What Does it Mean to Take and Pass The OTF?

Believers are scrambling to find a way of escape from the Outsider Test for Faith(OTF), which calls upon them to test what they were led to believe from an outsider's perspective with the same level of skepticism used to reject all other religions. All that believers need to do is consider how they evaluate the other religions they reject. Once they do they'll see quite plainly what is required of them. They merely assume these other religions are false. That's all it takes. Just assume they are false.

As human beings we are not like the Spock in Star Trek. We don't think logically. This is the human condition. But precisely because of the human condition we should try to be as objective as possible with what we think is true.

If human beings reason so badly that we implicitly adopt what we were taught to believe in our respective cultures so much that they become like blinders on our eyes, and if we’re that bad at weighing the claims of beliefs that have little or no evidence for them to decide between differing ones, then we cannot offer a milquetoast test that asks people to be objective, fair and openminded about that which they were raised to believe and defend. What we are enculturated with is who we are. We cannot see the water we swim in. We cannot pluck our eyes out and look at them. So we cannot simply ask people to be objective, fair and openminded. Believers already think they are being objective because they can't see that they are not! Just look at how confident some Muslims are that they are being objective. Some of them are so certain they're objective about their faith they are willing to fly planes into buildings. Ask them if they’re objective and it would be a no brainer for them. But ask them to subject their own faith to the same level of skepticism they use to reject other faiths and THAT will get their attention. Since we cannot pluck out their eyes we must offer them a shocking test, one that may help get them out of their dogmatic slumbers like nothing else can do. And they will object as strenuously as they can to the OTF because they know their faith does not pass that test.

Who should take the OTF? Anyone who has faith must take the OTF.

You see, it's faith that trumps evidence for most people and it's faith I deny. Faith concludes more than what the evidence leads us to accept. An outsider must only go with what the probabilities are and never go beyond them, as much as humanly possible.

It's the standard for whether to accept what we do.

So if you assume your own religion is false at the outset and the evidence can still lead you to accept it, your religious faith has passed the OTF.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm a Christian, and I passed this test. As a matter of fact, there have been times in my life, when I have felt as if my faith isn't doing enough for me. Then, I imagined myself in someone else's shoes, looking at all the great things that Christianity has done in my life, and it always restores all of my confidence in Jesus. The OTF doesn't cause me to doubt my religion, rather, it causes me to feel more and more confident that it is true.

Russ said...

Kiriluser,
Christianity has never done anything for you that is not the result of social group effects. Interacting with others confers benefits whether or not one is religious. What's more, other religions have exactly the same claims of benefit and they, too, are wrong, and they are wrong in exactly the same way you are wrong. Any positive affect you attribute to Christianity can also be attributed to any other human social group, and it is observable that religion is not the common denominator. People are the common denominator. People help each other then, out of habit, but still incorrectly, they attribute their efforts to a god. The misattribution is unhelpful -- fact is, it is actually harmful -- but it serves to sustain the superstition that a god is doing something.

Shawn said...

Kiriluser,
You did read how to apply the OTF didn't you?
Therefore what are the tests you used to determine that other faiths (Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, etc)lack sufficicent evidence as to be unbelievable to you?
What evidence did you come up with to answer those same tests applied to (your version of) Christianity?
We'd be most interested to see these results.

Anonymous said...

If to you Christianity is just a word that makes you feel good like popping a prozac and not a set of doctrines then you may be right. But if Christianity means believing in the virgin birth, and so on, there's no way you pass the test and you're a liar.

Unknown said...

Sorry I've been late in getting this reply back; it's been awhile since I've been on here. In any case;

~Russ
I was once really popular at an online school that I used to attend, but the price of this popularity was a decline in my spirituality, as well as my grades. Eventually, I gave up my popularity, and I got my spirituality back on track. "Social group effects", as you call them, don't do much for me. In any case, most of my spirituality comes from praying, reading the Bible and other theological works, and thinking about them alone. I do attend a church regularly, but it isn't the main source of my faith.

~Shawn
It would be rather difficult to cram in all of my reasons for disagreeing with these other beliefs in one comment, so I'll suffice with a few short comments, which I can elaborate on if neccesary. I believe that humanity is a fallen race, and humanity is saved only by grace, as every person has committed atrocities. Judaism and Islam lack the New Testament covenant of forgiveness, whereas Christianity teaches salvation by grace. Hindus believe that one suffers for the sins of his past incarnations, but the Christian treats unfortunate circumstances as the result of a fallen world, placing this blame on mankind's destructive nature. Atheism relies on flawed human reason to provide man with a moral code, even though thousands and thousands have suffered under failed man-made utopian ideals. Christianity has a distinct and principled moral code to live one's life by.

~beowulf2k8
No, Christianity isn't just a word that makes me feel good, yes, I do believe in the virgin birth, and no, I am not a liar.

If any of you three have any questions, feel free to ask, although I might be delayed in answering them. Blessings!