Evangelical Christian apologists love to answer questions from skeptics about their Faith. But there is one question that they typically do not like to answer:
How old were you when you first believed in the resurrected Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
Many evangelical apologists do not like answering this question because it forces them to publicly admit that they first believed in the reality of dead corpse reanimation at the tender age of ELEVEN (the median age of an evangelical born again experience)!
“The majority of the respondents (63 percent) accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord while they were 4-14 years old, in what is known as the 4/14 Window.“
––the National Association of Evangelicals
The 4/14 Window??? Good god! How can a FOUR year old make an informed, rational decision as to the reality of dead corpse reanimation??
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Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
How does that prove anything? You believed that the world was round from a younger age, that the earth orbits the sun, that there were other continents and many other things.
Should you have only begun to believe those things when you were 20?
How does the age at which you learn a truth diminish the truthfulness of the facts?
And again, you keep strawmanning here. For your long list of what you have read, you still don’t seem to know what we believe about the Resurrected Jesus. You seem to still be conflating zombies with what the church has preached about the third day for 2000 years.
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Indoctrinating little children to believe that they must love and obey the (imaginary) reanimated corpse of a first century peasant or he will use his unlimited magical powers to cast them into eternal darkness (and possibly fire) should be outlawed and punished with imprisonment.
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@ Liam
Because Christianity is NOT based on truth, so the younger one is exposed to it the more likely such garbage will be assimilated. Surely even an Indoctrinated Nob like you are able comprehend this?
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That’s a DIRECT HIT, BULLS-EYE Ark!!! 🎯
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I was 12 when I “got saved”. Was it because I recognized the love of god or felt the holy spirit tugging on my heart? Nope. It was the fear of hell. I was told that if I don’t accept Jesus, I will burn in hell, forever. Child abuse!
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As usual, Liam doesn’t get it. Knowing there are continents and that the Earth is a sphere does not constitute ‘belief’. These are demonstrable facts, independent of whether one ‘believes’ in them and irregardless of the age one encounters them. The resurrection of a dead man, however, and the clutter that goes with it are beliefs, to be held on faith with no means of validation.
Fact or fiction: you pays your money, you takes your choice.
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As Neil correctly points out above, emphasis mine:
And I’d politely request to add a little bit of known, proven medical science—specifically in Neurology, Psychology, and Endocrinology—due to the wide clinical results of Placebo-effects (a mythical risen Christ), Peer-assimilation/pressure, Herd-Mob Mentality (churches, worship services of ‘astounding‘ performances disguised as miracles), and ALL OF THIS is solidified by what Neil mentioned as “Faith,” or actually a form of Blind Faith really when the content of a 4th-century CE book of stories and letters cannot hold up to extensive, exhaustive, fully contextual historical examination over and over and over! Not to mention (again!) the GROSS and intentional amputation/denial of Jesus’/Yeshua’s deeply Sectarian Judaism within Second Temple Messianism… by 2nd- thru 5th-century Greco-Roman (Hellenist) Church Fathers right up to modern day Christians and Xian Apologists… having really NO true portrayal of the 1st-century Rabbi-reformer’s life, teachings, and personality leading his Movement against Hellenism and Rome. Another topic of questions Evangelical Apologists avoid like the plague! 😄 What is it they are SO SCARED about? 😉
Great stuff Gary. Keep up the excellent work! 🙂
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It is telling that after his drive-by comment, Liam is noticeably quiet and conspicuous by his absence.
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That is Liam’s M.O..
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I’ve often wondered about the merits of entertaining anyone on my blog who does not have a valid blog of there own. The more I read from people such as Liam the more I feel justified in not allowing them ”airtime”.
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I allow Liam’s drive-by commenting because they demonstrate the irrationality of the thinking of many evangelical Christians. Liam believes that just because eight or so authors in the first several centuries mentioned Jesus by name that this is good evidence that Jesus was bodily resurrected from the dead.
