And when he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
–Jesus of Nazareth
When asked for the best evidence to substantiate the core truth claims of Christianity, how often have you heard a conservative Christian apologist cite the Holy Spirit? In my experience, rarely if ever. Most will start off appealing to the opinions of fundamentalist and/or evangelical Bible scholars regarding topics such as the historical reliability of the Bible, the (alleged) eyewitness authorship of the Gospels, or the amazing accuracy in which ancient Jews passed down their oral stories.
But why no mention of the Holy Spirit?
If Jesus was correct that he would send his spirit to convict the world of the error of its evil ways—demonstrating to all that he really was the Messiah and God the Creator all wrapped up into one—why do most conservative Christian apologists fail to mention this important fact when they debate skeptics?
I’ll tell you why: They know it sounds wacko!
How many skeptics are going to be convinced that an invisible ghost (spirit) exists and is, at this very moment, swirling around them in the breeze, whispering in their ear that Christianity is true?
Here is the ugly fact for Christians: If this “spirit” were real, he would not need thousands of books written by human apologists to help him do his job! The desperate attempts by thousands of Christian apologists to write thick books explaining what Jesus, God the Creator, really meant for us to understand about him is the best evidence that the “Holy Spirit” does not exist.
The Holy Spirit is just another supernatural invention of this ancient tall tale.
End of post.
Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
So, if atheism were true, you wouldn’t need this blog to tell us that it is true? Makes total sense.
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Unlike Christians, I do not claim that there is an invisible spirit “convicting” the world of the rightness of non-belief in the existence of gods (atheism). But I do use the LACK of evidence for the existence of gods as evidence for the PROBABLE non-existence of Yahweh, Allah, Lord Brahma, and Lord Jesus, just as I use the lack of evidence for the existence of other supernatural beings and creatures to not believe in them (leprechauns, unicorns, goblins, etc..).
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Indeed, Gary. And why is it this supposed spirit, which the bible says leads to all truth, causes those who believe in it to such diverse, contrary views of what Jesus was about? Why is it this spirit almost always confirms the biases, prejudices and pre-existing beliefs of those who claim it guides them? Why does this spirit give every impression of being entirely made up by human beings?
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My challenge to Christians: Prove to me that the “spirit” which you perceive “moves” you and “leads” you to do this and that in your life isn’t just…YOU (your inner monologue)!
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Perhaps the “Holy Spirit” is a chemical, an endorphins release. That’s not to say that this spirit is not real, but I don’t see anyone walking on water, or this and that and the other thing.
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The whole point to apologetics is to allow intelligent believers to think they are believing the things they believe for rational reasons. Even though they originally started believing those things for non-rational reasons. So the original non-rational reasons are never included in those apologetics. This is a feature, not a bug.
A successful apologetics course will clog up a believer’s brain capacity with so much sophistry and logic-games and other such intellectual wanking that they never have any room left for consideration of any of the actual hard questions. And then they try to throw that apologetic nonsense at us, and it doesn’t work because we were never the target audience for it. And the apologist, instead of realizing this, just resumes their study to find that one magic argument that will convert all us heathens.
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Your explanations all make perfect sense, Ubi. One can’t help but wonder why believers are unable to see how they are being manipulated?
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Some eventually do see it, and wind up deconverting.
For the apologists who stay in, I think a lot of them are having to do the equivalent of covering their ears and shouting “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU”, because doubt is scary, and claiming belief keeps them in good standing with their tribe.
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