Chad brought an interesting article to my attention. It's written by John Shore and is entitled, Why Atheists Win Arguments with Christians About God. Shore’s answer to that question is, of course: logic. Atheists employ logical arguments (God is not a measurable entity in any scientific sense, therefore He does not exist), while Christians employ non-logical arguments (but there are a lot of people in the world who believe in a God and I feel at peace when I’m praying in church).
Do you ever feel like everybody is missing the point?
The question must be raised, why do Christians argue with atheists at all? Do Christian apologists really believe that if they debate Richard Dawkins on Sixty Minutes just one more damn time, they’ll strike on the perfect argument to make all the watching atheists sit up in their barcaloungers and say, “Well, shit. I guess that settles that. Where’s the nearest Pentecostal church, I need to go be slain in the Holy Spirit now.”
Fold up your tent, you heathens. Pat Robertson finally cracked it on national TV. You’re now all supporters of Israeli sovereignty, speaking in tongues, and only missionary in the dark after marriage. Unless Mark Driscoll cracked it on national TV, in which case butt stuff is cool.
In his article, Shore rightfully asserts that spiritual experience is purely subjective. Unfortunately, he then goes off the rails a bit. Since it is subjective, he writes, it is a fool’s errand to try to “prove that what is real and true for me must also be real and true for everyone else.” This, he asserts, is reason enough to be kind, thoughtful, and keep our big dumb mouths shut.
This is some kind of busted version of Asserting the Consequent:
Logical argument doesn’t apply to subjective experience.
Spiritual experience is subjective.
Therefore Christians need to shut the fuck up about spiritual experience and just be nice.
The error, of course, seems to be in believing that the only meaningful way to talk about spiritual experience is with logical arguments, and if we can’t use those then we can’t talk about them at all. By that same logic (damn you logic, you Godless whore!), nobody should talk about food, either. Or art. And yet nobody is trying to argue that those things, and the discussion of them, don’t have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.
There is a trope in film and television: You Can See That, Right? In this trope, a character sees something fantastic or unexpected, and has to gain confirmation of its existence from his companions. It is natural for Christians to spend their entire lives doing a version of this. “I had an experience so dramatic and amazing that I don’t fully understand it. Have you ever had an experience like that?” This line of questioning is often the beginning of a lifetime of spiritual pursuit. And the resultant joy when one discovers a companion who has shared your experience is natural.
Those who are honest spiritual seekers, what Bernard Iddings Bell called “true agnostics”, understand this process intuitively. Those who long ago rejected any spiritual possibility do not understand it, and cannot, until they, of their own volition, change the way they think about the issue. And no argument will spur them on their way. It’s a very personal journey.
So yes, Christians, be loving and respectful. But don’t be silent. You need not argue with atheists on television to express your joy and passion and doubt and inescapable, bittersweet yearning for God.
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