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Debunking
the Arguments of Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelists
Understanding the
mentality and world view of the Christian Fundamentalist
Now, those of you who have
never been devout Christians before may wonder why they believe what they do,
live the way they do, think the way they do, have such extreme views, and are
so fanatical in pushing their beliefs onto other people all the time to try to
convert them. It may all seem so nonsensical and illogical to you.
Well since I used to be one of them and understand how they think, I can
explain their mentality to you and give insight on their inner psychological
makeup. Although the above section on their view of history should have
given you a good idea, let me break it down for you in detail. First
though, let me tell you that when one accepts the Christian faith and Gospel
into his/her lifestyle, their view of reality becomes completely WARPED! Literally. They only see the world in terms of God and
Satan, light and darkness, sin and righteousness, the saved and the unsaved,
etc. I still can’t believe how warped my view of reality was when I was a
Christian fundamentalist.
Two powerful forces
controlling their mind
Basically, the Evangelical
Christian has two powerful things controlling his/her mind and emotions – the
fear of eternal punishment in hell and the reward of eternal paradise in
heaven. Those are essentially the two most powerful things that can
control someone’s mind, period. They are the ultimate brainwashing tools
ever designed. No question about it. Now keep in mind that heaven
and hell are not some abstract concept or theory to them. No, they are
absolute LITERAL FACTUAL truths! No less true than the fact that falling
off a cliff is harmful or the fact that your body needs food and water to
live. Therefore, they take them VERY seriously indeed. It’s no joke
to them at all, especially when the eternal destiny of the soul is at stake.
And that’s why they are so adamant that you become saved too, because in their
minds, it is like watching you driving toward the edge of a cliff, and since
they care about you, they want to warn you of the reality of the
situation. That’s what it boils down to. It’s not about disrespect
for your rights, freedom, or choices. It’s really about their 1) genuine
concern for the eternal judgment of your soul, and their 2) sense of duty to
God, after being given eternal life and being saved, to do his will to preach
God’s message of Salvation to you, which is the least they could do for being
given immortality.
Now think of the implications
of this. Remember that this is all literal factual truth to them.
Here’s what that means to someone who genuinely believes these things. It
means that these are ETERNAL consequences in their minds. What that means
technically is that an eternal heaven means a bliss and paradise for them that is never-ending without end, where billions of years or
trillions of years have no measurement at all. After all, that’s what
infinity means. On the other hand, an eternal hell also means a state of
suffering and pain forever and ever. This means that even if one was suffering, tormented, and in extreme pain in hell for a
billion years or a trillion years, it would still not stop because eternity
means that time does not exist. It would go on and on and on. It
NEVER ends, EVER! Think of that for a moment, not as some abstract theory
that’s “out there” but as a literal fact that could ACTUALLY happen to
you! If you seriously see that as a realistic possibility, you can
understand why it is a VERY VERY VERY
SCARY concept indeed! Much more infinitely terrible
than you can possibly imagine. Heck, not even Adolf
Hitler would deserve such a predicament, and especially not average people, and
all just because the original humans ate a fruit off the wrong tree at the
beginning of creation? Come on now…….
Now perhaps you can
understand and sympathize with the Evangelicals’ inclination to try to convert
you and “save” you. After all, if you believed your loved ones, friends,
or acquaintances were heading toward eternal torment, you would also be greatly
concerned about their souls as well, wouldn’t you? I remember how
agonized I was about my unsaved parents who wouldn’t believe. I had many
sleepless nights squirming over their future predicament (in my mind of
course), of being eternally tormented in hell with no end and no way out, and
regretting that they didn’t listen to my warning. I loved them and didn’t
want that to happen to them, but I was powerless to do anything about it
because they wouldn’t accept Jesus as Savior. I didn’t think it was fair
of course, but that’s what God’s word said. It was very nerve-wracking.
Hopefully, this should help
you understand why they take their beliefs so seriously, so that you won’t be
too hard on them for it. Here’s some verses that
illustrate this:
Matthew
13:41-42 "The Son of man shall
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that
offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of
fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
Matthew
25:46 "And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
Matthew
25:41 "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels."
2
Thessalonians 1:8-9 "Them that
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power."
Revelation
14:11, "And the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and
they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name."
