Eliezar,
Thanks for a thought-provoking post. I do, however, have some criticisms:
1) Not to be snarky, but you obviously aren’t talking about “religion.” You are discussing Christianity. Clearly you cannot disprove Hindu on the basis of disproving the Old Testament (if you had disproven the Old Testament, which I don’t believe you have).
2) You mention Christ once: to call his miracle into question. Other than that, He is a footnote. Everything necessary for salvation, however, from a Christian perspective, is contained in the New Testament. Should we discard the Old? No. But historical accounts unchallenging to modern sensibilities were no more the intention of Old Testament writers than was “Origin of the Species” intended to be a religious text. If you wish to disprove Christianity, you would probably do better to start with the life and claims of Jesus Christ. If you merely wish to introduce the possibility of doubt into the conversation, I doubt any thinking Christian would argue with you.
3) You mention twice that the Old Testament doesn’t display a sense of wonder at the complexity of the universe. Consider if you will Yahweh’s address to Job at the end of the book. How does your assertion stand up to that text?
4)There are some category-confusion errors evident here. For instance, you mention the ethical problem of “slaughtering...innocent...male children,” as though the Israelites themselves did the slaughtering. This is a theological, and not an ethical question. If you propose to discuss theology, how do you propose to do so? As a cultural construct? There are some thorny problems built into judging the actions of a God that you also deny exists.
5)The sense of your post seems to be that if some portions of the Old Testament can be falsified or called into question, then Christianity (or, as you euphemistically put it, “religion”) can be disproven. You are applying to the scientific method to historical/cultural accounts of the world; something rarely done. But fine. My challenge to you is this: can you quantify the exact criteria that the biblical account would have to meet in order to be falsifiable?
You reference in this post a link to another post, in which the authors of this (fascinating) site admit to failing their own test of bias. They note that, like Christians, they strive for an unbiased view of the world, while occasionally failing in their own lives. The principle (a theoretical lack of bias) is therefore not abandoned despite evidence to the contrary.
Could the same courtesy not be extended to religious adherents?
Regards,
DB
G,
Thanks for challenging me here. In an effort to avoid insisting too much, and leaning too much on the goodwill of all involved, I’ll let that be the last word.
Thanks, Chris.
Best,
DB