Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Proof that God exists – religiot-style

Here's another website that tries to "prove" that God does indeed exist somewhere up there, yet as usual the manner in which it operates is nothing but dishonest and is laughably obvious to anyone with the slightest ability to think critically. ProofThatGodExists.org works like a sort of quiz, with buttons (answers) you click to respond to each question. Each answer leads to another question, and another answer choice; etc. The problem is that it works along that ever-faulty "excluded middle" fallacy, also known as the "false dilemma", where it badgers you down either one path or the complete opposite with absolutely no middle-grounds or grey area. It's probably obvious a quiz isn't worth crap if your answer(s) aren't even included in the options.

For starters, the very first question asks you about what you believe concerning "Absolute Truth" – aka. something that is universally true at all times, for all people, such as gravity, or light. You either answer that it exists, that it doesn't exist, that you dunno, or that you don't care.

Already the cheating nature of the test sets in: only the "Absolute Truth Exists" answer (conveniently the very first one) leads you somewhere; the others lead you to trick questions and answers that just bounce you right back to the start. But anyway; Absolute Truth does exist, in the form of reality. Although no-one can truly claim to perceive absolute reality (with our human senses), it's still what ties us all together, so there we go.

After accepting that Absolute Truth does exist, you're lead through a couple of naturalistic questions, such as if "laws" of logic, mathematics or science do exist ("absolutely"), which they of course do. But then comes the bastardly part: the fourth question asks you if absolute moral laws exist.

Considering that morality (and therefore, its individual subsets of moral laws) come from conditioning, society and culture rather than being imparted to us from above, the correct answer is that absolute moral laws do not exist. However, when you click that, the test quickly sheds its illusion of truthfulness when the only two answers you get, to show what you supposedly believe about absolute moral laws, are either "Molesting Children For Fun Is Absolutely Morally Wrong", or "Molesting Children For Fun Could Be Right".

How very honest and genuine, no? Of course, the answer you might lean towards to the most would be the former – but it means that molesting kids would be "absolutely morally wrong". And while it certainly is disgusting, it's not "absolutely" wrong, because there is simply no "absolute" right or wrong. Everything, no matter HOW dark or obscene or plain horrible it is, is ever entirely devoid of grey area. That's just not how it is.

Of course, seeing as what morality you have is utterly dependent on who and where you are and what you've been brought up to believe, you could (I guess) choose that molesting kids "could" be right, wherein you get this bitchy little response:

You have denied that absolute moral laws exist but you appeal to them all the time. You say that rape IS wrong because you know that it IS wrong and not just against your personal preference. Unless you reconsider your stand on this matter, your road to this site's proof that God exists ends here. It is my prayer that you come to understand how inconsistent and irrational this line of thinking is and return to seek the truth.

Don't bother praying for me, bub.

Clicking the other answer (that it is absolutely wrong) just winds you further down the logical fallacies of the quiz, which I admittedly lost interest in before completing it any further. It's just another exercise in that old Christian evangelical fallacy of the false dichotomy, where either either everything is perfect because God exists, or he doesn't and everything is shit. It's just stupid – yet they are even stupider (naturally) for failing to see that.


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