Essay: A British agnostic gets hopping mad at User: Conservative despite his reasonableness

An British, agnostic clown became very angry at User: Conservative on October 15, 2022 due to his cognitive dissonance and his inability to make credible counterarguments.

His clownish red hair, big nose, big shoes, polka dot-like clothes arguments, could not stand up to cross-examination and counterarguments.

Despite User: Conservative's reasonableness, a British agnostic became hopping mad at User: Conservative on October 15, 2022. This is very hard to believe given the reasonableness of User: Conservative, but it actually happened. Below is an explanation of how this happened.

User: Conservative came across a 2019 journal article that indicated that the UK may become a Muslim-majority country by 2080 so he updated his essay Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming

Specifically, he added this to the essay: "The 2019 journal article When will European Muslim population be majority and in which country? published in PSU Research Review indicates: "Among three scenarios, the most likely mid-point migration scenario identifies 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years".

User: Conservative also pointed out that there is academic research indicating that there are religious populations, such as Muslims, who are resistant to secularization so he added this material to the essay (see: Religious immigrants to Europe resistant to secularization).

On the other hand, the evangelical/pentecostal Christian population is growing fast in parts of the UK (See material below) and it is unknown how much of a decline in fertility rate European Muslims may have in the 21st century. And of course, the future immigration rates of the UK is also unknown. But the UK does have an aging population with a subreplacement birth rate and so it will have to replace those aging workers in order to support the UK's pension system. And historically countries have had a very difficult time boosting their fertility rates through government incentives and so they have used immigration to solve the problem. And since the vast majority of the world that is experiencing population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious, many UK immigrants in the future will be religious.

But after all is said and done, User: Conservative clearly showed that the UK was going to experience a radical transformation and become a majority-religious country in the 21st century in his essay Attention British, militant atheists! Brace yourself for the mighty, religious wave that is coming. The unbearable weight of this matter caused so much anger and cognitive dissonance in the British agnostic that he said he wanted to cease communications with User: Conservative. He reminds me of a pouty woman after she loses an argument and then goes silent. In short, he definitely lacks machismo! It's not surprising that he lacks machismo. The world's most famous British agnostic also lacks machismo (See: Does Richard Dawkins have machismo?).

Both theists and atheists frequently accuse agnostics of being cowardly, due to their wishy-washy rejection of God. Studs Terkel, a self-described agnostic, jokingly referred to the frequent charge of agnostics being called cowardly, "You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist".

On behalf of all reasonable religious people in the world, User: Conservative declares total victory!

When people's view of the world is totally shattered, sometimes they get horse throwing mad.

Growth of Evangelical/Pentecosal Christianity in the UK

See also: Growth of evangelical Christianity in Europe and Global creationism

Growth of pentecostal Christianity in the UK

Some 4.5million of the UK's foreign-born population claim to have a religious affiliation and more than half are Christian.

Church attendance in Greater London grew by 16% between 2005 and 2012. In addition, the latest immigrants to the UK as a whole mean British Christianity is becoming more charismatic and fundamentalist.

According to a 2016 BBC documentary, pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing form of Christianity in the UK. In 2016, there were 500,000 pentecostal Christians in the UK according to the documentary.

In 2010, the American sociologist Peter L. Berger said of pentecostalism : "One can say with some confidence that modern Pentecostalism must be the fastest growing religion in human history."

Growth of evangelical Christianity in the UK

In December of 2017, the Church Times reported:

“

In 2016, the Centre for Theology and Community (CTC) published new research on Evangelical church-planting in east London, Love, Sweat and Tears (News, 8 April 2016, Features, 21 April). This confirmed the widely recognised image of Evangelicals as people who like to plant churches, but it also revealed that the way they work is not at all how people often imagine. All of these Evangelical churches were planted in deprived areas, not suburbs; most of their members were local; one parish was cross-tradition; every parish was reaching people who do not attend church; and all of them were involved in social-action projects that served their local communities.

”

On December 14, 2009, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported:

“

According to the Mail Evangelical Christianity is on the rise. Some 4.5million of the UK's foreign-born population claim to have a religious affiliation. Of these, around a quarter are Muslim while more than half are Christian – with Polish Catholics and African Pentecostals among the fastest-growing groups. While traditional churchgoing is on the decline in the UK over the past decade, the latest immigrants mean Christianity is becoming more charismatic and fundamentalist. 'Perhaps the most significant change has been the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity within migrant populations, particularly those from Africa and Latin America,' the report found. 'In Lewisham, there are 65 Pentecostal churches serving the Nigerian community, and others serving the Congolese, Ghanaian and Ivorian communities.' Professor Mike Kenny of IPPR said: 'The research shows that recent waves of inward migration have given a boost to some of the UK's established faith communities at a time when Britain's society and culture are generally more secular, and smaller numbers of the indigenous population are regularly attending churches. 'Recent migration trends are altering the faith map of the UK. Their biggest impact is being felt in some of our largest cities: London above all, where a rich mosaic of different faith communities has come into being.' Evangelical Christianity might be heavily African-influenced but it’s also spreading among the natives as well.