Revelation
You see how scary this can
get if you take it literally? To see an example of how seriously a Christian
can take this, check out these rantings:
http://www.av1611.org/hell.html (The Truth About Hell)
http://www.jesusisthelight.net/HELLISREAL.htm (Hell is real)
Also, here is an example of a
popular Christian Gospel tract that attempts to use the fear of hell and
eternal punishment to convert non-believers. The tract is in easy to read
comic book form and can be read online at:
This Was Your Life http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp
Fortunately though, there are
some Christians progressing beyond the traditional interpretation of hell as an
eternal place of torment. For example:
http://www.harvestherald.com/challenge.htm (A Challenge to the Doctrine of Eternal Torment)
http://www.what-the-hell-is-hell.com/HellStudy/HellChart.html (Hell is Leaving the Bible
“Forever”)
Besides fear of this literal
eternal damnation, there is also a fear of losing eternal life in heaven as
well. Before, the common Christian doctrine was that once you’re saved,
you’re always saved and nothing you can do will cause you to lose your
salvation. Now though, many churches have changed that doctrine or are
reconsidering changing it, probably because of the large number of deconverts from the faith who give it a bad reputation by
doing whatever they want and claiming to have eternal life with nothing to
lose. Regardless of church doctrine, it is natural for a born-again
Christian to have a natural fear that challenging his faith might result in the
loss of his/her eternal life, or at least the discovery that it was never real
in the first place. Now think of what that means too. To lose one’s
immortality would be like losing a million dollars (though in technical terms,
immortality would actually be worth a lot more than a million dollars of
course, but you get the idea). So naturally, one would cling very tight
to it. And one would be scared to death of risking either losing
immortality or being subject to eternal damnation. Hence, it is
UNTHINKABLE for them to question or challenge this theology or religion.
And even if they do have doubts deep down inside, they would not dare declare
them, but instead try to suppress them. (And after all, who are they to challenge
what God Almighty, the creator of the universe, says anyway?)
Finally, as mentioned above,
for receiving the free gift of eternal life from God for accepting Jesus as
their Lord and Savior, they naturally feel a sense of obligation to do God’s
will and witness to you to try to convert you and save your soul. After
all, for being given immortality, that’s so little for God to ask of them in
return isn’t it? And besides, if they feel thankful to God for being
guaranteed a spot in heaven, they will do this with joyful glee.
Reason becoming a servant
to belief
As a result of those two
powerful forces mentioned above controlling the Evangelical Christian’s mind,
his/her sense of reason no longer rules, but instead serves these religious
beliefs. In other words, reason serves faith, instead of the other way
around. Here is an example, straight from the mouth of a fundamentalist:
“I
believe that the Bible is completely, entirely and verbally the word of God. I
refuse to stand above and criticize it; I insist rather, on standing below it
and letting it criticize
(John
Montgomery, then Professor of
3 Montgomery, Damned Through
the Church: p26
To use a hierarchical
illustration, their Christian beliefs which they see as absolute truth are at
the top chain of command, and reason along with everything else falls below
that. In this setup, reason does not analyze their faith, but instead
serves it. That’s why they can believe these extreme beliefs contrary to
reason without realizing it. And that’s why using reason to appeal to
them doesn’t help. And it’s also why if they read an article like this,
it would not do any good, because they would use just rationalize everything
said in this article away any way they can, which is human nature anyway.
After all, we all tend to rationalize away what we don’t want to believe and
find excuses to justify believing what we want to believe. In that sense,
human nature can be inherently selective.
For example, no matter how
much sense you made to them that their extreme beliefs just don’t hold up, or
bring up any of the arguments of this article to them, they will just quote
verses such as these.
1
Corinthians
1
Corinthians
Thus invalidating anything
you say that contradicts their faith no matter how reasonable, with the simple
quote of a verse.
To view a flashy, colorful
and humorous rant about how the fundamentalist’s mindset works, see: http://www.geocities.com/rightsman1/fundylogic.html
Ego gratification and
self-esteem fulfillment
Another factor at work here,
which Christians tend not to like to admit for obvious reasons, is that all
this notion of them being special to God, the chosen people of God, the
children of God, the saved ones, the light of the world, etc. is very
gratifying to their egos, sense of self-esteem and self-worth. After all,
in a materialistic and competitive society like ours, our egos and self-esteem
can be quite fragile, and anything that can solidify this is greatly welcomed.
For people who are insecure,
wandering in life, lack self-esteem or self-worth, lack identity, feel no
purpose or meaning in life, live in fear or oppression, etc. etc. this
Christian faith can be very appealing to them, offering to give them what they
need to feel whole and purposeful. It gives them the crutch they need to
get through life. It validates them, makes them feel special, and gives
them a definable sense of purpose. And that’s another powerful factor
that keeps their belief system in place.
Children especially are
vulnerable to this, because they are taught from birth to listen to adults
because they know best. Therefore, when they are told by their parents or
chapel ministers that if they just ask Jesus into their hearts, they will
receive the free gift of eternal life just for the asking, who can say no to
that? It opens the door for the powerful influences described above to
take control of their mind and will.
The benefits of extreme
belief systems
Now, this is not all
bad. There are pros and cons to extreme belief systems such as
this. As mentioned above, the Christian faith does give people a sense of
purpose, identity, and meaning. It is true that many people have been
helped by Christianity and made happier as well. So there are benefits of
this faith, even if the doctrines it’s based on are in error. What it
does is take the chaos and uncertainty out of life and the world for people,
giving them a solid sense of purpose, a definite future in heaven, and a
guaranteed outcome in the end.
