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An opposite argument is made in this article: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ which wa

An opposite argument is made in this article: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/ which was recently posted in Marginal Revolution.

fungiblecog 3y ago
that's not an argument it's an emotional appeal
BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
> An opposite argument is made in... The fundamental center of that piece is the line > "I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?" Basically everything else she says is demonstrably naive, like whether "Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage". Hoooooo, brother, I mean, for real! Pull the other leg as well! I've got two! She's not actually saying anything about truth at all, but about how she doesn't know how to just appreciate and enjoy something without requiring it to have "meaning" or "purpose". It's weird, but, another way of saying "meaning" and "purpose" in this regard is "doing what you're told". "Christ teaches", "God says", ok, and then? Because all the actual details flow identically whether from a god or not. Having "compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer" works just as well without the two words "sinner" and "believer". > Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realisation that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. Atheism itself need not be a doctrine at all. You can have humility and compassion be your doctrine for purely humanistic reasons. Or for selfish reasons. It really doesn't matter which. Perhaps there should be a "Why I am not a Christian but I think you should be" version of this which leans into the probably true idea that most people are really just pieces of shit and don't care about anything or anyone other than themselves unless some omniscient and omnipotent power is ready to punish them. Like, "I know how to be kind and generous to strangers because I innately love people without, but the rest of you are right bastards." Proselytic atheists probably just don't understand that on the whole people are not capable of being good on their own.

fungiblecog 3y ago

that's not an argument it's an emotional appeal

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago

> An opposite argument is made in... The fundamental center of that piece is the line > "I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?" Basically everything else she says is demonstrably naive, like whether "Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage". Hoooooo, brother, I mean, for real! Pull the other leg as well! I've got two! She's not actually saying anything about truth at all, but about how she doesn't know how to just appreciate and enjoy something without requiring it to have "meaning" or "purpose". It's weird, but, another way of saying "meaning" and "purpose" in this regard is "doing what you're told". "Christ teaches", "God says", ok, and then? Because all the actual details flow identically whether from a god or not. Having "compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer" works just as well without the two words "sinner" and "believer". > Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realisation that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. Atheism itself need not be a doctrine at all. You can have humility and compassion be your doctrine for purely humanistic reasons. Or for selfish reasons. It really doesn't matter which. Perhaps there should be a "Why I am not a Christian but I think you should be" version of this which leans into the probably true idea that most people are really just pieces of shit and don't care about anything or anyone other than themselves unless some omniscient and omnipotent power is ready to punish them. Like, "I know how to be kind and generous to strangers because I innately love people without, but the rest of you are right bastards." Proselytic atheists probably just don't understand that on the whole people are not capable of being good on their own.