Sorry about that.

Against Dr, Mark Mercer’s assertion that liking religion is comparable to being a Celine Dion fan:

(1) God does not think he is Celine Dion; though Celine has sometimes acted like  she thinks she’s divine.

(2) Celine’s mother didn’t want to have her; Mary the Mother of God did want to bear the Messiah, God’s Son. Celine picked her baby from an embryo-farm selection: Mary said “Be it unto me, according to Thy word.”

(3) God is said to be impassible; Celine is insufferable.

(4) To the best of our knowledge, God has never made protracted public appearances in Las Vegas.

(5) Taste in Celine Dion’s music is highly questionable; belief in God is not a matter of taste, but truth.

(6) Celine exists; therefore God does not.. we’re still working on this serious challenge to the existence of the almighty. However, he has in the past allowed Judy Garland, A Very Brady Christmas, Phyllis Diller, the Smurfs, Shemp & Zeppo, and last and very much least, Stephane Dion.. so go figure.

(7) Unpleasant diva-nity does not rule out possible divinity.

(8) Since only a tiny and tragic minority of people have ever briefly ‘enjoyed’ Celine’s squeakings, and the music of the Gospel has gone out into all nations and been recieved by a wide swath of  billions of peoples around the globe for almost 19 hundred and eightyish years, there’s really no comparison.

(9) God is The Ancient Of Days. Celine’s cradle-robbing hubby is just ancient.

(10) Therefore, we must conclude that Mercer, Mark, Dr.’s comparision between Celinism and theism is comparing apples to.. well, fingernails on a black-board.The point the good Doctor must prove is not whether religion is to his taste– as Celine or clog-dancing or pizza-toppings may legitimately be, but (a) whether the claims of religion are true, and if so, (b) why he might happen to be tone-deaf,or choosing to mishear the Glad Sound, as opposed to the other’s bad sounds.

The kindly spanking of Dr. Mercer will continue on this blog from time to time. However, we do his Celine Argument seriously: not least, his claim to trust him (as an authority) that we shouldn’t trust authorities. Whoa, there. That’s just freshman Philosophy 101: ‘It is universally true that there is no truth (except that one)’ is a self-contradictory bit of illogic. It’s like saying ‘Trust me when say that nobody is trustworthy’; or ‘I say (authoritatively) that you shouldn’t trust authorities’; or ‘Only my logic/ evidence is logical and evidentiary.’  Sorry, Dr. Mark: that ice is thinner than water. You can’t jump off your own shadow, or lift yourself into midair, logically. The fraud Freud tried that for years– all beliefs are wish-fulfilments!. oh: including that one, cuz you wished it? It’s all about sex! oh, because you liked to sleep with some of your more gullible female patients?

Any agnostic may say ‘I mistrust all authority’, but presumably they say so on some authority or evidence or reasons. Otherwise, it’s precisely like arbitrarily claiming that– say — religion is like like bad taste for Celine Dion, and cool atheism is like the Velvet Underground. Because he says so, and Dr. Mark’s taste runs to Velvet not Celine, and because all religion is a matter of taste. That last assertion [all religion is only or maily a matter of taste] is precisely the point which must be proven, not assumed by using big oogedy-boogedy words like  authority, mythology, evidence, and suchlike.

What constitutes the evidence for or against religious belief, and the existence of God? That’s the essential question as far as I can figure it out (feel free to write and correct me), on which all hangs: eternity (or not); meaning (or not), truth & goodness (or not), salvation or not (or not).

That’s the goodness of a relatively tolerant athiest like Mark– willing to discuss, debate, and kindly disagree– versus an athiest like Stalin, or the practial atheists of human-rights utopian progressivism, or German socialist Fascism, or trans-human genetic eugenics. Mark does not exactly stand in human-friendly company.. but that’s an argument for another time.

Your turn, Mark: maybe it’s time for a “Dr. Mark, Infidel” blog? 😉

Binks

On The Third Day Of Christmas…

…Three French Hens.

More smooth stylings here