quote:

ORIGINAL: cognitivemagic

Wayward:

Your replies were petty and teeming with sophistry.

Skepticism has not only failed....you have failed to be a skeptic!!!

Why?

You are ready to believe whatever you feel like; as long as it's not theism. You have your skeptic meter set to "partial" and your critique laser set to arbitrary.

Why do you accept your beliefs? I doubt that even you know "why"? As long as someone out there agrees with your viewpoint, why should it matter to you whether there really is good grounds for that point-of-view?

I suppose you could say that the "educational system" has taught you what to believe. But that only shows that you allowed some Institution to think for you. That your "skeptical" mouth didn't bite the hand that fed it ought to suffice to show that your not really "skeptical", but rather capricious and arbitrary in belief selection; or subject to the same non-rational factors that you detest in Christians.

After all, you didn't subject most (if any) of those beliefs that you were taught as a child and young adult to skeptical scrutiny....until someone came along and persuaded you to be skeptical, right? And you weren't skeptical in being persuaded of skepticism, right?

Or, perhaps, your skepticism arose suddenly and without warning by some particular "mood" that you were in? Is that right? Or maybe a "bad experience" with a church has made you become vindictive towards all "religious" persons (especially Christian persons); hence the adoption of "skepticism", and this crusade of yours on a Christian blog, in order to reinforce your conviction that Christianity is stupid because Christians are....and that your "skepticism" was right all along. Am I right?

What about being skeptical of yourself.....being skeptical of the beliefs you were taught in school....being skeptical of the means of acquiring information (i.e. the mind and/or brain)....being skeptical of science.....being skeptical that you are currently "right" in this debate.....being skeptical that atheism and agnosticism are true.....being skeptical that the future will resemble the past.....finally, why not be skeptical of skepticism?

"Well there's the indubitable fact of the universe, stupid...that's gotta prove something about atheism, right?"

"There's all these natural laws, dummy. I don't care how it's even possible that they "exist"....I only care about how they make the idea of "miracles" irrational"

"Humans can't help but think, magician boy. It's irrelevant how "thought" is even possible....I just accept it."

"Science is rational, ya meat-head....duh, everyone should know that!!"

I introduced an argument that you admit that you don't have any answers to. But does that deter you from bold hypocrisy when you insist that the theist is irrational because he/she can't support his/her position by "reason" (whatever that means)? No, it doesn't.

Instead, you trivialize the entire discussion with potshots like:

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I'm beginning to fear something much worse though, which is that you are a fraud, creating a diversion from the crystal clarity of my logic.

You simply don't understand the very basic big bang model.

Relativity physics huh? I should stop now and ignore you forever.

again, a better man than me would simply click ignore under your screen name.

Are you used to debating 4th graders?

It would appear that was the moment you learned it, as your application of it here is infantile.

No, your cognitive ability is limited.

Perhaps you should stop performing it then, Mr cognitivemagic

Sincerely, I don't mean to be terse but do yourself a favor, and go read post 247 about fifty more times.

But that's nearly the bulk of your supposed "rebuttal" to my points. No substantive response....just contrary assertions and insults.

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Are you used to debating 4th graders?

Maybe....especially ones who perish the thought of editing without a spellchecker and diversionate from the topic with phantom words and grammatically iffy sentences in order to hypocritastically insult my very beingness.


What was that proverb, "answer an atheist according to his/her folly", all about? Or maybe it went "answer a deist according to her folly"? I can't remember right now. I'm sure it will come to me sometime.

Finally, what business could you possibly have at "crosswalk.com", other than proselytizing Christians?

Perhaps I'm being a bit hasty, here. Maybe you really are looking for a good "reason" to believe in God and Christianity.

Is this true? Or are you trying to lead Christians away from their faith?

Personally, I don't care if you are here to proselytize Christians. I think they are going to see that your posts are foolish and unsubstantiated intellectual dreck.

My hope is that other Christians will learn the truth that, "God's foolishness is greater than any man's wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:25); and that there are answers to tough questions. There is no objection that doesn't have a good response...in fact, there's many different answers to the same question. I only offer one or two.

I have, personally, spent 20 years seeking answers to tough questions by educating myself, having good mentors and role models in "truth", talking to dozens and dozens of other people.....and above all, praying. Not because I had an agenda to proselytize; rather, I, myself, was plagued with doubts and questions since my youth. It took a lot of time and love to help me regain some faith. And if I can give back to just one person who is plagued by doubts....to offer some solace and encouragement...then I say "bring the best and brightest skeptics to me". Christians have nothing to fear.