The Outsider Test for Faith Visualized
[Written by John W. Loftus] I've argued for the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) but most believers just don't get it. For people like that I've made a playlist of five short videos so they can see what they refuse to see because they're blinded by faith.
Watch these videos below. Describe what you see. What is the difference between what you see? Describe these people. Do they look passionate in their beliefs? Are they sure of what they believe? Are they sincere believers? Do their prayers work? Why do they believe differently? Why is it that if you got them together to discuss religion they would NOT change their minds? There are about 4200 religions with a total of nearly 44,000 religious sects as passionate as they are about faith. How do you propose to evaluate them all objectively and fairly? If you consider their beliefs as outsiders they are all wrong to believe for the same reasons.
My contention is that most all of these believers already think they have evaluated their own religious faith objectively and fairly. So what to do? Tell them to examine their own adopted religious faith from the perspective of an outsider with the same level of skepticism used to evaluate the other religious faiths they reject. This expresses the OTF. And if they refuse? Have them justify their double standard. All of the logical gerrymandering believers are using to redistrict themselves out of taking this test reveals something significant: they know that they cannot objectively justify their own faith.
Watch these videos below. Describe what you see. What is the difference between what you see? Describe these people. Do they look passionate in their beliefs? Are they sure of what they believe? Are they sincere believers? Do their prayers work? Why do they believe differently? Why is it that if you got them together to discuss religion they would NOT change their minds? There are about 4200 religions with a total of nearly 44,000 religious sects as passionate as they are about faith. How do you propose to evaluate them all objectively and fairly? If you consider their beliefs as outsiders they are all wrong to believe for the same reasons.
My contention is that most all of these believers already think they have evaluated their own religious faith objectively and fairly. So what to do? Tell them to examine their own adopted religious faith from the perspective of an outsider with the same level of skepticism used to evaluate the other religious faiths they reject. This expresses the OTF. And if they refuse? Have them justify their double standard. All of the logical gerrymandering believers are using to redistrict themselves out of taking this test reveals something significant: they know that they cannot objectively justify their own faith.