This week I continue my treatise on Why Chrisitianity is REAL, in response to an article at Atheists Alliance International by Bill Flavell’s article, entitled “Eight Reasons Christianity is False”
Atheist Bill’s third reason against Christianity:
“3. There is clear evidence that religions and gods are propagated through culture by infecting children, and no evidence that they are propagated by gods.”
The default assumptions here:
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- Clear evidence of propagation through culture…
- ‘Infecting’ children …
- No evidence of propagation by gods…
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Evidence of propagation through culture
I concede this point. Wherever we live in the world, the initial way we learn about life is through what our parent’s generation has taught us. Sometimes it is good, and sometimes not. However, just because we initially learn from them, it does not mean we absorb it and make it our own in the succeeding generation. For example, I remember growing up in Pennsylvania, and I never met a black person until eighth grade. The color of their skin made no difference to me, but I was shocked to learn that my parent’s generation saw this culture in a negative way — as foreign, different, and separate. I tolerated their feelings and misguided perspectives, but it did not mean I had to take it on. I propagated my own culture of understanding about race, in spite of what the previous generation believed. Children grow up, and the initial propagation of culture is not carved in stone. People can change.
Infecting children
The Cambridge dictionary defines ‘Infect” as “to cause disease in someone by introducing organisms such as bacteria or viruses ” (aka pathogens). By definition, Bill implies that he accepts the principle: God is an organism, but contends that He is bad for you. Based on the methodological philosophy of how to prove a point, we do not have to prove God is ‘always bad’; we only have to prove that God’s influence is good (not a pathogen) for those who accept God. “Influence” is a more appropriate word, since it is without the ‘pathogen’ bias connotation.
Regardless of how we feel about pathogens, in the example of ‘vaccinating’ our children, no one can deny that vaccination SAVES children. In affect, vaccines use pathogens that are good for us. I concede there are situations where the ‘influence of God’ on our children may not always be seen as favorable — but it is our RESPONSE as children that determines the impact of the influence .
When a child lives through the influence of something in their culture, they develop a response to it. For those that accept God’s influence, they are made stronger.
No evidence of propagation by gods.
To provide evidence that God makes us aware of Him, rather than humanity ‘dreaming him up’, we have to use evidence that transcends time and has incontrovertible probabilities. For this context, lets focus on prophecies.
Mankind could propagate multiple prophecies, but as soon as any prophecy is proved wrong or false, we lose our case with the provided evidence. I turn to a well known article with probability calculations from Peter Stoner, a professor of Mathematics.
People can do some pretty squishy things with numbers (especially with a last name like that), so it’s important to note that Stoner’s work was reviewed by the American Scientific Association, which stated, “The mathematical analysis … is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound, and Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way.”
The article concludes with
Bible scholars tell us that nearly 300 references to 61 specific prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The odds against one person fulfilling that many prophecies would be beyond all mathematical possibility. It could never happen, no matter how much time was allotted. One mathematician’s estimate of those impossible odds is “one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.”
Just on one subject, ‘Messiah’, there is evidence of propagation from God. God has been showing himself since the beginning. We merely need to look.
