Welcome once again to Feedback Friday! In reply to this Post a faithful viewer had the following to say. You’ll note he spends a lot more time quoting me than he does understanding or answering me… in fact, it seems that I wrote more of his reply than HE did. None the less, he says (The parts in BOLD are him quoting me):

Nice strawman you are fighting there. You make the claim atheism is a religion. It is not. It is a lack of believing in an imaginary friend.

“Is it POSSIBLE that this person can KNOW that theism is “unsupported by good evidence”?” Yes. Your average atheist has done a lot of research, gone through many years of questioning the absurdities they have been told, only to finally understand religion is a lie. A con. An afterlife insurance policy they never actually have to deliver on.

“Is it possible that he knows enough to claim with certainty that theism is not supported by good evidence?”Again, yes. Your magic book is proof only that fallible individuals with a con to maintain, wrote a book. Nothing more.

“Is it even possible that he can say he knows all of the proposed or existing or possible evidence for God’s existence, and then be able to logically reject all of it as insufficient with justifiable cause?” I repeat. Your magic book is proof only that fallible individuals with a con to maintain, wrote a book. Nothing more.

“Could he ever prove, even to himself, that there IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE for God’s existence? None in all the universe? None in all of human history? None in existence now but simply absent from the conversations he’s had on FaceBook?”

Maybe you could show some evidence that your god actually exists. I’ll wait. But won’t be holding my breath.

The argument from elephants can do self portraits? What sort of buffoon are you?

And I replied thusly:

Greetings !
Claiming Atheism is a religion is NOT a strawman. Maybe you simply don’t know the tenets of your own faith. Lucky for you I’ve made several great videos about it! Here’s one now!
https://youtu.be/3nPUUbQlji0

Of course, maybe you’re just using the word “Atheism” incorrectly. Don’t feel bad if this is you. Lots of people do this.
Here’s a video I made showing why:
https://youtu.be/3TIsAGMzmLQ

You seem to have listed a bunch of unsubstantiated blanket assertions which, naturally, fit within the tenets of your own religion and the foolishness which must follow, but it also shows a terrible lack of understanding of what the Bible is and what it teaches. Let’s cut to the most important parts:
Proof that God exists? Well, on one hand you don’t need it. You already know that the God of the Bible is not only real but also your creator and judge. But if you need to see that more clearly, then stop by
https://abitoforangeacademy.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/the-existence-of-god/
and see how this question has been answered over and over for thousands of years.

Or drop in at https://abitoforange.com/free-books/ and read PROOF OF GOD! It’s informative, enjoyable, and most important, totally free!

Or stop holding your breath and go watch PROVING GOD EXISTS (in 10 Easy Steps) and WHY The God of the Bible? (In FOUR Easy Steps)

And lastly, you ask “What sort of buffoon are you?”
That is a very good question. How many kinds are there?
Anyway, thanks for writing in!

BONUS! Feedback Friday Dissection Lab!

Ordinarily this is all I do with Feedback Fridays, but this one single post seemed to be SO CHOCKED FULL of errors that I thought it would be a good learning exercise for all of us to look at it a piece at a time. Many of you may be Christians who get comments like this and don’t know how to respond. So put on your rubber gloves and lab coat, because it’s time for a Feedback Dissection Lab!

Nice strawman you are fighting there.

Atheists LOVE claiming that Christians have committed a logical fallacy, but most of them only know this one by name (Strawman!), and so they fall back on it over and over. I call this “The Logical fallacy of the Month.” They randomly toss out the name of a logical fallacy and (as this person has) make NO attempt to show that I am actually guilty of said logical fallacy. Most times I have no reason to even believe they know what the named fallacy even is. Frequently dialogue with them shows that they actually do not, and are accusing me of creating a straw man merely because I disagree with them. 

BONUS! For those of you new to the term a “Straw Man” is a version of your opponent’s position which has been changed to make it easier to defeat. This makes it a false representation of your opponent, which is done either out of ignorance, or intentionally top “Win” the debate, as one might punch a scarecrow intending to convince onlookers that he was winning a fight with Mike Tyson.

You make the claim atheism is a religion. It is not. It is a lack of believing in an imaginary friend.

PoTAYto, PoTAHto, PaJAHmas…

 As I show in The Definition of Atheism… again., or in  Defining Our Terms- a very simple flowchart  even if we accept his definition of Atheism, it doesn’t matter. He’s just tossing a pointless step into the discussion which doesn’t change anything and only manages to muddy the water a little. The POINT is to avoid having to prove that Atheism isn’t amazingly stupid, but since none of them can do that, they have redefined it so it means a LACK of position. But, with only the SLIGHTEST little bit of thinking about the concepts, you see that it doesn’t do them any favors at all. Check out those links to see what I mean.

Here we can also imagine he intends to make me angry by referring to God as “an imaginary Friend.” You will find that a lot of atheists on the old interwebs consider it a point gained in their favor if they can make a Christian angry. I have no idea why. I think it’s because they have convinced themselves that Angry Christian = Character Flaw, and so everything we believe can be dismissed based on the perceived character flaw. I know, it sounds astoundingly stupid, but it’s all I’ve got to go on. It’s the same reason they LOVE to call me a liar, even though they fail to even try to show I have lied about anything in particular. Anyhoo, he says:

“Is it POSSIBLE that this person can KNOW that theism is “unsupported by good evidence”?” Yes. Your average atheist has done a lot of research, gone through many years of questioning the absurdities they have been told, only to finally understand religion is a lie. A con. An afterlife insurance policy they never actually have to deliver on.

