Blastcat wrote:
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Replying to post 4 by wiploc]
wiploc wrote:
10. Include the emotional argument.
They didn't get where they are based on logic, so they can't be moved from that position based on logic alone. There must be an emotional appeal to where they are, and we have to offer an emotional reason for them to change.
Theirs is an ugly religion. I don't know what the appeal of it is supposed to be. Hellfire, eternal suffering, would be a terrible thing. A decent person would give up her position in Heaven to save her daughter from Hell. A good person might do the same for a stranger. No decent person can hope that Hellfire is true; no decent person can hope that Christianity is true.
Against that ultimate horror, what can Christianity possibly offer as an appealing upside?
A world in which even one person goes to Hell to suffer forever, that is the worst of all possible worlds.
I hardly think that the way to get to #8 is by reminding them how horrible and ugly their religion is.
I am getting away from emotional appeals ... but if you can give me a better example of a good emotional appeal, that would be interesting.
I went into a restaurant and asked for a glass of water. The waiter brought me the water and, after I drank it, said, "That will be a million billion trillion dollars."
I said, "I can't pay that!"
The waiter said, "That's quite all right, sir. I'll cancel your debt by murdering the busboy."
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You don't have to use words like "horrible," "ugly." Just share viewpoint; let them see that, thru your eyes, their religion doesn't appeal.
The only reason they are theists is because they've been told that it's nice and good. Only if they see that maybe it's not nice and good will they become open to logical arguments.
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This emotional appeal is by Robert Frost. It's been a long time, so this may turn out to be paraphrase:
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The Draft Horse
With a lantern that wouldn't burn,
In too frail a buggy we rode,
Behind too heavy a horse,
Thru a pitch dark limitless grove.
A man came out of the trees,
He took our horse by the head,
And reaching back to his ribs,
Deliberately stabbed him dead.
The most unquestioning pair
That ever accepted fate,
And the least disposed to ascribe,
Any more than we had to to hate,
We assumed that the man himself,
Or someone he had to obey,
Wanted us to get down,
And walk the rest of the way.
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See, he doesn't use words like "ugly" or "horrible." He makes the Christians laugh at the pair's naive lack of resentment at their mistreatment. And only later do they realize they've been laughing at Adam and Eve, and the evil man is god.
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I have a friend who believes in Hell because the bible says it exists. But he also believes god is good, because the bible says that too. So he believes that Hell is empty; nobody there.
I suppose the wailing and gnashing of teeth is piped in.
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If I were the god of Oklahoma, and Jehovah were the god of of everywhere else, everybody would move to Oklahoma.
And I'm not even that nice.
It's just not at all hard to be
way nicer than Jehovah.
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I hope some of this helps.
