What Does the Test Oracle Say?

Before passing a particular bit of theology on to us nontheists for purposes of persuasion, theists would do well to run it through a rudimentary test suite, just to see how the argument holds up in more...neutral contexts.

So, wherever the prospective argument contains the term 'God' or its equivalent, simply substitute one or more of the following:

Zeus
Ashur
Baldr
Ra
Fūjin
Unicorns
The Celestial Teapot

Now let's apply this to a sample text. Take this one, due to Joseph Ratzinger (made topical by Ross Douthat):

No one can lay [the Celestial Teapot] on the table before another man.... But however strongly unbelief [in the existence of the Celestial Teapot] may feel itself thereby justified it cannot forget the eerie feeling induced by the words "Yet perhaps it is true." That perhaps is the unavoidable temptation which it cannot elude, the temptation in which it, too, in the very act of rejection, has to experience the unrejectability of belief.

Thus, to the extent Ratzinger's argument entails the "unrejectability" of belief in God, it entails the unrejectability of belief in (inter alia) the Celestial Teapot. Convinced?

Of course, this doesn't prove anything about gods, cryptofauna or satellite cookware. But it will (if you are a theist) give you critical insight into how ridiculous your argument sounds to us.

Just thought you might like to know.