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Monday, October 20, 2008

Kaitlyn-Mining

So, our very own Kaitlyn has won the $100 contest (which, is that any surprise?). I didn't do anything for it because you have to ask yourself, Why is Ray doing it? He knows why atheists don't believe in gods -- he meets enough of them (atheists, that is). There's only one reason he has asked for them: to use parts of them in some silly tract or book.

Here is Kaitlyn's submission. Allow me to embolden those parts Ray will probably use, based on my experience with his books and tracts:
Why I Don't Believe in God

Atheism demands a sizable expense from its adherents in that a lack of belief in a god denies us the human desire to affirm in a higher power. Our primal instincts and intuition cannot help but to perceive order and intelligence in the design of the universe.

However, we cannot relegate our firmly held beliefs to intuition alone no matter how much we desire our perceptions to be true. Objective reality can only be resolved if all observers are in agreement to what they examine.

Thousands of religions worship gods, yet all these gods differ. Concepts of God differ so greatly between theologies that they cannot possibly all be true; but they can all be wrong. Therefore, if no consensus exists as to what God is or even if He exists, I cannot help but to resign myself to a position of disbelief.
When a commenter pointed out that her comment about the thousands of different concepts of gods probably don't dictate what she believes (as 100% consensus shouldn't convince her), she responds, in part:
You would be surprised. I find I often submit to the authority of the speaker and group. I'm just unqualified to make certain judgments.
Ray will probably use that too.

Allow me to try and summon Ray's spirit for his future analysis of Kaitlyn's submission:
  • Atheism demands a sizeable expense from its adherents because it takes a great deal of willing disbelief to accept the intellectually bankrupt idea that there is no God.
  • Notice she uses the word adherents, that's because atheism is a religion and atheists are adhering to the religion that there is no God.
  • She admits there is design and intelligence in the universe; atheists know in their heart there is a God. As she stated previously, it demands a sizeable expense to deny this design and intelligence.
  • Yes, there are many different concepts of God because his greatness cannot be perceived correctly by humans. Christianity is the one true religion, though. Just because many people believe 2+2 is 1, 2, 3, 5, or 6 doesn't mean that 2+2 does not equal four. Christianity is the knowledge that 2+2=4.
  • She later states that she's only an atheist because she submits to authority and groups. This is why Darwin's theory tale of evolution is so bad, it makes people susceptible to atheism.
We shall see where he uses this at. He'll be sure to highlight that this is the comment that won an open-contest for atheists, so that when he knocks it down, he'll be knocking down the best thing atheists have to offer.

4 comments:

  1. DI,

    I think you are quite close to how Ray will construe the arguments.

    I think Kaitlyn's comments were sincere and well written, but I could see when I first read them, as you did, that she left herself wide open for abuse.

    ReplyDelete
  2. He'll also neglect to mention that he chose the winnr.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't leave myself open for abuse.

    I knew what the essays were for, and so I wrote it with a few goals in mind.

    A) Create a compelling argument in favor of atheism.
    B) Create a springboard for discussion in Ray's book.

    So I intentionally wanted to start off with some middle ground knowing who my intended readers would be and what the essay would be used for.

    I doubt Ray will use anything outside of that essay.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's exactly why I didn't bother entering Ray's little contest. I posted and told hi to write his own books, but it wasn't allowed through. He'll use it for his own ends, just like everything else he quote mines.

    ReplyDelete

Unlike Ray we don't censor our comments, so as long as it's on topic and not spam, fire away.

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