Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Square Circle

I've been watching a lot of debates recently on YouTube between believers and non-believers. If I were to recommend only one channel it would be this guy: ProfMTH. His videos are very well produced and he is an extremely clear and entertaining speaker. Plus he gives patient and well thought-out replies to almost all the text comments on his videos. You can find other good channels by looking at what he has subscribed to as well.

In Prof's debates and elsewhere, believers (usually Christian apologists) have replies ready for almost any contradiction that is brought up. It's almost as amazing as the ability of seasoned Trekkies to retcon things like where the Klingon forehead bumps came from. Suddenly I realized that no contradiction could ever shake a believer's faith, because I too have the ability to explain away any contradiction as good as the best apologists. I will give it a go here with some classic contradictions that at first seem impossible to explain.

1. The square circle. How could a circle be a square? You see it is quite simple, sometimes the object is a circle and sometimes it's a square. It might depend on the time of day. Or maybe the original language "square" was translated from actually meant "circle." Here's my best explanation: the following looks like a circle, right?


But lets zoom in:



Aha! The circle is made of squares.

2. One equals two. Another easy one. Isn't it obvious that one coin has two sides? Or that one apple can be split into two halves?

3. Black is white. Well, white things are black if there is no light. Or a black object might appear to be white if it is smooth and the light reflects off it at a certain angle. Maybe the white object is black on the inside, or only half of it is black.

Can you think of a contradiction that can't be explained away? I guess the Bible, like Star Trek, really is completely free of any contradictions.