what you are babbling about is beside the point of your religion ... (religiorant)

if someone tries to argue for christianity against an atheist, the points of contention are usually nothing to do with christianity's central message of "love thy neighbour", the atheist should be using this to their advantage.

Instead of bamboozling believers by pointing out their logical fallacies or even how they have their "science" or "history" wrong, i ask them what does this thing that they are prattling on about have to do with being the good moral person that christianity supposedly teaches them to be? ..

i mean, the point of JC's teachings were to get people to be nice to each other at all times, right?

so what does "god making the universe", "just believing in Jesus", "saying prayers in public", "teaching intelligent design", "having 'in god we trust' on money", "going to church", "just reading the bible", "Jesus being a real person", "worrying about others going to heaven or hell", "abortions", "things being miracles", "god sending natural disasters as punishment", "gay marriage and homosexuals in general", "the bible being historically and/or scientifically accurate" and the myriad of other things that they prattle on about, what do all those things have to do with being the good person that christians often claim that being a christian makes them?

i find trying to relate to believers with science or logic to be a waste of time, it's much easier to relate to them on their level, don't get me wrong, knowing all the logical fallacies, languages, science and history is great, but trying to use them in an argument with believers (especially fundies), well, the whoosh factor on the believer is very high.

i mean, many don't even understand their own bible, so instead of wasting your time arguing your point from your point of view, it's a lot easier to just boil the whole argument down to the basic message of what christianity is about, and then arguing that christians should be showing tolerance, and acceptance for all their fellows humans, not bickering about "things"

i think this is the whole point of not committing idolatry, because when people worry too much about "things" to do with their religion, they end up not doing the actions that their religion has supposedly taught them to do, the very actions that supposedly make them a good person, but how can one claim to be a good person by doing nothing at all.

mostly written, 21st June 2011 .... mostly