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Assumptions
Smuggling on a Drug Cartel Scale
This article is one of a series of articles introduced by Flawed Reasons to Believe in God. If you’re new to the series, you should read the Introduction before (or after) reading the material below.
What would a photograph of assumptions look like? That thought had me flummoxed as I sat down to write this chapter. Then, it dawned on me that religious apologists routinely use assumptions to smuggle thoughts or conclusions into a debate, thus sidestepping David Hume’s warning that you cannot get an ought from an is. Hence the image of drug smuggling. And the drug analogy holds when we consider intent. The haul shown above obviously indicates deliberate smuggling. Professional apologists (AKA excusagists) are usually carrying out their smuggling in quite an intentional fashion. For instance, if they are setting out to discuss why there is something and not nothing in our Universe, they will couch it as a debate about the Creation. Then they spring the trap, pointing out that a creation needs a creator, and that creator is, of course, their favorite God. But big-time smugglers sometimes hide contraband on some innocent “mule” without the carrier’s knowledge. I think theists are often so accustomed to thinking their God is behind everything there is that they accidentally smuggle in contraband thoughts and concepts.