Category Archives: Logical Fallacy

Recently, I watched (and commented on) a video from a Christian making the point that it was Ken Ham’s Young Earth Creationism that was driving people away from Christianity, not the fact that it is a toxic, xenophobic belief system that has contributed to the declining culture of this country. Nothing to do with that at all! So it didn’t surprise me too much when I got up this morning and saw this response waiting for me. This is a response to a comment I made on his video:

The problem with YouTube’s comments system is that it is limited to 500 words so I think I’ll give him my full response here.

Dude, you don’t get it. You haven’t been listening at all. The reason why I detest Christianity in a way that I do not detest Judaism, Buddhism or Zoroastrianism is because (1) it tries to inject it’s noxious views into society at all levels and (2) it hurts everyone I care about. It has nothing to do with the way I live my life… okay, I do take that back, it does have to do with the way I live my life…

I’m a compassionate human being.

You see, I cannot in good conscience support something that hurts so many people. Christianity is actively hurting so many people across the globe. It is working on passing anti-gay bills in backwards countries that don’t know any better and cannot see the humanity in their fellow citizens. They are trying to roll back women’s rights and the free exercise of those rights, which explains the war against contraception and abortion. They are trying to make our world a worse place to live as a result of their bullshit dogma. And everything they are doing demonstrably makes our world a less kind, compassionate and loving place to be.

Love is what matters. Not faith. Love for your fellow human beings. Not faith in some phony baloney god that some cave-dweller centuries ago made up.

It’s not about hedonism, as you so put it. It’s about caring about the world in which we live. If we believe that this is the only life we have to live, then we are more likely to make every moment meaningful. Even if it were a demonstrable concept, the idea of eternal life would be abhorrent to me, because it would make the time we have now meaningless and worthless. The fact that we will all die at some point brings meaning to life and value to every second of it. If this is the time I have now, I had better make the most of it and use it as wisely as humanly possible.

Will vs. Whim.

Now, onto the oft misinterpreted precept of Thelema. When the Book of the Law says “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”, obviously that is not license to do whatever the hell you want. Liberty, not license. Your Will, not your whim. For example, it is my will to live the best life possible. To do that, I will go to college, work hard and move to Canada. Hopefully, sometime in there, I will meet another woman who I will fall in love with and get married to and that will make me happy. That is my Will. Now, if I were to act on my whim, certain aspects of my Will will be harder to achieve and thus, I am not doing what I wilt.

I don’t believe in fate but I do believe in auspicious coincidences.

Excuses, excuses.

The fact that this guy is brushing my objections off just because I am a Thelemite shows the lack of intellectual honesty this guy has. Would he act the same way if I were a Buddhist? How about if I were a Taoist or a practitioner of Shinto? What if I ascribed to the Juche Idea? The thing is, if anyone sees his comments and his responses, they would be have his number. They would know that this guy doesn’t care about what is true and he’ll look for any way out of a debate. He’ll look for any way to try to discredit his opponents without even touching their positions.

So, what’s this guy’s excuse?

As for the fact that the Christian Bible is evil, well – there are many sources that have verified that and documented all the reasons why and I don’t think I need to go into all of them, now do I? It wouldn’t be such a big problem to believe something untrue, if it weren’t for the fact that Christianity weren’t so damned evil. True, it would still suck not having a world view that aligns with reality but there’s no real reason why someone should believe Christianity considering how toxic it is to our world.

There is a reason why people like me who were raised with these beliefs cannot hold them when we get into adulthood… they are absolutely evil to their core. That’s why so many young people are fleeing Christianity like rats off the Titanic. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe Christianity will die in my lifetime, but if it did, that would be nice. After all, there are always gullible people who will believe anything that some shyster or another will tell them so there is a place for Christianity. Much like there is a place for Scientology and Amway.

Oh, one last thing: The author of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible is finally publishing a print version. Pre-orders should arrive and be mailed out next week. Woot.