The things that Christians say, again . . .

 

Eric Hernandez, of Eric Hernandez Ministries, has a YouTube channel, like most everyone else on the planet, but I don't fault him for that because I like (hate) YouTube.  I somehow manage to waste an inordinate amount of time there, and often I waste time listening to the thoughtless and erroneous things that Christians say.

This morning, while washing a sink full of last nights dishes I decided to listen to Rev. Eric's most recent video: Answering Popular Atheist Objections.

Around the 9:45 mark in the video Eric makes a horrible mistake (proof that all the Christian education in the world can help only so much).  It is a very common mistake that I hear Christian apologists routinely make when they try to come up with a reason why there are such a thing as atheists, or why atheists give the reasons that they give for not believing in bible god  - he says: "Why do I think atheists have bad objections to Christianity or God - I think it's a number of reasons but I think really a lot of it can be boiled down to the fact that they simply haven't really looked into this - they haven't read the literature - they haven't really taken a serious look at the arguments . . ." , and he then goes into an example of a young person he encountered, a student at a private Christian school, who had become an atheist. 

So, in the proverbial nutshell, Eric claims that atheist have bad objections to Christianity or God because - " . . .  they simply haven't really looked into this - they haven't read the literature - they haven't really taken a serious look at the arguments . . ."

Why, you ask, is this a horrible mistake on Eric's part - simple - I was a bible believing Christian for 25 years.  I read the bible, I prayed to God, I fellowshipped with other believers, and I attended church.  I was a bible believing Christian for 25 years.  I am now an atheist, and have been an atheist for the past 23 years, and during those 23 years I ahve spent a lot of time looking into this!  I ahve spent a lot of time reading "the literature".  I have "really taken a serious look at the arguments" - arguments for and against a belief in the Christian god.

Why would Eric say this when he knows damn well that the opposite is true?  Surely he has encountered atheists who actually have looked into Christianity, who have read the literature, and who have taken a serious look at the arguments - surely.

I suggest that many, if not most of the vocal atheists today, the ones that you find on YouTube and those that have blogs, and even those who have published books on the subject of atheism-vs-Christianity - I suggest that the majority of those atheists are in fact former Christians.  Many are even former Christian ministers.  And for Eric to make this assessment that atheist ". . . simply haven't really looked into this . . ." is a horrible mistake. 

But is it really a mistake?  I propose that Rev. Eric is either blind to this error in judgment on his part, or he is just plain dishonest.  Based on my vast experience listening to the things that Christians (so often) say, I think I can safely conclude that Rev. Eric Hernandez is simply dishonest.  I suspect that he has talked to far more atheists than I have - literally - because I just don't personally know many atheists.  And since he has actually publicly debated atheists, he has to KNOW that those atheists actually have ". . . looked into this", have "read the literature", and have really ". . . taken a serious look at the arguments."  But since Eric's arguments, like the arguments of so many apologists, are quite pedestrian and are largely convincing only to the already convinced, he is relegated to fighting against the straw-man atheist of his own construction.

 

I became a Christian at age 17 and I hadn't "looked into" Christianity beyond listening to bible sermons on the radio.  And the only "literature" that I had read (besides the bible) was Chick Tracts.  I hadn't "really taken a serious look at the arguments" for Christianity because I was not aware that any "arguments" for Christianity were even needed.  I don't even know that I had ever heard the word "atheist" before I became a Christian (even though that is exactly what I was before I became a Christian), and I know that I had never heard the word apologist either.

I suspect that the vast majority of Christians today become Christians at a young age and they largely trust the words of those around them who are "leading them to the Lord".  I seriously doubt that it is more than a very, very, very small percentage of Christians who become Christians after a lengthy, in-depth, and critical examination of the truth-claims of Christians and their bible.  In other words - ". . . they simply haven't really looked into this - they haven't read the literature - they haven't really taken a serious look at the arguments . . ."

The very thing that Rev. Eric accuses atheists of not doing - not reading the literature nor taking a serious look at the arguments, both for and against Christianity - is a fitting accusation of how I became a Christian, but it is anything but accurate for how I became an atheist - it is exactly because I looked into what I believed and why I believed it, it is exactly because I read "the literature", it is exactly because I took a serious look at the arguments, that is exactly why I could no longer believe in the God of the bible and I became an atheist.

Will any of this convince Rev. Eric that he misspoke?  Will any of this give him pause?  Exactly NO!

This is why apologists (like Eric Hernandez) cannot be trusted.  Eric can not or will not see beyond his religious beliefs and he routinely spews propaganda, poisoning the already tainted view of the believers who sit enraptured, listening to his every word.

As Rev. Eric's favorite antagonists has said:
Ever since I was a child people have asked me why I don’t go to church.  I explain that whenever I do go to church I catch the man behind the podium lying to the audience.
~Aron Ra

bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com

*note - I posted a very short comment on Rev. Eric's video with a link to this blog post, and in true Christian fashion, he deleted it.