”

See also:

• Biblical Christianity is rising in the UK

• Pentecostalism Invades Lambeth Palace by Peter Berger

Effects of the Welsh Revival on drunkenness, criminality and other ill-behavior

See also: Irreligion and crime and Irreligious prison population

Evan John Roberts was a leading figure of the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905.

Larry Brown in his paper entitled The Welsh Revival And Other Revivals Worldwide, 1900-1905 declared concerning the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905:

“

The impact of the Welsh Revival touched essentially every aspect of Welsh society, with 100,000 throughout Wales professing faith. Demonstrating the permeating effects of this Revival, historian J. Edwin Orr, as recounted by Towns and Porter, noted: “Drunkenness was immediately cut in half, and many taverns went bankrupt. Crime was so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves signifying that there were no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider. The police became unemployed in many districts. Stoppages occurred in coal mines, not due to unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foul-mouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that the horses which handled the coal trucks in the mines could no longer understand what was being said to them” (Towns and Porter, 33).

”

Jeff Fenske wrote of the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905:

“

As revival fire spread across Wales in late 1904 and early 1905, although no official records were kept of the actual number converted, 150,000 is considered a very conservative estimate, during the first six months! People’s lives were transformed by the thousands. This was indeed, a sovereign move of God’s Holy Spirit! Whole communities were turned upside down, and were radically changed from depravity to glorious goodness. The crime rate dropped, often to nothing. The police force reported that they had little more to do than supervise the coming and going of the people to the chapel prayer meetings, while magistrates turned up at courts to discover no cases to try. The alcohol trade was decimated, as people were caught up more by what happened in the local chapels than the local public houses and bars. Families experienced amazing renewal, where the money earning husband and father, the bread winner, had wasted away the income and sowed discord, but now under the moving power of the Holy Spirit, following the conversion to be a follower of Jesus Christ, he not only provided correctly for family needs, but was now with the family, rather than wasting his time, and wages, in the public houses of the village or town... Public houses were now almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money getting drunk were saving it, giving it to help their churches, buying clothes and food for their families. And not only drunkenness, but stealing and other offences grew less and less, so that often a magistrate came to court, and found there were no cases for him. Men whose language had been filthy before, learnt to talk purely. It is related that not only did the colliers put in a better day’s work, but also that the pit ponies were so used to being cursed and sworn at, that they just couldn’t understand orders being given in kind, clean words! Yet, still the work output increased. The dark tunnels underground in the mines echoed with the sounds of prayer and hymns, instead of oaths and nasty jokes and gossip. People who had been careless about paying their bills, or paying back money they had borrowed, paid up all they owed. People who had fallen out became friends again.

”

For more information, please see: Dramatic effects of the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905 on criminality and other ill-behavior

Three classic British songs

• United Kingdom national anthem, God Save the Queen (with lyrics)
• Land of Hope and Glory with lyrics - British patriotic song composed in 1902 which makes references to God
• Rule Britannia (With lyric annotations) - Song makes reference to "Heaven's command" and guardian angels

Analysis of agnosticism and common objections to agnosticism

Common arguments for the existence of God

• Arguments for the existence of God

• Other common arguments for the existence of God

• Evidence for the existence of God

Norman Geisler on complete agnosticism

See also: Agnosticism quotes

Christian apologist Norman Geisler wrote on complete agnosticism:

“

Complete agnosticism is self-defeating; it reduces to the self-destructing assertion that "one knows enough about reality in order to affirm that nothing can be known about reality." This statement provides within itself all that is necessary to falsify itself. For if one knows something about reality, then he surely cannot affirm in the same breath that all of reality is unknowable. And of course if one knows nothing whatsoever about reality, then he has no basis whatsoever for making a statement about reality. It will not suffice to say that his knowledge about reality is purely and completely negative, that is, a knowledge of what one cannot meaningfully affirm that something is not – that it follows that total agnosticism is self-defeating because it assumes some knowledge about reality in order to deny any knowledge of reality (Geisler, Apologetics, p. 20).

”

Shaun Doyle: Four problems with agnosticism

Shaun Doyle writes:

“

First, either God exists, or He doesn’t. And, theism and atheism imply starkly different worlds. Atheism is a world of no objective purpose, meaning, beauty, or value. Theism expects science to work; it’s a massive accident if God doesn’t exist. But this contradicts strong agnosticism, which entails that theistic and atheistic worlds must be indiscernible. It also means weak agnosticism is flawed. The wildly different implications of theism and atheism make it unreasonable to remain agnostic forever. Second, the weak agnostic might be unreasonably incredulous regarding the evidence for God. For instance, most Muslims reject the historicity of Jesus’ death by crucifixion based on the Koran (e.g. Surah 4:157), despite the fact there is overwhelming evidence that Jesus died by crucifixion. Muslims refuse to accept an obvious truth due to a deeply held prior commitment. If so many people can be blinded to well-evidenced truths due to a faulty bias, it’s not hard to see that the same is possible for the agnostic. Third, it assumes that their allegedly poor position to know about God is permanent. Rather, a person’s ability to know truths fluctuates with changing circumstances. It may be that they were once in a better position to know, or that they will come into a better position to know. The weak agnostic’s ability to know about God is in principle provisional. Finally, a dogged stance of doubt in the face of uncertainty is not very reasonable. For instance, Jesus said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). The psalmist said: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). God’s goodness is worth grasping, and He is willing to answer those who seek after Him. As such, even if there is such a thing as reasonable uncertainty, that need not translate (and if God exists, certainly should not translate) into reasonable doubt.

