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Randal Rauser

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Assuming Christianity is false. There, aren’t we clever?

July 15, 2019 by Randal

#unbelievable

Imagine you’re a Christian who wakes up to find that all the churches are gone & every other Christian in the world—including every minister— has forgotten they ever believed. You still have your Bible, & it’s up to you to win them all back. Good luck with that.

— Tim Sledge (@Goodbye_Jesus) July 14, 2019

I replied: “If Christianity is true, you don’t need luck. But thanks for the example of begging the question.”

Tim Sledge then replied: “But Christianity isn’t true so you would need luck, if, as stated in my earlier tweet, you were a Christian who woke up to find all other Christians had forgotten their faith and it was up to you to reenlist them.”

I replied again, “No, Christianity is true, so one wouldn’t need ‘luck’. But hey, I get it, your tweet is back-patting for the in-group. Fair enough.”

And I really do mean that: if you want to engage in some in-group back-patting then have at it. The problem is that often comments like Tim Sledge’s “scenario” also seem to function as means to reinforce the worldview of those who share them. From that perspective, they can become little more than another brick in the wall of in-group indoctrination.

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, begging the question, indoctrination, thought experiment

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