Monday, April 4, 2011

Curve Ball #9 - Personal Jesus

Personal Jesus
One of the most used examples of god, is personal experience:

"I can feel him, he talks to me."
"You can't explain these things that happened to me."
"Jesus lives inside me."
etc..

Now, this is anecdotal evidence, and is highly unreliable, which is why it isn't reliable testimony in any modern judicial system on the Planet.

The use of anecdotal evidence, can also dig into an emotional field, so when people talk about this, they do so because it hits home, which can lead to Appeals To Emotion.

So, in the following, be very careful to make sure of its appropriate usage.
This will almost be a direct attack at a persons character.
And is a possible friend killer, so be sure to think this through.

The next time you speak to a Christian, or any Theist for that matter, tell them, directly that they are lying about what they are telling you, tell them that they are lying about their belief in Jesus.
Tell them:
You Aren't Truly A Christian!
Prove To Me That You Are A Christian!
This will warrant high negativity & offense, rightfully so. But, it can get people thinking.
Then Ask
What would a person convinced they were abducted by aliens have to do, to convince you that they were abducted; and to convince you that Aliens, do indeed exist.
The point of this is to see, if they can coherantly collect their thoughts, into trying to prove to you (and themselves), that they are really a Christian & Why..

If they use other 2nd Hand Anecdotes, like "My friend did drugs and got converted"
[Just reitterate the above question to ask]

"How do you know that friend truly felt/did that?
Is it not just as reliable as what you've just said?"

The entire excercise is prove how truly unreliable anecdotal evidence really is.
Yet, anecdotal evidence is pretty much the only evidence outside of scripture, that people usually invoke to sell/justify their religious belief.

Whether it be 1st hand, 2nd hand, or your best friends, mothers, dads, cousins, half-removed, sister.
Anecdotal evidence isn't reliable.

Heres a thought,
Alien Abductees believe so strongly that they what they experienced was true and real, just as real as the device your using to read this.

We rely on first hand accounts all of which share similar characteristics.
They happen world wide, and number in the ~1000's per year.

Yet, Most dismiss this as 'Tin Foil Hat' material.
But, On what grounds is this dismissable?

Why does it seem more reliable to assert a religious experience, over something like this?

Because, more people were present at the event?
How do we know that those in that situation rationally interpreted the events?

It's like a small child, who hears a creak at night,
Their thoughts jump straight "Monsters under the bed!!!!!"

One this which is true, is that mankind has one hell of an imagination, combine that imagination with something that we don't understand, and our need to seek patterns, you get irrational answers made simply to fill that gap.

There is little to no difference in the amount of evidence presented to prove that what is truly experienced is what is actually asserted.

Neither contain the correct evidence to prove the causal assertion to be correct.
Even the correlation between the event is questionable.



"Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence"
Carl Sagan

More Christian Curve Ball
Posted By Bradyns