The Pyromaniacs Blog is responding to each of these. Curiously, they recognize the use of parody (it was from their blogs I saw the Foxworthy angle), yet they decided to address them as literal arguments.
This was all brought to my attention by Stan’s counter of Ten Signs You are an Unquestioning Anti-theist:
10. You cannot recognize the simple, logical, undeniable fact that if there is one, true God, all other gods would be false.
9. You find ultimate value in creatures you are quite sure evolved by chance from a pool of chemicals.
8. You reject any evidence and logic that is contrary to your view because you are a person that only accepts evidence and logic.
7. You make Christian beliefs a matter of ridicule without subjecting other religions or even your own beliefs to the same standards.
6. You are confident that you know more about Christianity than the average "Christian".
5. You are quite sure that science, history, geology, biology, and physics have disproven the existence of God.
4. You have comfort to offer in times of death and suffering even though there is no overarching basis for such comfort.
3. You believe that faith in science is reasonable, but faith in God is believing something when there is no reason to believe it.
2. You are comfortable claiming that life is meaningful when you're convinced that humans are biochemical bags who cease to exist at death.
1. You hold that there is no "Supreme Moral Agent", but affirm that there are moral atrocities that occur and moral values that all of us should have.
I thought of responding to each one, but then I would be as guilty as the Pyromaniacs for taking these literally, when they are given tongue-in-cheek. Yet presumably there is some truth being claimed. And perhaps they are NOT given as a parody, and meant to be firm statements. Can’t tell.
Thoughts?
It fails as satire. Satire works only when it's laser-beam true, the truth is hidden. Satire works best when its target recognizes the satire. Foxworthy is funny because rednecks think he's funny.
ReplyDeleteThis is just puerile "neener neener you're dumb" Jr. High bullshit. You can't argue with satire, but you can yawn and walk away.