Some outrageous Confessions

It’s getting close to a year, since I first started engaging with Theists on Twitter and being an active member of the Atheist community. In my time, I have encountered many reasonably nice Christians and Muslims, some of whom I now consider internet friends. But then, there are other types as well: The ones who are opposed to reason and evidence.

However if the stars are aligned, you may catch them off guard and then they say things, witch which they directly admit to this very fact. Here are just some of the things, that have been confessed by Theists to me in a moment of weakness and I’ll throw a bunch of familiar mantras in there as well:

At first I pretty much started out as a guy who made it his mission to try to teach evolution to Creationists. While I still do that to some extent I have given up to bring them to reason at this point. I pretty much hit rock bottom in my hopes of bringing them to reason, when I provided this video of archaeopteryx as well the paper concerning the Lenski experiment. After confronted with these sources he told me that he knew that archaeopteryx is transitional and he knew what the paper indicates but that he doesn’t care. While I won’t provide any names, this person is a well known member of the Creationist group on Twitter.

Yet another confession that left me in utter shock and disgust happened during a 2 hour back forth concerning morality with a Christian. This guy openly admitted, that for him morality has nothing to do with human well being and that he would, if God were to ask, kill his own children without hesitation.

Yet another Christian told me this as a response to my well meant advice to reflect upon his morality just few weeks ago:

” I won’t. Beating a slave in certain situations was fine by me. No help needed”

(I actually quoted the Tweet on my Timeline if you want to bother to check me on this. For the previous ones I’m afraid you have to take my word for it)

I think one of the most shocking and prominent examples of intellectual dishonesty comes right from Answers in Genesis own website. I quote them verbatim:

“By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the scriptural record. Of primary importance is the fact that evidence is always subject to interpretation by fallible people who do not possess all information.”

Now I find this to be profoundly dishonest. It is true, that evidence needs to be interpreted but in some cases (like with archaeopteryx), you need to deny your own sight to come to any other conclusion but the fact, that he has clear reptilian features and is therefore transitional. They often put it to us whether we should rather trust God’s word or man’s word. My answer would be: neither! Trust what the evidence indicates, trust what your senses tell you and don’t rely on your a priori conclusions.

The second confession from a rather well known person comes from Todd Wood. He’s a young Earth Creationist and in one of his bblog entries he said this:

“Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.”

As much as I respect his honesty that he admits, that evolution has evidence behind it, I can’t understand this kind of mindset, that he rejects evolution despite his knowledge that it’s true.

The last and final confession is from a fundamentalist Christian as well. This may surprise some people but she and I are getting along quite great. She also seems to be an honest person which is why she said this to me:

“I know we dont know each other & we have many differences. You are prone to logic. & I admit many things I say are illogical”

I hope that if you read this you won’t mind me quoting you for this article. I haven’t asked her this directly since I don’t labor under andy delusions of winning her over to my side but why would you believe things, which you know are unreasonable and illogical to believe?

In closing let me remind you, that I’m not trying to hate on Christians. I’ve got nothing against Christians. I’m against ignorance and anti-intellectualism. There are ignorant people on both sides of the debate (even though I’d argue that fundamentalists are a heavy burden for Theists) and it is ignorance that I’m fighting primarily. Whether Atheists or Theists, that’s what we all should do.

Goodbye from yours truly,

Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation