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The Spiderman fallacy and Christianity; How Atheists reason for disbelief in Jesus through the use of the “Spiderman fallacy”.
Christian Post ^ | 03/19/2020 | Robin Schumacher

Posted on 03/19/2020 8:05:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 03/19/2020 8:05:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Son of God. Son of God. Messiah for the chosen ones.
Will he save us, from all sin. Count on Him, all to win.

hey hey, here comes the Lamb of God.

(yes it is sung to the spiderman theme)


2 posted on 03/19/2020 8:15:53 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world)
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To: SeekAndFind

Is this article saying, then, that Spider-Man wasn’t real?


3 posted on 03/19/2020 8:23:52 AM PDT by Captain Walker
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To: SeekAndFind
Hey I understand circular reasoning and false logic - but, they'd be better off dumping Spiderman and substituting the Church of Giorgio.


4 posted on 03/19/2020 8:30:26 AM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: SeekAndFind

The spiderman analogy is one of the weakest rhetorical tactics I’ve ever heard of.

If the hypothetical archaeological discovery of a spiderman artifact were to hold water, there would also have to be accounts of two or three dozen disciples who were executed rather than denying their hero could actually shoot steel-strong webs from his wrists while swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper in pursuit of bad guys.


5 posted on 03/19/2020 8:46:17 AM PDT by Migraine
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To: Migraine
[...] there would also have to be accounts of two or three dozen disciples who were executed rather than denying their hero [...]

That account would be found in Spiderman Issue #124.

Regards,

6 posted on 03/19/2020 9:08:38 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The Gospels are eye witness accounts... their claims were that they saw Jesus rise from the dead... that they spoke and ate with Him afterwords... and even saw His wounds. Lastly, they claim to have seen Him ascend into heaven.

They did not say this was for entertainment purposes... they made it very clear that they were telling us what they saw...

In the end, they lived hunted and persecuted lives because of these statements... all but one, dying for it... a death that could have been overcome if they only admitted they were not telling the truth.

That is far from a Spiderman comic collection being unearthed 100’s of years from now.

7 posted on 03/19/2020 9:09:22 AM PDT by PigRigger
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To: Migraine
... their hero could actually shoot steel-strong webs from his wrists while swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper in pursuit of bad guys.

As an aside, ever wonder why 'Spidey' hasn't been arrested for his blatant pollution of the city with his used webbing? I mean even the EPA should be after him big time!

Yes, I'm sure that there is an explanation of how there is a dissolving factor in the mythos to explain how they disappear. I can recall reading the very first Spiderman Comics in the various newsstands and stores but such outré stuff was never permitted to pass into my home. So much for having a mint-condition #1 to be worth scads of moola today!

8 posted on 03/19/2020 9:09:29 AM PDT by SES1066 (Happiness is a depressed Washington, DC housing market!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Thank you. This is excellent.

I tend to, without imposing my Christianity or citing any biblical passage or anecdote, I tend to take an atheist’s argument and tear it apart with fact and reason.

I would argue their Spiderman fallacy is misapplied by them with an example of a dog whistle.

Me: (I blow on a dog whistle) “Do you hear my whistle?”
Atheist: “No”
Me: “But the dog there hears it as we see it wakes him up.”
Atheist: “Yes I know about dog whistles.”
Me: “You know of dog whistles but you don’t hear them. But you believe they make sound to the dog, yes?”
Atheist: “Yes.”
Me: “Do the words of Jesus wake the Christian heart?”
Atheist: (silent)
Me: “you use the Spiderman fallacy to argue against Christian faith in God, but you refuse to use it against the effect of a dog whistle on dogs.”

Then the mean streak in me, my inner drill sargeant, will get up and dress down the Atheist shouting “You are worse than the most shameful Christian! For your thinking is incomplete and false! You are not a scientist, you are a smug arrogant lizard bent on looking down at the weak and limited, the humble and unsophisticated!”

This part of me stems from a long line of military ancestors. It can make me very mean, very warrior like. I pray to calm, to quell the temper, but unfortunately it’s in my DNA. The fact that I have a scientific mind is a gift that I must use according to Our Lord’s command that we all use the talents and gifts given to us to prosper, multiply, while seeking God’s Will in daily prayer.

Atheists at root, believe human beings are shameful things that are beneath them. They arrive falsely at believing their adoption of Atheism renders them superior to that which they consider shameful. But their powers of science and ability to discern truth are impaired by the very foundation on which they rest their false sense of scientific superiority.

They are neither smart nor wise.

Some of them are redeemable as their Atheism was planted in them by others that are lost themselves. Atheists are literally the blind leading the blind while mocking those who can bring them to Him who may give them sight.


9 posted on 03/19/2020 9:16:56 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: Hostage

I like this analogy and hope to use it in the future.


10 posted on 03/19/2020 9:40:10 AM PDT by jimfr
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To: SeekAndFind

Who is Luke, do we have any contemporary accounts? The Bible cannot be used as evidence. Did Luke ever mention the baptism of Jesus by John? There’s not even contemporary evidence for Paul and the other “apostles” in the New Testament.


11 posted on 03/19/2020 9:52:33 AM PDT by dburt2
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To: alexander_busek
That account would be found in Spiderman Issue #124.

Oh man, that's one issue I don't own. But it would be moot, since I personally lived during spiderman's tenure and I know it's all fiction and so do all my other contemporaries, with the possible exception of some denizens of various funny-farms and loony-bins.

