity argues that history or science "proves" the Bible, this actually means that he is acknowledging that history and science can likewise refute the Bible. If the Bible contains just one historical error or one scientific error, then the Bible is not the Word of God. Verification and falsification go hand in hand. 

#1 Some Christians argue, "The Bible is the Word of God because the text of the Bible has been preserved perfectly." This argument is erroneous for two reasons: a. Factually, the text of the Bible has not been preserved perfectly. The text has additions, deletions, conflicting manuscripts, and variant readings like any other ancient writing. b. Logically, it is irrelevant whether the text of the Bible has been preserved because preservation does not logically imply inspiration. A book can be perfectly copied without implying its inspiration. 

#2 When Christians attack the character and motives of anyone who criticizes Christianity, they are using irrelevant arguments. The character of someone is no indication of whether he is telling you the truth. Good people can lie and evil people can tell the truth. Thus whenever a Christian uses slurs such as "mean," "dishonest," "racist," "liar," "deceptive," etc., he is not only committing a logical fallacy but also revealing that he cannot intellectually defend his beliefs. 

#4 Some Christians argue that the Bible is the Word of God because it contains some historically or scientifically accurate statements. This argument is irrelevant. Just because a book is correct on some historical or scientific point does not mean it is inspired. You cannot take the attributes of a part and apply it to the whole. A book can be a mixture of true and false statements. Thus it is a logical fallacy to argue that the entire Bible is true if it makes one true statement.

 7. The Fallacy Of Confusing Questions of Fact with Questions of Relevance: Whether something is factually true is totally different from the issue of whether you feel it is relevant. The two issues must be kept separate.

9. "Red Herring" Arguments: When a Christian is asked to defend the Bible, if he turns around and attacks the reliability of the Qur'an, Muhammad, atrocities committed by Muslims, etc., he is introducing irrelevant issues that have no logical bearing on the truthfulness of Christianity. He is trying to divert attention from Christianity to other issues.Furthermore, he is assuming that if he can refute Islam, then the Bible wins by default. If he can refute Allah, then God wins by default. But this is logically erroneous. You cannot prove your position by refuting someone else's position.

I have seen and heard ALL of these fallacies cited as factual and convincing arguments. Yes, Christians, they are still fallacies when applied to your religion; Christianity is not above the laws of logic. I understand that religion is a nearly impossible to prove, and the numerous "burden of truth" claims add to the confusion of the issue. However, if Christians are willing to point out logical fallacies in the arguments of other religions, their arguments should be held to the same standards.

I will not reject Christianity until further research. I am not all-knowing, and perhaps there are scholars who can provide satisfactory answers to my most pressing questions. However, I will expect better arguments than the above fallacies.

In the meantime, I have been touched by His noodly appendages and am currently in training to become a pirate. R'amen.