Yup, those are roughly the ten main arguments for
believing in God. It also serves as a neat casebook of
informal fallacies.
Let's look at them one by one
1.
Are you sure God doesn't exist?
Argument From Ignorance
You're right, I'm not. I'm also not certain that
Winston Churchill didn't have sexual relations with
Adolf Hitler, but prove me wrong. Being unable to prove something does not make its opposite true.
2.
Just ask your priest, rabbi, etc.
Appeal To Authority
On what basis, exactly, do you believe that a priest is more likely to understand
the difference between
right and wrong between, say, a plumber. Even if you do believe in God, you must surely still accept that,
in a world of free will, no one man can truly understand morality. They just want you to think that.
3.
YOU HAVE SINNED!!!
Appeal To Force
The basis of Pascal's wager, and most organised religion. Doubt us if you want, but then you'll BURN!!!.
This is equivalent to saying : the
theory of evolution - believe it or we'll break your bloody legs.
4.
Can you explain infinity?
False Dilemma
Believe in God or admit the universe defies human comprehension. Er, of course there is also the
possibility that there is a third option, like that there is a way of understanding the universe
that is lying outside
the sphere of current human knowledge.
5.
You can't believe that Man descends from the monkey, which is so far below him?
Appeal To Consequence
"Maybe it's true, but that means your ancestors ate their own crap." Fair enough. There's no law that the
truth can't be disgusting. Anyway, if you'd ever hung out with
students you'd have no trouble believing it.
6.
Don't you have a soul? Of course you do
Proof By Assertion
Of course it's true. It has to be, doesn't it. No really, it must be. Ah, think about it.
And so on. Do you actually have an argument, or are you just going to carry on whining?
7.
There are many predictions in the bible that have already come true.
Anonymous Authority
What predictions? Where are they in a bible? When did they occur? You say "many experiments have shown this".
What experiments? Are they documented? Can you produce written documents? Or are you in fact just quoting something
you vaguely remember reading in the
Weekly World News once?
8.
The return to morals is the only solution
Coincidental Correlation
Even if you accept that there's been a drop in faith and a rise in immorality, what actually connects the two? What about other factors - social change, movement from rural to urban life, industrialisation, advances in information
technology, etc.?
9.
Most of the world believes in God
Appeal To Popularity
Too easy. Most of Germany voted for
Hitler. England voted for
Margaret Thatcher, three times. Why don't we all become
communists? One billion chinamen can't be wrong.
10.
Look in your heart
Now that's just
silly.
Thanks to anomie for his/her excellent documentation of logical fallacies