So, if anyone, let alone 3 dozen people, gave their last full measure of devotion rather than deny the veracity of spiderman and his putative exploits, they were the utmost of fools.

12 posted on 03/19/2020 10:28:57 AM PDT by Migraine
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To: dburt2

“... do we have any contemporary accounts?”
The New Testament is a collection of contemporary accounts, not a single “Book” as you imply, but I don’t expect you understand that because you’re mind is made up and you want to justify your position. Your comment is as fallacious as any Straw Man ever posited ... frankly the Spiderman argument is stronger.

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” - Colin Powell


13 posted on 03/19/2020 10:31:59 AM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: dburt2; SeekAndFind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suetonius_on_Christians

The Roman historian Suetonius (c. AD 69 – c. AD 122) mentions early Christians and may refer to Jesus Christ in his work Lives of the Twelve Caesars.[1][2][3] historians also put stock into Suetonius’ work. One passage in the biography of the Emperor Claudius Divus Claudius 25, refers to agitations in the Roman Jewish community and the expulsion of Jews from Rome by Claudius during his reign (AD 41 to AD 54), which may be the expulsion mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (18:2). In this context “Chresto” is mentioned. Some scholars see this as a likely reference to Jesus, while others see it as referring to an otherwise unknown person living in Rome.[4][5][6]

Christians are explicitly mentioned in Suetonius’ biography of the Emperor Nero (Nero 16) as among those punished during Nero’s reign.[7] These punishments are generally dated to around AD 64,[8] the year of the Great Fire of Rome. In this passage Suetonius describes Christianity as excessive religiosity (superstitio) as do his contemporaries, Tacitus and Pliny.[2]

Historians debate whether or not the Roman government distinguished between Christians and Jews prior to Nerva’s modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in AD 96. From then on, practising Jews paid the tax, Christians did not.[9]

***********************************************************

Christian communities are documented by early Roman historians. There is no doubt they existed.

The chapters attributed to the Apostles are of leading, teaching, nurturing these Christian communities. There is no doubt these communities had leaders and the leaders in turn were guided, mentored, and inspired. Scripture ascribes this guiding leadership to the Apostles.

How old are the scriptures of Jesus and the Apostles?

In year 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea proclaimed and formally recognized the chapters of the New Testament as the Word of God. But Christians had been listening to readings of New Testament Chapters for centuries before.

Here is a very strong line of reasoning:

“If a historical account of New York City mentions the the construction and the presence of the twin towers of the World Trade Center but ends without mentioning their destruction, that historical account predates September 11, 2001. This conclusion is warranted, isn’t it?”

“Acts ends without mentioning the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD; this indicates that Acts predates 70 AD.”

“Acts also ends without mentioning the great fire in Rome and the ensuing Roman persecution of Christians across the Roman empire; this indicates that Acts also predates 64 AD.”

“Acts ends just after mentioning Paul’s completion of his 2 year imprisonment in Rome but without mentioning his martyrdom in 62 AD. This indicates that Acts was completed in 62 AD.”

***********************************************************

Now the works of Suetonius and other Roman historians are accepted as historical works. That these works exist is a fact. These works are nearly two thousand years old.

The earliest known chapters of the New Testament are also nearly two thousand years old. Their existence is firmly established in the year 325 AD but they were in circulation before that year.

Any objective historian would ascribe factual existence history to New Testament scriptures with the same weight given to Roman works of the same era.


14 posted on 03/19/2020 10:50:23 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: jimfr

Thank you. Please do so with gentleness and kindness, two traits I sometimes lack but try to improve upon.

I often aim to shake up the Atheist, to strip them of their smug self-confidence, like a drill sargeant screaming up close to a recruit.

Perhaps you will find a better way to demonstrate firm and faithful beliefs and principles.


15 posted on 03/19/2020 10:54:40 AM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: SeekAndFind

Actually, the most immediate takedown of this argument is that it presumes some type of broken timeline, where archeologists unearth comics in a literary/historical vacuum, absent a continuity that can be followed all the way back to Spider-Man’s origins, along which it has always been understood that he is a fictional character.


16 posted on 03/19/2020 10:56:43 AM PDT by william clark (Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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To: SeekAndFind

Actually, the most immediate takedown of this argument is that it presumes some type of broken timeline, where archeologists unearth comics in a literary/historical vacuum, absent a continuity that can be followed all the way back to Spider-Man’s origins, along which it has always been understood that he is a fictional character.


17 posted on 03/19/2020 10:57:21 AM PDT by william clark (Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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To: Migraine
So, if anyone, let alone 3 dozen people, gave their last full measure of devotion rather than deny the veracity of [...]

Are there no examples of martyrs in other religions?

Regards,

18 posted on 03/19/2020 12:34:58 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind

A lot of atheists think believers believe because they (believers) believe an ancient history book(the atheist’s view of the Bible) is true. A lot of atheists seem to have no understanding that believers believe first and foremost because of the gift of faith, a living relationship with Jesus.


19 posted on 03/19/2020 1:21:03 PM PDT by MDLION (J"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: SeekAndFind
What is so interesting is that atheists NEED "God" to NOT believe in Him.
What do those poor, pathetic souls in a godless society?
20 posted on 03/19/2020 1:24:14 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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