This is the kind of unsubstantiated blanket assertion which atheist LOVE to throw out into a vacuum as if we are expected to simply take their word for it. I doubt  Your average atheist has done a lot of research  because I have TALKED to a lot of atheists. This viewer thinks they HAVE done a lot of research, and I am supposed to take his word for it, just as I am when they tell me that the number of atheists in prison is amazingly low, or that atheists have better marriages, or are better parents, or give more to charity- all of which is actually debunked by the available numbers (research often gets in the way of sincere atheism). But what’s more- NONE OF THAT MATTERS. No Christian apologist worth listening to will tell you that Christianity is true because Christians are better people. I’ve never said that, and I would have little respect for anyone who fell back on THAT argument to prove that the Bible is reliable or that Jesus rose from the dead. 

“Is it possible that he knows enough to claim with certainty that theism is not supported by good evidence?” Again, yes. Your magic book is proof only that fallible individuals with a con to maintain, wrote a book. Nothing more.

“Is it even possible that he can say he knows all of the proposed or existing or possible evidence for God’s existence, and then be able to logically reject all of it as insufficient with justifiable cause?” I repeat. Your magic book is proof only that fallible individuals with a con to maintain, wrote a book. Nothing more.

Consider the argument I am making- for the Atheist to be CERTAIN that God DOES NOT EXIST would either have to have an argument FOR atheism- meaning, he would be able to PROVE that God does NOT exist (And they all admit that they cannot- thus the need to redefine “atheist”) or they would have to know ALL of the arguments FOR the existence of God and be able to prove ALL of them to be wrong. 

But what arguments does he address here? The ONLY thing he says to even allude to any is the phrase “Your magic book,” which strongly implies that he thinks the ONLY ARGUMENT Christians have for the existence of God is that the Bible SAYS God exists. He makes clear instantly that there are DOZENS of arguments for God’s existence which he has NEVER EVEN HEARD OF, let alone could he pretend to have found the flaws in those arguments. This is standard atheist practice. Hand waving dismissal of arguments and evidence which they have NEVER even heard of with name calling and attitude. And then they pretend to be the side of “reason.” It would be sad if it weren’t so funny. 

Also, ask yourself this- if it could be shown that the Bible was full or errors of contradictions, would that prove that GOD doesn’t exist? Suppose that every religion in the world were proven wrong. Does that mean that God doesn’t exist? The Bible has errors and therefore… the universe made itself with no designer and DNA wrote itself and built a cell for it to live in?

The atheists fail to see HOW HIGH the burden of proof for atheism is.

A metaphor I use a lot is this: If it could be shown that there were a thousand accounts of how president Kennedy died- some say one shooter, some say two, some say mafia involvement, some say the communists- and if we could show that not only do they disagree with each other but that they also ALL contain factual errors or contradictions, that would not be proof that JFK died of natural causes. The atheists seem to think that if we could do this, it would prove that it’s reasonable to say that there was no shooter at all and that JFK died from trying to hold in a sneeze. 

“Could he ever prove, even to himself, that there IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE for God’s existence? None in all the universe? None in all of human history? None in existence now but simply absent from the conversations he’s had on FaceBook?” Maybe you could show some evidence that your god actually exists. I’ll wait. But won’t be holding my breath.

SOMEONE is dodging the question. And yet… he says “Maybe you could show some evidence that your god actually exists.” Doesn’t this mean he’s admitted that, not only is everything he said above a lie which he KNOWS to be a lie, but that he is an Agnostic? If the above were true, shouldn’t he have answered, “You CANNOT show ANY evidence that your god exists!” But he lacks the confidence, as he should. Once again, this proves what I always say- MOST “atheists” are just agnostics who are using the word “Atheist” wrong. 

The argument from elephants can do self portraits? What sort of buffoon are you?

Apparently I am the kind of buffoon who can make an argument he can’t answer, and so he stoops to name calling instead of even TRYING to make a case against the point I am making. I’m used to this. I’ve rather come to expect it. 

And now I’m left wondering what categories of Buffoon exist? Maybe there’s a quiz online where I can find out what kind I am. Like one of those web pages that uses your Zodiac sign to determine which Muppet you would be.

So what did we learn? First, many atheists will try to make you angry. You have to decide to be unoffendable and NOT respond in anger. It’s not a point in their favor if you get angry, but neither is it a point in yours.

Second, atheist know that atheism is indefensible. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one try to prove atheism is rational. Instead, they try to redefine it to mean nothing, and then argue that they don’t have to prove anything. I think I have shown why this fails. If you need to see more, visit https://abitoforange.com/free-books/ and read Answering Atheism. It’s free!

Third, atheists (like many people on the internet) will make unsubstantiated blanket assertions. If there was a case to be made for their position, they would have made it. They don’t because they CANNOT.

Don’t do their homework for them. If they tell you “ALL Scientists say…” Ask them to show you a source which proves this. And keep in mind that finding AN scientists who says that is NOT proof that ALL scientists say it. It helps to pay attention to what the other person is saying when having a conversation- because often they will not.

Finally, atheism is nothing to be afraid of. Unlike elephants who can paint, Atheists don’t actually exist.