Note to Reppert, Plantinga and Craig: The Claimed Proper Basicality of the Christian Set of Beliefs is Utter and Complete Nonsense!

The more I hear about this extremely queer argument the more I'm inclined to think with Dr. David Eller that believing and knowing are two separate things. He argues for a change in our nomenclature even though I'm not yet convinced he's right. It's just that there is no comparison of the Christian set of beliefs with our knowledge that the past happened. By my lights I see the belief in Elves and the belief in the Christian God as resting on the same foundations--culturally adopted ignorant and delusional beliefs which have no place among intelligent and highly educated scientifically minded people.

The fact that I have been treating Christian beliefs respectfully in the past does not mean I ever thought differently about them or of the people who hold to them. Christian, you are ignorant. Sorry, but that’s what I honestly think. Maybe by my saying this it will make you pause. Just become either an anthropologist, a psychologist, a scientist, a real Biblical scholar, or an archaeologist and it’ll help you appreciate what I’m saying. Yes, there are conservative believers in those fields, I know, but the ratio of conservative believers to liberals and non-believers is much much less in these fields of learning than the general populace (and Biblical scholars started out being conservative). I know why this is so, so you'll have to guess why. Philosophers of religion like Reppert, Plantinga, and Craig are merely accepting the results of shoddy conservative biblical scholarship and then seeking ways to defend those results without being Biblical scholars or archaeologists themselves to know the difference, like Hector Avalos, William Dever, Bart Ehrman are, along with so many others. [Craig is probably best to be thought of as an apologist, not a Biblical scholar]. And anthropology is, well, the clincher, or is it psychology, or paleontology, or geology, or astronomy, or any one of a number of other disciplines of learning?

I've learned a great deal while Blogging these few years. Just like flat earthers are ignorant so also are believers. But there's more to it since being ignorant doesn't exactly describe such a person. Believers are blinded by their passions because they have been brainwashed by their culture. Our culturally inherited beliefs are what we use to “see” with. These inherited beliefs are much like our very eyes themselves, so it’s extremely difficult to examine that which we use to see with. We cannot easily pluck out our eyes to look at them since we use our eyes to see. But we must do this if we truly want to examine that which we were taught to believe. It’s a simple fact that brainwashed people do not know they have been brainwashed!

And there is no parity with an atheist here, so don't say "you too." For the real debate is NOT WITH ATHEISM AT ALL! The real debate is between the Christianities of the past and today along with the debates between a plethora of Christianities in today’s world. Then this debate kicks into high gear between the myriad of religions themselves. An atheist is someone who simply doesn't think that a particular set of religious claims is correct. I came by my atheism as the result of a process of elimination, as most atheists have done. Christians are on that same road too. They just fail to understand that the same kinds of requirements they demand of other Christianities and of other religions they reject also apply to their own beliefs.

As I’ve said before, I think I have solved the Christian puzzle.