The Intellectual Attribution Bias doesn't apply to you if you can define it *

A friend of mine, in his Facebook status (yes, I get too much of my material from FB), asked his friends to opine whether or not there is a standard by which God can be judged good or evil. One of the replies he received was from a Christian friend who wrote:

I feel we are turning a corner. We are transitioning from ideas to your personal experiences and story. I will address ideas here, since my other reads may find them interesting. But for discussing your personal experiences and story, I want to turn to a private forum, where I, too, will share my personal experiences and story. Ideas have consequences - "Who sets values for God? Can humans judge God or apply logic to God?" ---> In short: no one, and, no. The question implies that since created being have Higher Reference for values, so too should an Uncreated Being. In logic, this is the fallacy of comparing non-comparable categories. The same principle is why the Christian Tradition has always said that God, in God's Essence, is utterly unknowable by humans, and thus it is absurd to subject God to created logical categories. "Adding God [to] the question of morals and ethics (or origins for that matter) just places the question one step further...we are still up against nihilism." ---> Analogical fallacy of comparing non-comparable categories. The shifting of the ground to God makes all the difference, because it is a shift from that which is created to that which is Uncreated. [This] eliminates nihilism entirely. The meaning of that which is created is found in its Uncreated Creator. To where the meaning of that which is Uncreated comes from is absurd, because that which is Uncreated does not "come from" anything. (I want to talk about the experiences you mention in a private venue.) [sic]

First of all, I love the Christian's implied (and arrogant) assumption that, since my friend was questioning God, he must be going through some personal problems. How Christian of him to offer to discuss those personal experiences in private. There is also an implied assumption that the Christian's beliefs were perfectly in line with reason (hence all the talk of logic and fallacies). This is a fine example of what is called the intellectual attribution bias: my beliefs are well-reasoned and intelligent, and your beliefs are based on rank emotions.

Secondly, the name of the fallacy that our Christian friend was groping for is the Fallacy of Faulty Comparisons, and it doesn't apply here. It doesn't apply because he has arbitrarily defined God as uncreated for the sake of his argument. The idea that God is uncreated remains a thing to be proved. One can't claim a faulty comparison based on an attribute that one imagines or hopes for; you have to know for certain that it's there. What if I were to say that it's a faulty comparison to judge God by human standards because God has a halo and humans don't. It makes about as much sense.

And, indeed, by the Christian's own admission, God is unknowable. What are some of the things we do not know about God? We don't know that God exists, we don't know if he's created or uncreated, we don't know if he has a halo or if he gives a fig about values in the first place. So, we can make comparisons to our hearts' content because it's all hypothetical anyway. Hey, here's a thought: maybe certain humans created the idea of God so that they could put their "created" values into the mouth of a supreme authority figure. Then, when other people said, "I don't think your values are fair or just" they could answer "They aren't our values, they're God's values, and you can't compare God's values with your own, that's a logical fallacy!"

But, of course, that's just speculation on my part.

Another false assumption the Christian makes is that, if something leads to nihilism, it must be false. If, as I speculate, we invented God to give authoritative weight to our own created values, then simply calling those values "uncreated" wouldn't make them any less nihilistic. Of course, the creation of human values emphatically does not lead to nihilism. But even if it did, it would not prove that the values of an allegedly uncreated God are any better, or that they don't also lead to nihilism, or that they even exist in the first place.

Finally, even if one believes that an uncreated God imparts the standard of values by which we should live, it is a logical absurdity to say that we don't judge that standard. Either we follow these allegedly uncreated values or we do not. Which is to say, either we regard them as worthy of observance or we do not. Which is to say, either we judge them as a good thing or a bad thing. Either way we have passed judgment. Quod erat demonstrandum.

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*So titled because clearly my beliefs are based on reason :)