Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ appeals to morality, fails Unicorn Test
Utu, the Sumerian sun god and lord of justice, would NEVER.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ slings scientism accusations to destroy marks’ trust in reality
Oh, the face when a Christian confidently attacks science as a means of evaluating religious claims, but does it in a way that indicates he doesn’t understand it at all!
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‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ demands that we read all of their side’s testimonies too
This time around, we will be told that we’re not allowed to entertain doubts or form opinions without hearing all the testimonies that Thaddeus Williams thinks demonstrate the validity of his tribe’s culture wars. Unfortunately for him, they’re nowhere near as persuasive as he thinks they are.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ demands we cherry pick only TRUE CHRISTIANS™ and ignore Bad Christians™
When I first started reading Before You Lose Your Faith, that hard-right evangelical exhortation to doubting sheep, I didn’t quite realize it was going to run the full gauntlet of failed arguments. But here we are at Chapter 9, which now tries to strawman Bad Christians™ and get doubters to look only at TRUE CHRISTIANS™ when evaluating their religion’s validity as a moral framework.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ rejects ‘hammers’, demands ‘precise tools’
In Chapter 8 of Before You Lose Your Faith, contributor Jay Kim continues the book’s fine tradition of trying to set the rules of engagement for evangelical doubters. This time around, deconstructors are not allowed to use ‘hammers’ to dismantle their beliefs. Now, they’re supposed to use only ‘precise tools.’ And what are those tools? Oh, just the same ol’ emotional manipulation, dishonest reframing, and apologetics bullshit that probably got those people doubting in the first place.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ wants the culture wars, but make them more Jesus-y
After years of hearing evangelicals declare that their political opponents are, in fact, evil, I got a kick out of seeing Samuel James condemn that exact mindset as the result of improper Jesus-ing
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ calls forth True Scotsmen to battle white evangelical racism
In a lot of ways, this chapter really exemplifies evangelicals’ inability to engage meaningfully with the dealbreaking flaws in their flavor of Christianity—like the Bible’s amazing ability to twist and contort to fully support any opinion that any Christian could ever possibly have.
Analyzing Christianity
Reframing evangelicals’ bigotry-for-Jesus in ‘Before You Lose Your Faith’
Something in Rachel Gilson’s childhood led her straight to the worst, cruelest, most evil and inhuman flavor of Christianity in the entire shit-tastic Christian rainbow. Through sheer necessity, she’s figured out a way to reframe her tribe’s infamous bigotry-for-Jesus. But it doesn’t have to fool anybody else, and I don’t think it even fools her at times.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Before You Lose Your Faith’ actually seriously asks if we’ve ever tried TRUE CHRISTIANITY™
This book has been unparalleled entertainment for me ever since I started it. But this chapter in particular felt like revisiting a great 80s comedy film.
Analyzing Christianity
‘Non-ambiguous evidence,’ support for claims, and the Christians projecting their own dishonesty onto others
I’m nowhere near as dishonest as Christians are. If I ever encountered real evidence to support the existence of the god depicted in the Bible, I would embrace it immediately.