Some advice for Atheists...

Thanks to PZ for finding this little piece, it's from a Christian writer and is titled "Five things that would make atheists seem nicer".

It's interesting because I think it exposes a deeply insecure mind-set. The thing which I see in this tactic is something that crops up a lot in the debate with Christians and other Theists, that is, a willingness to almost immediately drop into Ad-hominem attacks rather than defend their ideas with robust argument. Having used the tactic themselves they then project the logic error onto the opposition and play the "atheists are nasty/shrill/insensitive" card; which is essentially accusing atheists of using Ad-Hom via an Ad-Hom, a circular diversionary tactic.

We can see from just the title of this article that this particular Christian has failed even before he's started by using the word "seem", a nasty implication if ever there was one, anyway, let me respond to his suggestions in more detail.

1. Stop being so smug

There is nothing like starting an argument as a pot by calling the kettle black; Christians claim to have privileged access to the inner workings of the mind of the omnipotent creator of the universe and that unless you hold the same view as them you are eternally damned; pretty modest bunch of ideas no? I also read this as the workings of a mind that thinks it's "in charge" (as it has been in the West for the last 2000 years). If I were to rewrite this in an honest manner I would say it should really read, "Stop rubbing our superstitious noses in the stink-pile of reality, it makes us uncomfortable and we're fed up with being proven wrong".

2. Don't assume every piece of Christian evangelism is directed at you - we want the undecideds, not the decided-uns.

Why would atheists think that evangelism is directed at them? (jeez, I thought we were supposed to be the smug ones!); firstly this Christian is assuming that the dross which passes for "evangelical argument" in his circles is actually coherent; what atheists see is vague hand-waving about paradise and threats of an imaginary hell all sealed with Pascal's wager and teleological wish-thinking; compared to science this doesn't even make it to the first rung of a decent argument. We are all after the "undecideds", which is why this is no different from saying "shut up atheists whilst we get on with proselytising our particular brand of theism".

3. Admit that the debate about God's existence is complex - and that it can, depending on your presuppositions, be quite possible for intelligent and rational people to intelligently believe in an intervening deity who communicates through a book.

The truth of this point is that at its core is a simple concept, a concept that is not in the interests of Christians or any other religious party to expose. A simple question that any child could grasp causes the whole pack of cards to tumble down, i.e. please explain (objectively) the reason we should believe the Christian God over any of the other 20,000 gods that supposedly exist now or have ever existed?

4. Admit that the scientific method - which by its nature relies on induction rather than deduction (starting with a hypothesis and testing it rather than observing facts and forming a hypothesis) - is as open to abuse as any religious belief, and is neither objective nor infallible.

Totally wrong, this is a mischaracterisation of science; I would go so far as to say a lie. Science uses both deductive and inductive logic and it has something that no religion has or has ever had, that is a process of testing claims AGAINST REAL-WORLD OBSERVATIONS. Science is bounded by evidence, and religion has no bounds at all. Again, we see the true concern of the faithful mind in its projection of an internal concern onto a straw-man of science. Any individual can abuse anything of course, but the fact remains that "abuse" or hucksterism is the norm among the ranks of the superstitious, gullibility is often synonymous with faith.

5. Try to deal with the actual notions of God seriously believed in by millions of people rather than inventing straw-men (or spaghetti monsters) to dismiss the concepts of God - and deal with the Bible paying attention to context and the broader Christological narrative rather than quoting obscure Old Testament laws. By all means quote the laws when they are applied incorrectly by "Christians" - but understand how they're meant to work before dealing with the Christians described in point 3.

Which God? Which Christians? Which Laws? Which Book? Which narrative? There are thousands of different interpretations and sects each utterly convinced they are right because religion has no objective process to validate the truth claims of any of them, please explain why Baptists are wrong and Episcopalians right?. The only intellectually honest position is the one that rejects all of them and says "we don't know". The "Teflon" trick of the theologian is that once any particular thing is demolished by force of argument or evidence, they shift the goalposts, "Oh no, that's not our faith you atheists are arguing against" or "Oh no you shouldn't pay attention to the old testament" or "Oh no, that's just allegory, don't take that sentence literally, it's the next sentence that's important".

So, until the Theists come up with a single scrap of evidence that what they believe is true then forgive us atheists for calling it as we see it, apologetic whining is still whining so if it's that obvious then quit with the Ad-Hom's and show us the money!