Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
(2 Timothy 2:14) NKJV
Here’s an example of a Christian who sounds like an atheist, using the scientific paradigm and tactics of atheism.
“Being a geophysicist, I do not take the pillars of the Earth literally.”
– Compromised Christian
Special pleading is something that atheists assume religious people do, but it’s use is so widespread that’s it’s systemic.
Special pleading is an informal fallacy wherein one cites something as an exception to a general or universal principle (without justifying the special exception). This is the application of a double standard.
– Wikipedia
In the above quote the Christian is using the phrase “Being a geophysicist” to mean: I know what I’m talking about and you don’t. The special pleading is the passive aggressive implication that the principles of Geophysics prove that he’s right and we’re wrong. There’s some nuance here.
- Technically speaking, within the popular science paradigm (SciPop), the Christian is right.
- However, if something’s only true in the SciPop paradigm then it’s not a fact, in this instance a claim about the Earth’s average density, in which case we’re right.
“Earth’s average density, based on gravitational interaction, is 5.513 gm/cm3“
– Compromised Christian
Matty's Paradigm 