One of the slurs commonly leveled at atheists by theists is that we are arrogant. But there are few people who display more arrogance than certain theists, particularly Christians who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I recently had an e-mail argument with a family member concerning the Exodus story. He had sent me some photos supposedly of chariot wheels found in the Red Sea, and insisted that this "proved" the Exodus story. I pointed out all the problems with that theory, questioned the credibility of the source he was relying on, and noted that archaeologists have found no evidence of a mass movement of people from Egypt such as described in Exodus. Here's the type of response I received:
1. You are too blind to see the obvious.
2. Archaeologists can't be trusted because they hide evidence that supports the Bible.
3. The Bible has been proven true over and over again. Anyone questioning the accuracy of the Bible is just in denial.
This type of theist has no problem asserting that he knows better than professional archaeologists and historians about issues pertaining to their own fields. In addition, since he's a creationist, he also feels qualified to dismiss all the work of multiple branches of science. He knows better than all of them, because he knows the TRUTH. Therefore their specialized knowledge and lifelong bodies of work can just be dismissed out of hand, when they conflict with his preconceived notions formed by religious belief. How arrogant is that? An atheist would have to work pretty hard to achieve anything like that level of arrogance.
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I think that the following quote from Galileo is approriate when attempting to have any discussion with those "Christians" who believe that they, and they alone, know the "Truth" of any any matter.
ReplyDelete"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
These type of people really, really scare me.
The even scarier thing is that this individual is highly intelligent, educated, and rational on subjects that don't conflict with his religious beliefs. In my last e-mail I pointed out that if we were discussing an Islamic myth supported by the exact same level of "evidence," he'd be just as skeptical as I am, and would be siding with with professional scholarship.
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