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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Word salad: An argument atheists can't find a hole in


If there's one thing atheists often excel at, it's boasting. Atheists love to either overestimate their own intelligence, or undermine yours. One of the ways they do the latter is to call any sufficiently lengthy argument (which, by their standard, can be anything greater than a few sentences) "word salad".


A word salad, as defined by Google, is "a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases". My method of flipping this accusation back on the troll is to show that if they consider my argument to be an unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases, they must have some form of mental hindrance. This reverses the boast. Rather than making me seem less intelligent, as he intended, it makes him seem less intelligent, and probably rather angry about it.


Of course, the reason an atheist would respond in this way is because what they call "word salad" is actually an argument in which they cannot find a flaw. The argument is not only intelligible, but is inherently logical. And it leads straight to Jesus. Conveniently, Jesus Himself compares Himself to food. Not to salad, of course, but to bread. To "eat" His flesh is to believe in Him. With this comes eternal life.


So, why do atheists reject this? For the same reason a child would reject literal salad. Good for the body rarely equates to good for the tongue. Neither does good for the tongue often equate to good for the body. Be honest, how many of you can resonate with the phrase "this salad tastes like I'd rather be fat"? I don't know about you, but my belly speaks for itself. Given the choice between taste and health benefits, I more often than not choose taste.


For most people, Jesus has a bitter taste. Even many so-called Christians take the Bible as if it was some kind of all you can eat buffet rather than the essential diet it is. To "eat" Jesus' flesh may well result in spiritual health, but it goes down like broccoli.


If we continue to compare spiritual truths to physical food, the "word salad" prepared by a Christian apologist is far healthier than anything that comes out of Hell's kitchen. It may taste better, but it does not sustain a healthy, spiritual life, and ultimately it leads to death.


But let's imagine we could swap bodies. What if everything you ate, someone else got fat for? If you could eat pizza without gaining weight, would you do it? If 15 bars of chocolate wouldn't make you sick, why not have 16? This is effectively what Jesus did for us. We swallowed the poison (sin), but it landed in Jesus' stomach. When Jesus died on the cross, He wasn't dying for His sins, but for yours. He received your punishment for you. All it takes is for you to confess Him as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Yes, that requires repentance, which is absolutely a dish that needs a little seasoning. But as tasty as a short life of sin is, the flesh and blood of Christ is far healthier.

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