Some people have a need for
that. That’s understandable. In general, I think that extreme
beliefs appeal to insecure people the most, because it helps make up for an
extreme need, and compensates for what they lack. It gives them a sense
of purpose, drive, motivation, and even fulfillment that can be an emotional
security blanket. However, the flip side of this of course, is that
extreme beliefs also close and narrow the mind, causing it to cast judgment on
other people as well. In addition, it uses fear to keep you from learning
about the values and benefits of other belief systems and views. For
instance, Christian ministers use fear to warn that following non-Christian
religions and ways of thinking could lead you to Satan’s trap, thus no progress
in learning is made. And spiritual / intellectual growth is
stinted. So as you can see, there are pros and cons to extreme belief
systems that portray the world in black and white.
Anyone knows that the worst
examples of this these are the Nazis and other fascists throughout
history. And uncannily enough, there are many parallels between Christian
fundamentalism and fascism.
The world as a
battleground for souls
The Evangelical Christian and
Christian fundamentalist sees the world in a very different way than the
secular person. Here is how they see the world. They see it as
basically a gigantic chess board between God and Satan. It is a
battleground for souls where spiritual warfare is taking place. God is
trying to save as many souls as possible through the message of Jesus Christ,
and Christians are his soldiers for doing so. And Satan is trying to take
as many souls with him to hell as possible, by deceiving both believers and
non-believers with doubt, greed, materialistic values, anti-Christian beliefs,
other religions, etc. Both sides are trying to do this as soon as
possible before the Judgment Day comes, when the world will be destroyed and
the saved will be sent to heaven while the unsaved to hell. The Christian
sees as his/her duty on God’s side to help save as many lost souls as
possible. And that’s what the world is all about in a nutshell for many
Christian fundamentalists. This simple model of the world puts everything
in neat little simplistic boxes, as well as gives them an exact definable
purpose in life. It simplifies everything and takes away the complexity
of the world, because in the end, this spiritual warfare is all that matters,
and the salvation of souls is all that will remain for eternity!
Why deconversion
is slow and difficult psychologically and emotionally
By now, you should already
have a strong idea of why it is so difficult for a Christian fundamentalist to deconvert from their beliefs even if they want to.
But let me try to explain to you what it’s like to deconvert,
which some call a “recovering fundamentalist” using examples from my own deconversion.
Let me first put it this
way. A recovering fundamentalist is essentially recovering from a trojan horse virus, which began as a Gospel presented in a
loving light but then entraps you in fear afterward. Basically I’d
summarize it like this.
A non-believer is offered the
gift of eternal life for accepting Christ, an offer which is difficult to refuse.
(Children are especially susceptible since they are conditioned to believe that
whatever adults say is right.) (In addition, the Gospel is often
presented by the church using hypnosis-style techniques, described by master
hypnotist Dick Sutphen in How Revivalist Preachers Work.) After accepting it, you subconsciously without
knowing it, give up your reason and intellect. You abandon those things
to have what you think is eternal life, which is psychologically
grappling. So even when you find out that there is not one scintilla of
evidence to support your religious beliefs as valid, you don't care and believe
anyways because you don't want to lose that eternal life you have. No one
would want to let go of that, and that's why it's such a sophisticated form of
mind control. You're given something for nothing, not realizing the old
saying "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably
is." And once you're in, the offer of eternal life compels you to
stay no matter what, while the fear of hell keeps you from straying from the
path. This form of mind control was powerfully used by the Catholic
Church to keep many countries under its control. So, when a person
recovers from this and the trojan horse virus is
gone, that person feels a relief for getting his/her intellectual liberty and
freedom to think back again, but at the same time, fears of God's wrath and
damnation still preside in the back of his/her mind. That is essentially
what goes on with recovering fundamentalists.
Now, as for me, the recovery
was not only that, but also of the burden and confusion of believing that my
family, which were non-believers, were going to hell simply because they
weren't Christians. My parents are the most honest decent caring people
in the world, and I was burdened with the thought that they would go to hell,
so there was pressure on me to try to convert them, and it almost made me
crazy. Thank goodness that after I recovered from fundamentalism, I felt
a huge relief to have that burden lifted off my shoulders. I knew that
those fears weren’t true after all, and that God never said those things, but
people did. But since I didn't want to lose my belief in the immortality
of the soul, I turned to New Age, reincarnation, and alternative spirituality
to keep my beliefs in eternal life, but in another form.
Here are the psychological
dynamics involved in the deconversion process.
First, the ministers, preachers, and pastors have instilled into the Christians
a fear and paranoia of Satan. They are told that Satan is constantly
looking for ways to make them fall from their faith, using their own family,
friends, temptations, other religions, even their own mind, etc.
