"Why should I obey God when I didn't ask to be created?"
First, before talking about the logical fallacies of this, I would simply point out that it isn't a legitimate, natural, normal, or honest question; it's an illegitimate, unnatural, abnormal, fabricated question, of the sort meant to mock and confuse. It is a good question from a bully's viewpoint, because it is obviously wrong, and so basically wrong that it is usually difficult for someone to immediately and clearly explain how it is wrong.
"Tell me right now: what does the word 'and' mean? Too late; you obviously don't know what 'and' means, and shouldn't be using it in a sentence."
Bully's love to see people struggle to explain something they hold to without question - even though there is nothing strange about struggling to explain extremely basic concepts.
With this understood, to make things clearer about the question, we would ask where they took the phrasing of it from:
Where does "why should I (such and such) when I didn't agree to (so and so)" truly and logically apply?
Well, if a stranger knocked on your door, and told you to wash his dishes, you would rightly ask, "Why?"
You have no obligation to do it - there is of course an infinite number of things you don't have an obligation to do. But if you had agreed to do it, that would create the obligation to do it, based on the obligation you always have: the obligation to keep your word.
So all they've done is taken phrasing that applies to obligations you don't have, and applied them to obligations you do have. They might just as well have said, "If there is anything I don't have to do, then there is nothing I do have to do." They've rejected the idea of right and wrong, altogether and point-blank.
Yet they use phrasing which assumes an obligation they already have: did they agree to be obliged to do the things they agreed to? By using terms based in what they are rejecting, they confuse people: sounding like they argue from the same foundation while attacking that foundation.
No matter how many things there are which one is not obliged to do, it obviously does not lessen in any way the obligations they do have.
A more obvious case of a similar fallacy would be if a thief was found stealing and was told "that isn't yours", and he simply said "then it isn't yours either!". One doesn't really need to explain to the thief the fundamental concept of rightful possession; one could quite justifiably say nothing but "yes it is", and tie him up.
Perhaps this case as well would be more confusing if there was so much theft and stolen goods that rightful possession was the rare exception. Being required to do what you have no obligation to do is so common in every aspect of life these days, through the abundance of false doctrine and the ubiquitous industrial scale of tyranny, it explains somewhat why concepts of a person's basic fundamental obligations are so easily clouded and confused.
But of course one can't always talk to this great length when someone says: "Why should I obey God when I didn't ask to be created?"; what could briefly be said to it?
It would be different in different contexts, but one idea would be to say: "Not that it's possible," (to point out that it's based in fantasy) "but why would you need to obey God if you had asked to be created?" (to point out that the question itself assumes the existence of fundamental obligations).
One could also point out, "This would be treating God like some random stranger, another fellow created person, or like a false god which could be anything from a demon to a cow. But this is the Creator, who gave us the ability to live and think and act; we are obliged to him if there is such a thing as obligation at all."
But in any case, it is difficult on the spur of the moment to think of something concise. I heard one response, which, while it was an interesting point, didn't address the actual question - I wouldn't fault them too much for failing to do so.
2023/04/08 #sabbathposts