There is no correlation. Yet Liam repeats it over and over and over again.
We should ask Liam this question: Just because several ancient authors mention the existence of a man name Mohammad is that evidence that this man rode on a winged horse into the night sky??
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To be honest, as he has no blog and merely uses yours’ for a soapbox I would encourage him to open a blog or failing this, disallow him from commenting.
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Hey Gary! I enjoy your posts and the fact that you interact with so many people discussing issues. I wonder… what is your solution to this problem of indoctrination? What should we, as Christian parents, do instead?
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Stop teaching ancient superstitions to children.
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And teach them what instead? They’re going to develop a worldview whether I teach them stuff or not… should I just let society and their teachers do it?
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Teach them the values and principles of democratic secular humanism!
Why? Answer: Because tens of thousands of years of collective human experience have taught us that looking out for the other guy is in YOUR best interest, because if we all are looking out for the other guy, each individual will benefit.
It’s that simple.
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Tens of thousands of years of collective human experience have taught us that people don’t look out for the other guy “just because!” Teaching kids to look out for the other guy without any objective guiding principle is often doomed to failure, in my opinion. I’m a teacher… I see it every day (well, before covid, anyway… haven’t seen kids in months!). If my kids know they were created for a purpose by a Creator who loves them and loves the other guy, they are much more likely to treat them with respect.
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SHARE (not teach/indoctrinate) your beliefs with your children. Tell them this is what YOU believe while stressing they can make their own decisions (yes, even while they’re young and malleable). Answer questions but avoid making your answers “either/or.”
Young children will generally follow the example of their parents, but too many won’t leave it at that and instead push their personal beliefs on them every chance they get.
Christians talk about faith a lot. Why not put this faith to work and let your god direct your children?
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Hi Nan! I do, and I encourage them to make their own decisions. But I am also very clear about how much God loves them and how much He loves everyone in the world. Also, I think those kids who are “indoctrinated” (not given a choice) tend to be the ones who get to college and get their beliefs shattered by the first argument they hear because of it.
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This is the hiccup … But I am also very clear about how much God loves them. In plain language, this IS indoctrination. Why not let them find that out for themselves? Like I said before, children generally emulate their parents and will ask questions as the need arises.
I’m well aware of the teachings re: training up a child. It’s a favorite verse among Christian parents. But too often training turns out to be controlling.
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Indoctrination = the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically (dictionary.com)
The key word here is uncritically. I teach my kids a lot of things about the world (well, not so much the 4 year old!), including other belief systems. As per your suggestion to let them find out things for themselves, that logic doesn’t work for a lot of things (drunk driving, murder, etc.). I think worldview goes in the extremely important category.
I agree with you that training turns into controlling. It’s tragic. I’m a teacher and I see it too often. But training is beneficial, especially when it comes time to think critically about what and whom to believe.
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I totally agree that training is critical. It’s just that Christian parents want to include “God” training — and letting a child find out for themselves in this area is hardly the same as the things you mentioned, which are real life activities.
I applaud you for your profession as a teacher. You and others like you are very important to society .. and far too often not appreciated for all that you do.
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Thanks Nan. 🙂 I’ll just say that I believe that worship of and loyalty to Jesus are “real life activities,” for sure. Thanks, btw, for engaging with me in an actual positive back-and-forth!
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Hilarious! Christian Apologist Randal Rauser has banned me from commenting on his blog!
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He does not like being challenged with tough questions regarding his cherished superstitions.
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Well, I can still comment on YouTube.
He has just posted a response to my comment in a new post in an attempt to save his arse.
The comments on Youtube show what almost everyone who watched it thought of him and his ridiculous argument.
The man is tit.
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Please give a link to the Youtube video.
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Smalley has Rauser on the rack after his opening remarks and Rauser is on the back foot from then on.
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I look forward to watching it! Did Smalley mention anything about Rauser’s perceived relationship with Jesus?
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Not that I recall.
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I will check it out after work.
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