The Fallacies of Religious Clerics by N. Fakhr - HTML preview

Misrepresenting Critics as Ignorant

For example, religious clerics sometimes try to present disbelief in extraordinary religious claims as the result of disbelief in the power of God.

They may say:

“Those who do not believe that the savior described in our religion could live for hundreds of years simply do not believe that God has the power to give someone such a long life.”

A believing audience, which normally has no difficulty believing in the power of the Creator of the universe, may then come to think that the critics are simply this ignorant. They may imagine that the critics' objection is based on the foolish idea that a God who is capable of creating the universe could somehow be incapable of giving one person an extraordinarily long life.

But if believers—the very people listening to these clerics—actually examine the questions and criticisms directed at their religion, they are unlikely to find a critic asking:

“How could God possibly have enough power to do what this religion claims He did?”

This is because critics of a religion generally fall into one of two groups.

Some do not believe in the existence of God, or in the gods of that particular religion, in the first place.

Others believe in the existence of a Creator or an all-powerful God but do not believe that this particular religion is divine or true.

In neither case is the extent of God's power the real issue.

The question is not whether God could do it. The question is whether there is good reason to believe that He did.