Christians Enjoy Creating Straw Men Because It's Easy To Knock Them Down

Pastor Bo Wagner earned his Bachelor's degree with highest honors in 1997, and then earned his Masters and Doctorate with highest honors from the Carolina Bible College in 2001 and 2003. He founded Cornerstone Baptist Church in 1997, and has been a professor at Carolina Bible College since 2000.

http://www.cbc-web.org/Our_Staff.html

Consider these facts about atheism and atheists and then read Pastor Wagner's article at the end of this post. I leave you to decide whether the pastor is an honest seeker of truth, or a lying arsehole. 

(1) An atheist does not believe that god exists. Atheism is not a belief, it is a lack of belief. 

(2) Atheism is not a religion. Atheists are not religious. 

(3) Atheists don't have faith that god does not exist, they just don't see any evidence for god's existence. 

(4) Atheists don't have faith in the theory of evolution, they just know that scientists have discovered heaps of evidence that suggests the theory of evolution is true. 

(5) Regarding the age of the universe, scientists don't just throw figures around without any evidence. They adjust their estimates based on the evidence they have been able to discover. 

(6) Atheists don't regard scientists as 'gods'. Atheists don't believe in gods. 

(7) Atheists don't worship science or scientists. 

(8) A lecture on atheism wouldn't take very long - because atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in god. 

(9) Not all atheists donate money to liberal causes. Right-wing atheists will donate their money to right-wing causes, and other atheists don't make donations to anyone.

(10) Atheists don't pray - not to god and not to science and not to themselves. 

(11) Atheists don't regard themselves as gods (atheists don't believe in gods). 

(12) The age of the universe is thought to be 13.7 billion years but those billions of years were not simply "spoken into existence". The scientists have evidence that their estimates are correct. 

(13) Regarding the theory of evolution, "survival of the fittest" does not mean survival of the strongest. In a world full of bullies there will also be docile non-bullies who use their intelligence and/or cunning to overcome all threats and live long enough to pass on their genes to the next generation. 

(14) Atheists don't necessarily say, "there is no absolute truth". For example, it is absolutely true that there are no square circles and no married bachelors.

Now read Pastor Wagner's article (and count the mistakes as you go along).

The article can be found

here and here

Pastor Wagner claims he is being satirical, but, in fact, he is simply employing the straw man fallacy in order to impress his gullible readers. He makes ludicrous (and obviously untrue) claims about atheists and atheism and then attacks those ludicrous and untrue claims.

It would be like me claiming that all Christians think the world is flat and then 'proving' that Christianity is a false religion for that reason (whereas, in fact, Christians don't have that belief in the first place - it is a straw man argument).