”

Laurence B. Brown on agnosticism

The Islamic scholar Laurence B. Brown raises the question to agnostics: ""You claim that nothing can be known with certainty ... how, then, can you be so sure?"

Agnosticism is often seen as cowardly and fence sitting

See also: Agnosticism and cowardice

Both theists and atheists frequently accuse agnostics of being cowardly, due to their wishy-washy rejection of God. Studs Terkel, a self-described agnostic, jokingly referred to the frequent charge of agnostics being called cowardly, "You happen to be talking to an agnostic. You know what an agnostic is? A cowardly atheist".

It is also said by particular Christian groups, particularly but not exclusively in the United States of America, that those who know of Jesus but do not accept Him are just as damned as those who reject Him explicitly.

Agnostic Richard Dawkins and accusations of cowardice

The Oxford University Professor Daniel Came wrote to the agnostic Richard Dawkins:: "The absence of a debate with the foremost apologist for Christian theism is a glaring omission on your CV and is of course apt to be interpreted as cowardice on your part."

See also: Agnosticism and debate

The evolutionists Richard Dawkins is an agnostic who flip-flops his public persona between being an agnostic and being an atheist (See: Richard Dawkins and agnosticism).

The Oxford University Professor Daniel Came (an atheist) wrote to Richard Dawkins: "The absence of a debate with the foremost apologist for Christian theism is a glaring omission on your CV and is of course apt to be interpreted as cowardice on your part."

In October 2011, William Lane Craig went to England and the Daily Telegraph declared that Dawkins is either a fool or a coward for his refusal to debate William Lane Craig plus declared that Dawkins is a "proud man" and a "coward" who puts on an "illiterate, angry schtick" for the public. In addition, Christian apologist Ken Ammi called Dawkins a "cowardly clown" because Dawkins and other prominent atheists refused to debate Creation Ministries International at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention.

Shmuley Boteach (see license agreement)

Below are some resources relating to Dawkins refusal to debate various debate opponents:

• Richard Dawkins and debate

• Richard Dawkins' public refusal to debate creationists

• Richard Dawkins and William Lane Craig

• Richard Dawkins and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Denied debating him after losing video taped debate, refuses to debate another time)

In addition, respected biochemist and intelligent design researcher Dr Michael Behe has openly challenged prominent evolutionists and proponents of Darwinism to debate him regarding the many failings of evolutionism, yet Richard Dawkins - one of the most outspoken Darwinists today - has declined all such invitations.

Agnosticism vs. biblical worldview

See also: Atheism vs. Christianity and Atheism and the Bible

The Christian website Gotquestions.org states:

“

The Bible tells us that we must accept by faith that God exists. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith “it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” God is spirit (John 4:24) so He cannot be seen or touched. Unless God chooses to reveal Himself, He is invisible to our senses (Romans 1:20). The Bible declares that the existence of God can be clearly seen in the universe (Psalm 19:1-4), sensed in nature (Romans 1:18-22), and confirmed in our own hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Agnostics are unwilling to make a decision either for or against God’s existence. It is the ultimate “straddling the fence” position. Theists believe that God exists. Atheists believe that God does not exist. Agnostics believe that we should not believe or disbelieve in God’s existence, because it is impossible to know either way.

”

Agnosticism and atheism vs. other theism arguments

• Evidence and arguments against evolution

• Intelligent design

• Argument from beauty

• Rebuttals to nontheistic arguments

• Atheism and the origin of the universe

Conservapedia: The trustworthy, online encyclopedia that godless, British motorists trust when doing searches at Google UK

See also: Conservapedia: The trustworthy, online encyclopedia that godless, British motorists trust when doing searches at Google UK

Conservapedia's article United Kingdom's road repair crisis ranks #4 at Google UK for a web searcher doing a search for "United Kingdom's road repair crisis" from the UK. The top 5 search results are considered to be favorable search results by search engine optimization specialists.

Google personalizes results depending on what location the searcher performs his search.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

See also

• A British atheist on Conservapedia's atheism articles
• Comedy and satires concerning atheism and evolution

Web search results a godless, British motorist would receive if he were doing a search while vacationing in the United States while using a specialized SEO tool

Conservapedia: The trustworthy, online encycyclopedia that godless, British motorists trust when doing searches at Google UK if he were doing a search in the United States.

Google personalizes results depending on what location the searcher performs his search.

Please notice that Conservapedia outranks the leading British newspaper Express at Google UK for the keyword "United Kingdom's road repair crisis" - despite the Express article having 13 websites linking to their page (Data provided by the leading web marketing company Ahrefs).

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

See also

• A British atheist on Conservapedia's atheism articles
• Comedy and satires concerning atheism and evolution