Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don’t; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!
“You didn’t critique my personal religion, therefore your critique has no value” isn’t a good argument against atheist critiques of religion. Atheists are mostly interested in religion as it’s widely practiced in the world, not as practiced by a few theologians and progressive believers. Besides, we may have critiqued your religion elsewhere. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
True, it might get across — at least to any open-minded people on the sidelines, and that’s enough to make “passing this along” worthwhile.
But as for the people who make such specious arguments in the first place, I don’t really expect them to be the least bit affected by this point; it would require intellectual honesty, which their argument already shows them to lack.
~David D.G.
This depends on what you hope to accomplish with your critique.
Is it valuable in the sense that it’s a well thought out position? Yes.
Is it valuable in the sense that it will reach a lot of people since you’re addressing mainstream views held by a lot of people? Yes.
Is it valuable to the person who doesn’t actually believe the things you argue against, but holds other beliefs? That depends. If they are seeking knowledge of other views, certainly. If they are looking to solidify a position they agree with you on, again, yes. Probably in quite a few other ways as well. But will they see it as a persuasive reason to change their own beliefs. Not likely, because you didn’t address their beliefs.
So it really depends on what value you’re looking at. It certainly has value, but it may not have persuasive value to someone who’s views you didn’t address. It depends on your goal and what you hope to achieve. Though I can certainly say I agree with you that it does have value.