Christians Being Nice Isn’t Evidence for God Any More than Atheist Being Nice Isn’t Evidence Against God
Every now and then, when I see a Christian doing something really despicable, I think to myself, “that’s why I’m not a Christian”.
But then I stop and have to correct myself. That thought isn’t true. Even if all the Christians of the world were just as sweet as lollipops, I still wouldn’t believe. My belief has little to do with manners and almost everything to do with the truth of Christianity’s claims.
(Although, if Christianity did claim that it made people demonstrably nicer, and all Christians were significantly more nice compared to the non-Christian population, that probably would be evidence in favor of Christianity).
So long as I disgregard politeness as evidence for Christianity being true, I can’t really say that rudeness is evidence against Christianity. I’m not justified in thinking that thought.
This has some huge problems for Christians who think the best way to minister to people is just to “love on them”. Think about what it would mean if being nice is evidence for the truth of your beliefs.
If I’m nice to you, does that atheism true?
If I’m nice to you, does that mean Star Trek is better than Star Wars?
If I’m nice to you, does that mean that purple is a better color than green?
Hm… but now that I think about it… for many people, it kinda does.
Purple is NEVER a better colour than green! :-) Happy holidays and a great new year!
I think that our particular experience of a thing goes a long way to our tolerance of a thing.
I had positive church experiences as a child, but I am not religious – I am a naturalist – we live in natural universe and there’s been nothing that we haven’t been able to sufficiently explain and what we can’t – we need to improve technology and theories for.
There’s no need to put “god” on the answer line as a placeholder until we sort it out ourselves.
believing in gods means not understanding the world – and that practice generally leads to a run on virgin sacrifices.
so, save the virgins for something better than a harvest or quiet volcano – and learn to understand the universe without resorting to supernatural agents