I keep running into people with vehement arguments that end up with nothing to say.
Take, for instance, the atheists. Their argument is "no God". So ... what do we do with that? Well, nothing, really. There is no life after death. There is no basis for morality. There is no comfort when we lose loved ones. There is no significant purpose in life. There is nothing beyond the here and now. That's ... nothing. The outcome is not "Therefore you should ...", but ... nothing.
I recently had a comment from someone who wanted to argue that the concept of eternal damnation was not biblical. No one was going to hell. Everyone was going to heaven. God is love and we're all going to be okay. (I didn't post the comment because it was completely off topic, had no merit, linked to a heretical doctrine, and served no purpose to the discussion.) This is another one of those arguments with nothing to say. Never mind that it creates a streamlined Bible with all those harsh warnings of punishment and damnation removed. Set aside the fact that Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven. Forget the repeated biblical cautions to "examine yourself" and "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" and the like. In other words, to concur with the argument you'd need to disagree with just about every biblical writer out there. And forget about the fact that every Christian since the beginning of Christendom has agreed with the problem even if they haven't always agreed about the solution.
What you end up with is another argument with nothing to say. Assuming "We're all going to heaven", there's nothing to worry about. There's no need for morality, no need for grace, no function of faith, no point in obedience. You don't need to share the gospel. You don't need to believe in Jesus. Religion is pointless. It doesn't matter what you do in this life. It's okay. We're all going to heaven. Don't worry about it. So, you silly Christians with your ridiculous "gospel" and your foolish concern about "saved by faith" and "repent" and "sin" -- give it all up. Don't bother. Relax! And we're pointed to ... nothing.
Nothing to say. I'm sometimes amused by the people who speak long and hard about things that, in the final analysis, tell us to do nothing at all and offer us nothing at all. Sometimes. More often I'm saddened that people fall down those rabbit holes.
4 comments:
I call them ex nihilo arguments. To assert, as far as I'm concerned, you must have something from which to exert your assertion. You should not murder is exerted, not from the fact that the murderee doesn't like it, or that it would do him harm, but rather that God said it is wrong. The second we divorce ourselves from this truth, we divorce ourselves from any bases upon which to assert anything at all; we wind up with noting to say.
Dan
It could be that these people who make their arguments that end up with nothing to say are basing their arguments on little (or nothing) and, therefore, end up with nothing to say. I'm amazed that they don't recognize it.
"I'm amazed that they don't recognize it."
I think it is a product of relativism where the reference point for right and wrong is self and the resultant isolation. So I think under this predominate way of thinking that it should amaze us when people on the contrary are able to break out of that isolation and actually grasp the concept that right and wrong, good and evil, having something to say vs not having something is necessarily based on objective and universal truths.
Since it is my firm conviction that sin rots the brain, I shouldn't be surprised when people don't think.
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