FacePalm of the Day - Debunking Christianity: Apologists Are Made to be Stupid Because of Their Delusion

John Lofts posted a comment criticizing  Christians in general and Dr Matthew Flannagan in particular.

Do I even need to comment further? Let me just highlight what Christian apologist Matthew Flannagan wrote in response to the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF). Some people simply cannot be helped. Sophisticated theology is bankrupt if he is one of it's defenders, and I mean it. All I have to do is link to the discussion, let him have the last word and laugh at his ignorant, utterly ignorant, responses. Join with me folks, in laughing. Like most apologists he is impervious to reason. Like most of them I must prove their faith is nearly impossible before they will see it as improbable, which is an utterly unreasonable standard. Take note of how Matt doesn't need to provide a better method than science, which forms the basis for the OTF. Come on Matt, are you stupid or what? I no longer care what Christian apologists think if this is how they reason. If this is the best they can do then the good ship "Christian" will certainly sink eventually. They are on the wrong side of history. Of that I am certain.

Notice that Loftus does not argue that Dr Flannagan is deluded, he's arguing that anyone who would defend Christianity is deluded. 

These particular comments started a very interesting conversation. 

• Derek McAllister Collapse

  John, I'm honestly appalled.  I was looking forward to communicating with you, but comments like this make me cautious.  I don't want my own name slung through mud.

  • Today 02:54 PM 

  
   I've seen very little from Loftus than name slinging and insults against Christians. He's not really interested in dialogue - especially when he has no rebuttal.
  
  

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• Mike D

  I don't think we help ourselves by calling people stupid... have we already forgotten what Bruce G said in his letter? Christians have often accused me of calling them stupid because I'm harsh when I criticize their beliefs, but people and ideas aren't the same thing.
  The best example is Isaac Newton. He was by any measure one of the most brilliant minds that ever lived. And yet, after he discovered the laws of motion, the laws of optics, the law of universal gravitation, and invented calculus, he spent the rest of his long life devoted to alchemy. It goes to show that people can compartmentalize their thinking – and that people can be reasonable in general, perfectly intelligent and right about many things, and yet still on certain things be completely irrational and wrong.

  • Today 02:59 PM 

  
  I admit that this is one of the most gracious comments that I have ever read from a person who rejects Christianity.  I just have to ask: How do atheists know that they are not being irrational and wrong when it comes to their rejection of God?
  
  
• John W. Loftus

  Derek, I don't do this often but Matt is a special case of ignorance due to that fact that since he is so educated, he is MORE not LESS deluded. I don't take kindly to ignorant arguments against the OTF especially from someone like Matt who should know better. 

  • Today 03:02 PM 

  
  

  Actually, John Loftus does it all the time. And I would say that Dr Flannagan does know better that is why he disagrees with Loftus. 
• John W. Loftus

  Mike, I never embraced all of what Bruce G. said. I think a multifaceted number of approaches are warranted and our responses should be situation specific. People like Matt who are impervious to reason cannot be helped. I link to what he said for more reasonable people.
  
  

  It's amazing to me how people like Loftus default to the idea that there must be something wrong with they who disagree with them and that he is correct. It's as if it never occurs to them that they could be wrong - that the delusion could be theirs.  Given what the Bible says this isn't really surprising.

  
  ⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, ¹⁰ and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹² and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. - 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Debunking Christianity: Apologists Are Made to be Stupid Because of Their Delusion