The Christian infantilism / Meaning of life

Dawson Bethrick at Incinerating Presuppositionalism always does great work, and I think his work is grossly unrecognized by other atheists in the blogsphere. Dawson is both a trenchant mind and an eloquent writer. In his latest entry (at least at the time I'm writing this), "With Minds of Children", he discusses the infantilism of Christian thought :

[G]od-belief will take its root best when the believer, like a naïve child, is philosophically defenseless against the false premises which lurk under theism's pre-packaged exterior of anecdotes, pretended authority, fake promises of vindication and the like. It is, in the case of Christianity for instance, the absurd and nonsensical which distinguish its teachings from other worldviews most dramatically, insisting that adults lower their minds to the level of a 6-year-old, prone to trusting persons in postions of authority and intellectually unable to recognize any abuse of that trust.

(...)

This whole approach to apologetics smacks of the behavior of an incorrigible child hoping to entrap adults in his midst whom he resents for being right. Children are not only often overly trusting, suggestible, imprudently credulous and intellectually vulnerable, they are also often prone to lacking self-restraint, social crudeness, and depth of intellect. And it is common knowledge that a child who is reluctant to grow up is sometimes given to petty nitpicking, emotional outbursts, temper tantrums. Non-believers who are willing to engage Christian apologists should not be surprised that such tendencies may show in their opponents since, as we saw above, this childishness is actually encouraged by the Christian worldview.

I have written before that Christian morality is authoritarian and regressive - that is to say, a morality for children. Dawson's insights in this matter are not wholly surprising from this perspective. If the Christian must have child-like faith, then he must also be imposed a child-like morality. Both go hand in hand, since faith is after all a moral choice, and morality is a corollary of your epistemic position.


Here's my thought of the day. Once you realize that you're not a special being in the universe, you also realize that you only valuably exist to yourself - and to others insofar as you contribute to their values. At first it might be depressing, but I think it can only stimulate the development of a person's individuality, the development of the person's values, and more fruitful relationships with others.

What do you think ?