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Did God really do miraculous things for you? (The Logical Fallacy of Christianity)

Firm Christians claim that God helps them through difficult circumstances. They claim that their blessings are from God, their problems are just God's trials to the faithful, and there is a reason for everything.

Ummmm, yeah... That's great and all, but don't you ever think that you had the same amount of problems and blessings before you were faithful?

I think Christian faith is merely an example of several logical fallacies. Some of which include Argumentum ad ignorantiam, Anecdotal Evidence, and Argument from Anomaly.

Argumentum ad ignorantiam: simply, this means if you don't understand something, just use this fallacy. Example: I don't understand the Theory of Evolution. Creationism is the only possible answer as to why we are here.

Anecdotal Evidence: Despite all the evidence, if it works for you, then it is the conclusion. Example: many people die due to some kind of illness by solely relying on prayer. But, heck. I'm cured due to the power of the placebo effect. I won't say that it is the placebo effect, but rather, God's miracle.

Argument from Anomaly: If it comes mysteriously without a factual evidence, then a paranormal conclusion is the only answer. Example: I dreamt of a vision from God. I must send this message. This can only have come from God and not through the subconscious and mysterious nature of dreams.

Is Christianity merely a logical fallacy? You be the judge. I can list more, but then, I'd repeat the same point again and again.

CesStuart 5 July 27
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5 comments

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1

If you only believe what you can see, then unless you can see the future, it doesnt exist?

0

No he's never been around when needed.

Marine Level 8 July 28, 2018
2

God never did miraculous things for me when I was a believer. Serendipitous, happy coincidences occured just like they do for everyone. We were taught to attribute those to god, and report it in fabulist terms as a "miracle" or divine intervention; we were taught to attribute unpleasant outcomes to sin (or to Satan, but ultimately Satan can only function if we "give place" to him by sinning, so it still comes back to the fact that anything bad is All Your Fault somehow).

No wonder the Bible adjures believers to "pray without ceasing". If you really can approach that goal, then anytime something good happens there's a nonzero chance you would have recently requested that good thing, and you can credit it to god answering your prayer. If you don't get the good thing, or get bad things instead, then you must not have prayed enough, or with pure enough motives, or with enough faith, or without secret sin, or god is just saying "no" or "not right now" for Mysterious Reasons, or is chastising you or teaching you in some way, etc, etc.

And yes Christianity is basically the implementation / embrace of an interlocking set of logical fallacies that enable it. Religion in general relies on human propensity to confirmation bias and agency inference in particular, as well as all the other deceptions one can fall into if you don't actively work against them and have decent evidentiary standards.

4

this is how I think about the power of prayer.

4

I am a far more simple person than you. When told how god had helped someone through a tough time I simply ask "If god is responsible for extracating you from whatever, isn't it likely he played a role in getting you into the problem in the first place? Couldn't he just have prevented the misfortune from occurring? Why, do you suppose, it was necessary for you to suffer first?"

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