This shifts the burden of proof back to them, which is where it should be.

I’m going to face my Christian friends for the first time since losing my faith, at the weekend, so this article has come at a good time, and reminded me of some important stuff.

Thanks.

Anyhow, yeah. The only way to win is not to play.

But they do, and they do it all the time. This is a very common ploy. No matter how much you protest and affirm your once passionate belief and faith in Christ, the other will still maintain you never had any; otherwise you would never have rejected Christ. It can be useful to point out to someone using this ploy that this is an example of the “No True Scotsman” or “Self-sealing” logical fallacy. These arguments take positions that no evidence can possibly refute. This is a common refuge for those who can’t argue fairly. Good luck debating, but you’ll just get flamed in the end anyway. I like the post that said: My guide to debating: Don’t. That’s probably the smartest advice.

Great post Jeffery!
Thanks, Monty

Anyway, what gives anyone the right to judge a “relationship” that is only visible on one side, where the other person is never seen, is never heard? What you are doing is judging what is going on in my head, and that *no one* can do! Only God, if God exists! How can anyone say I don’t have or know Jesus under those circumstances? They can’t!

I used to let myself be initimidated by such people until I realized that they were floundering around in the dark just like myself, and had no *special* knowledge I lacked. It reminds me of the time when I was very little and got into a debate about “fairyland” with my brother. It quickly became very clear that the world he saw within his mind was not at all the same as the world I had in mind, and that there was no way of establishing the “truth”, because we were not tapping into the same experience. Right in the middle it came to me: this is what grownups do when they argue about religion.

So, my policy is: I try not to get into arguments about religion. If you are going to come and talk to me about God (and why are we even talking about God in the third person if God exists? Can’t God talk for God’s self?) then I want to see some credentials. When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John, he got her attention by telling her something about herself that he, being a stranger, would not have known (unless he overheard the village women gossiping at the well before she arrived). Now here is the challenge to all those who would have me return to the fold: tell me something about myself that only God and I know. There is an answer I am waiting to hear. If you are genuinely connected to God, you will know what it is. You will know what the question is. Until then, I refuse to debate.

That reminds me of the Christian technique for battling lust by thinking of women (change gender here as appropriate) as younger sisters, meaning, think of them that way so you properly respect them instead of thinking of them as sex objects. That has nothing to do with the laws or holiness of God, it is just caring for others.