Therefore, they are told to never trust anything except for God, Jesus, and the
Bible. Everything else could be used as a weapon of Satan, even your own
mind. Therefore, if you doubt your faith, then you are warned, “Watch
out! That’s exactly what Satan wants you to do! Don’t fall into his
trap! Don’t even trust your own mind, which Satan can use against you!
Trust only in God and the Bible!” When this fear and paranoid
become ingrained in you, it becomes hard for you to walk away from your faith
even if you want to.
Second, Christians are also
instilled with a feeling of obligation and love to God. This is done by
using GUILT in a powerful way that is both loving and condescending. They
are told that God loved them so much that he became flesh and died for them on
the cross. This was the ultimate act of love for them, giving up one’s
life, so they could be forgiven their sins. Therefore, it is insinuated
that only a horrible person, a monster so to speak, would turn their back on
God after all he did for them! In effect, they even equate betraying the
Christian faith and turning your back on the God of the Bible with the act of
betraying your own parents and stabbing them in the back! What a horrible
thing to equate! And that’s what makes it so much more difficult, because
it’s so ingrained in your conscience that to try to leave the faith instills a
sense of guilt in you. To view an example of this, read this online tract
in easy to read comic book format from Chick
Publications:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0295/0295_01.asp
(You can view many more tracts
such as the above to get familiarized with Christian beliefs and mentality at: http://www.chick.com/catalog/TractLookUp.asp?Language=English)
Christians try to portray those
who deconvert from the faith as similar to a Jedi
Knight in the Star Wars movies converting to the Dark Side of the Force!
Like Yoda and Ben Kenobi, they try to equate turning away from the Christian
faith with the path to darkness and evil! The nerve of them!
Here’s an interesting
contrast in perspectives. From the Christian view, the term for a deconvert or former Christian is called a
“backslider”. So when someone they know deconverts
or falls away, they say that he/she is “backslidden” which implies a fall
downward from somewhere higher. However, many former Christians will term
their deconversion as becoming more “enlightened” or
“evolved” implying that they moved to a higher level not a lower one.
It’s such an interesting contrast of perspectives.
Another reason is that when
you become a devout Christian, you are taught to deny yourself and live for
Christ. When that becomes your way of life, or you live and breathe that,
eventually you might lose sense of who you are, so that if you left the fold,
you’d have nothing left to go back to. In the book Fundamentalism:
Hazards and Heartbreaks one account of this is described: (page 8)
“The
comment of a former fundamentalist who appeared on a 1986 ‘Donahue’ television
show provides perhaps as poignant a view of their pain as any former
fundamentalist could express. Billy Jackson told a national audience his
impression of how fundamentalism had been practiced in his church: “We
had to become like Jesus Christ and die to ourselves. In other words, you
kill your own personality off and try and replace it with Jesus Christ.
When I did leave I had killed myself off to such a point that there was nothing
of me left, and that’s what keeps you in there because you can’t relate to
anyone else.””
In addition, there is of course,
always the fear in the Christian turning away that his faith may have been the
truth and he may be wrong and therefore he may be struck by lightning or
punished in some way for deconverting. That
thought can easily creep up in his/her mind from time to time.
These above reasons are why
the deconversion process for the Christian who wants
to turn away from his/her extreme beliefs or feels they are no longer true or
necessary, is so slow and difficult. They do not suddenly decide to deconvert and announce it to their peers. It doesn’t
work that way at all. For me, the deconversion
process took about two years before I was finally rid of the psychological
baggage and brainwashing instilled into me. After you decide that
Christian doctrine and theology is not true or not right for you, you usually
are afraid to not tell anyone about it at first, for the reasons mentioned
above. For me, I was afraid to tell anyone about it for almost a year
because there was too much fear and guilt attached to my former beliefs.
It was only after much research, did the confidence about my decision increase
gradually to the point where I could confidently declare it to others without
fear or guilt or the sense that I was joining “the dark side”.
In spite of all this though,
there are many who have successfully deconverted.
You can read books about these people on this list:
http://www.infidels.org/infidels/products/books/christianity/ex-christians.html
Knowledge as protection
from fear
The good news about all this
though, is that there is protection from the extreme fear imposed upon people
by the Evangelists and Fundamentalists, and that protection is from knowledge.
If it were not for the knowledge I have which I share in this article, for
instance, I too would still be living in fear of eternal punishment that these
preachers declare. Fortunately, the knowledge I gained from research,
which I’ve shared in this article, slowly gave me the confidence to overcome
this fear, which is of the worst kind (what fear could be worse than that of
eternal punishment?). By gaining knowledge yourself, you can too.
And that’s good news for those recovering fundamentalists who want to turn away
but are too fearful to do it or declare it.
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