The Duplicitousness of David Marshall
I don't mean to pick on my apologist friend Marshall, but he provides so much fodder it's hard to resist. On the one hand he rates my book, "The Outsider Test for Faith," with two stars over at Amazon, saying it's "Interesting but [has] fatally flawed arguments, yet on the other hand in a recent article for Touchstone with a title that says it all, he argues, Into All the World: Testing John Loftus's "Outsider Test for Faith" Shows Why There Are Billions of Christians Today. Which is it? Is the OTF fatally flawed or does the existence of billions of Christians show their faith passes the test? Rank-and-file Christians want to know.
Are Christian defenders this bad? What I've seen over the years is that Christians should not trust their own apologists to tell them the truth. I am not attributing any deliberate attempts by these apologists to deceive them (although in some cases I do wonder). It's just that educated Christian apologists are more, not less deluded. Education has a way of doing that to them in most cases, if for no other reason than that they have more invested in defending their faith. They become like defense lawyers who are experts at finding loopholes, and since there will always be at least one loophole they can find room for their faith. But because the rank-and-file have "trust issues" with atheists and seek to confirm their faith rather than honestly investigate it, they will read what their apologists say rather than what we write almost every time. This is cyclical, unending and maddening.
I remember when Norman Geisler first reviewed my self-published book, Why I Rejected Christianity. He did a terrible job of it. You can read my reaction. And yet, since the rank-and-file trust Geisler rather than me, and since they seek to confirm their faith rather than honestly investigate it, they will never read my work even though apologists are more, not less deluded. Only the honest and brave Christian will read what atheists have to say for themselves. Christian, are YOU one of them? If not, why not?
I'm reminded of the children's song Old MacDonald:
Well, David Marshall has his faith, ee-i-ee-i-o
And with his faith he found a hole, ee-i-ee-i-o
With a loophole here, and a loophole there
Here a hole, there a hole, everywhere a loophole
David Marshall has his faith, ee-i-ee-i-o
Are Christian defenders this bad? What I've seen over the years is that Christians should not trust their own apologists to tell them the truth. I am not attributing any deliberate attempts by these apologists to deceive them (although in some cases I do wonder). It's just that educated Christian apologists are more, not less deluded. Education has a way of doing that to them in most cases, if for no other reason than that they have more invested in defending their faith. They become like defense lawyers who are experts at finding loopholes, and since there will always be at least one loophole they can find room for their faith. But because the rank-and-file have "trust issues" with atheists and seek to confirm their faith rather than honestly investigate it, they will read what their apologists say rather than what we write almost every time. This is cyclical, unending and maddening.
I remember when Norman Geisler first reviewed my self-published book, Why I Rejected Christianity. He did a terrible job of it. You can read my reaction. And yet, since the rank-and-file trust Geisler rather than me, and since they seek to confirm their faith rather than honestly investigate it, they will never read my work even though apologists are more, not less deluded. Only the honest and brave Christian will read what atheists have to say for themselves. Christian, are YOU one of them? If not, why not?
I'm reminded of the children's song Old MacDonald:
Well, David Marshall has his faith, ee-i-ee-i-o
And with his faith he found a hole, ee-i-ee-i-o
With a loophole here, and a loophole there
Here a hole, there a hole, everywhere a loophole
David Marshall has his faith, ee-i-ee-i-o