The spider-man comic is supposed to be the silly, unbelievable example. It’s not supposed to make sense. People don’t believe in spider-man just because there’s books about him, but they do believe in God/Allah for that reason. But that’s a silly reason to believe in anything. That much is obvious with spider-man, as you seem to understand. It’s less obvious with people’s dieties for some reason.
oh my god, it’s a baby’s analogy. you yourself are saying people don’t do this with this book but do it with that book. so it’s by definition a bad example. also, at first the argument was “the meme isn’t saying just because the book exists”, but now you say “they do believe (…) for that reason”.
this is what I mean by embarrassing. people can’t help but defend a dumb meme rather than admit it makes a bad point simply because it agrees with them is funnily enough very religious coded imo.
again the internet atheist assumes no one understands the premise rather than realize the premise is dumb. it’s incredible how much you guys operate on faulty logic instead of making arguments that are sound.
instead of saying “the bible isn’t proof that god exists the same way a physics book in itself isn’t proof that physics exist, but we can observe and replicate physics experiments in a way that gives us high confidence that our understanding of the laws of physics is sound” you go to fucking kindergarten logic immediately.
the spider-man (respect the hyphen) comics aren’t proof of spider-man’s existence because they make zero effort to prove spider-man exists. like that’s not even a concern of the book, how bad are you at analogies… you can make the same argument instead with something like the secret. or better yet, you can do it with other holy books.
funnily enough the quran works as an argument against the bible since christians ostensibly believe in the bible but not the quran even though there are vast similarities. wouldn’t work the other way since muslims technically believe that the bible at least at one point history was indeed the true word of god. but you can always use newer scripture, like dianetics or whatever.
i get that comparing them to spider-man makes your smug ass feel euphoric but making stupid arguments doesn’t make the other side seem stupid as many of you internet atheists think for some reason. it just makes you look like you don’t know how analogies work.
I appreciate the answer, but I’m afraid I disagree on several points.
I will give one thing to start off with, yes the premise is dumb, that’s why it’s a humorous meme.
instead of saying “the bible isn’t proof that god exists the same way a physics book in itself isn’t proof that physics exist, but we can observe and replicate physics experiments in a way that gives us high confidence that our understanding of the laws of physics is sound”
I’d argue this is exactly what the meme says. The meme as format is a much simplified rehash of the argument, more of a reference than an actual argumentation. It conveys the frustration of having to rehash a long debunked argument in a humorous nod to those who’ve had to live them and repeat them many times. This is btw probably why you’re getting the reactions you are in this thread, the meme isn’t the argument itself. On the other hand it gets reposted because there’s always someone who gets tripped up, and the exercise of rehashing it might illuminate them or another reader.
the spider-man (respect the hyphen) comics aren’t proof of spider-man’s existence because they make zero effort to prove spider-man exists. like that’s not even a concern of the book, how bad are you at analogies… you can make the same argument instead with something like the secret.
What effort does the Bible or any book make to prove their characters’ existence? I’d argue it’s to post claims you can verify. Claims like descriptions of places and events. Spiderman comics are quite easily verified as many of the locations and events described can be investigated in person, or corroborated through photos, video, independent reports.
Or is the linchpin that the Spiderman comics don’t explicitly claim that they are true? Would your view change if someone had written and underlined “Truth!” in one of them? I’d argue it shouldn’t, just claiming something’s true doesn’t make it so, they could be mistaken or lying.
funnily enough the quran works as an argument against the bible since christians ostensibly believe in the bible but not the quran even though there are vast similarities.
I entirely agree, and this is the part of the meme the atheists are secretly smug about.
No, the fact that people do it with some books and not others is the whole thing the meme is trying to point out. What’s embarrassing here is 1. you needing multiple people to explain that to you and 2. you getting this worked up over a meme.
You’re so close but still missing the point.
The spider-man comic is supposed to be the silly, unbelievable example. It’s not supposed to make sense. People don’t believe in spider-man just because there’s books about him, but they do believe in God/Allah for that reason. But that’s a silly reason to believe in anything. That much is obvious with spider-man, as you seem to understand. It’s less obvious with people’s dieties for some reason.
oh my god, it’s a baby’s analogy. you yourself are saying people don’t do this with this book but do it with that book. so it’s by definition a bad example. also, at first the argument was “the meme isn’t saying just because the book exists”, but now you say “they do believe (…) for that reason”.
this is what I mean by embarrassing. people can’t help but defend a dumb meme rather than admit it makes a bad point simply because it agrees with them is funnily enough very religious coded imo.
Let me try to rephrase the argument the meme makes and see if it clicks.
If the Bible is proof that God exists (as many Christians believe).
And the Quran is proof that god/Allah exists (as many Muslims believe).
Then spiderman comics are proof that Spider-man exists (which many Christians and Muslims disbelieve).
Either you believe all three are true, or you don’t believe the existence of the book makes it true.
again the internet atheist assumes no one understands the premise rather than realize the premise is dumb. it’s incredible how much you guys operate on faulty logic instead of making arguments that are sound.
instead of saying “the bible isn’t proof that god exists the same way a physics book in itself isn’t proof that physics exist, but we can observe and replicate physics experiments in a way that gives us high confidence that our understanding of the laws of physics is sound” you go to fucking kindergarten logic immediately.
the spider-man (respect the hyphen) comics aren’t proof of spider-man’s existence because they make zero effort to prove spider-man exists. like that’s not even a concern of the book, how bad are you at analogies… you can make the same argument instead with something like the secret. or better yet, you can do it with other holy books.
funnily enough the quran works as an argument against the bible since christians ostensibly believe in the bible but not the quran even though there are vast similarities. wouldn’t work the other way since muslims technically believe that the bible at least at one point history was indeed the true word of god. but you can always use newer scripture, like dianetics or whatever.
i get that comparing them to spider-man makes your smug ass feel euphoric but making stupid arguments doesn’t make the other side seem stupid as many of you internet atheists think for some reason. it just makes you look like you don’t know how analogies work.
I appreciate the answer, but I’m afraid I disagree on several points.
I will give one thing to start off with, yes the premise is dumb, that’s why it’s a humorous meme.
I’d argue this is exactly what the meme says. The meme as format is a much simplified rehash of the argument, more of a reference than an actual argumentation. It conveys the frustration of having to rehash a long debunked argument in a humorous nod to those who’ve had to live them and repeat them many times. This is btw probably why you’re getting the reactions you are in this thread, the meme isn’t the argument itself. On the other hand it gets reposted because there’s always someone who gets tripped up, and the exercise of rehashing it might illuminate them or another reader.
What effort does the Bible or any book make to prove their characters’ existence? I’d argue it’s to post claims you can verify. Claims like descriptions of places and events. Spiderman comics are quite easily verified as many of the locations and events described can be investigated in person, or corroborated through photos, video, independent reports.
Or is the linchpin that the Spiderman comics don’t explicitly claim that they are true? Would your view change if someone had written and underlined “Truth!” in one of them? I’d argue it shouldn’t, just claiming something’s true doesn’t make it so, they could be mistaken or lying.
I entirely agree, and this is the part of the meme the atheists are secretly smug about.
No, the fact that people do it with some books and not others is the whole thing the meme is trying to point out. What’s embarrassing here is 1. you needing multiple people to explain that to you and 2. you getting this worked up over a meme.