Sophisticated theology

Sophisticated theology describes the elegant, decisive and incomprehensibleUnintelligible theology answers modern theologians have to counter their critics. 
==Advances==
Advances have been made demonstrating the field of theology is indeed progressive and lively. One important advance that atheists like Dawkins need to address is medieval theology. You read that right, real cutting edge theology relies heavily on the Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas and Scotus were both medieval theologians. Thomas Aquinas;Duns Scotus
How strong is this toughest case? Surely theologians like Eriugena, Moltmann and Rahner have built their cases on firm foundations? Surely New atheism can't prevail against modern Sophisticated theology? Errr well …. Atheists have demolished the very hardest case that Eagleton put forward in the above quote and it wasn't a big problem, just one example of how to refute it is given below. 
PZ knows God doesn’t exist, there’s no elephant in the room. Still sophisticated theologians have made major advances discussing what color the non-existent elephant paints his toenails. Nice list Surely theologians can do better than that one wonders.
Anyway advances were made when no one, apparently, was looking and the New Atheists resolutely fail to address this, plainly to their detriment.
==Believing in God is ...==
All of these developments clearly show that belief in a deity or deities is eminently defensible logically, philosophically, etc. Really, it's a shocking scandal that they haven't addressed these arguments, this evidence. Arguments such as... umm...
Well, we'll get back to you on that. But trust us, there's, like, hundreds of 'em, we're sure. Thing is, we must have left them in our other pants.
...oh, wait. Here's one. Atheists get in a fix because The One True God is invisible, and are terribly fond of saying things like: "The invisible and the nonexistent look very much alike." But from another perspective though, we actually do have proof – evidence – that The One True God is invisible: no one can in fact see Him!!!
Deny that, monkey boy.
What's more believers have a really sophisticate technique for dealing with critics. On Christian websites when we lose debates we delete the evidence. 
Sophisticated theological arguments are unanswerable
==How to tell if it's really sophisticated theology==
Somewhat more seriously--or roughly as seriously as the topic probably deserves--'sophisticated theology' is a little like that invisible God. You can tell it's sophisticated because you've never actually heard it. Or, to borrow a quote from the comments section: 
PZ can see through those sophisticated branches of theology that later vanish like a mirage. When rational atheists look closely into any theology the sophisticated stuff is somewhere else. 
Christians don't even try and show us any arguments that they insist prove God, they just blame us for not knowing them. 
Then ordinary Christians who've been taught unquestioning childlike faith assume they don't need to consider what the Gnu Atheists say. After all atheists don't know proper theology. Do they suggest specific theology we should read so we can point out why that theology is unsound? Of course they don't. 
Atheism Wiki can give you an overview of the whole Sophisticated theology concept.
==Unsophisticated atheism==
Gnu atheism is really problematic because new atheists understand philosophy as ordinary intelligent people understand it and write material that appeals to ordinary intelligent people. Naturally Christians would prefer atheists to use sophisticated reasoning that only advanced undergraduates, graduates and post graduates understand, fewer people would read the atheists and agree with them. 
Believers rely on sophisticated incomprehensible theology to impress the masses and atheists really ought to keep what they write incomprehensible too.
==Usefulness of theology==
Jerry Coyne describes sophisticated theology as 
Richard Dawkins doubts if there should be theology departments at universities. Theology has no place in a university and PZ Myers shares those doubts. PZ wants to know:
 
Abandoning theology at universities would be simply unmitigated disaster. The world is in the middle of an unprecedented economic downturn. If theology is ended at universities how can those eminent theologians hope to find comparable employment elsewhere?
==Telling sense from nonsense==
Can theologians tell the difference between real theology and meaningless words jumbled together?
This was 'actually tested when a screed was presented at two theology conferences and theologians couldn't see it had no content. You feel that's somehow wrong? Academic theologians must be capable of telling meaningless words from real theology? 
Sorry the Sophisticated theologians messed up and the hilarious article on Sophisticated theologians will tell you more.
==Complicated theology and woo==
Sophisticated, however, does not mean correct. It merely means complicated. And every time one of their complicated arguments gets defeated (as is consistently the case), they got back and a few years later come out with a more "sophisticated" (read: complicated) version of the argument. Atheists await the next reincarnation of each piece of theology with the same excitement as an 8 year old in the Dentist's waiting room...
So, what is sophisticated theology and how is it different from unsophisticated theology? You can say there is no difference, they are both based on believing in woo woo, as Sam Harris once put it and none of it has anything to do with what is real. Jerry Coyne calls sophisticated and unsophisticated theology the, "theological sausage grinder" The stuff that theologians believe!You can read a long quote from what Coyne calls 'shallow and devious rationalization' in the link.
==Sophisticated and relevant theology==
Each sophisticated theologian argues that, "My personal theology is sophisticated and worthy of study. Atheists are at fault for neglecting it. By contrast other theologies that contradict the teachings of my religion, denomination or sect are clearly ridiculous and do not merit serious attention."
We don't need to study Astrology or the Stork Theory of Reproduction Intelligent Gestation Theory This by PZ is hilarious and well worth reading. in detail to dismiss them both out of hand. We don't need to study sophisticated theology in detail to see that Christianity doesn't make sense either. Roman Catholic theologians happily dismiss Protestant theology without studying it in detail, Christians dismiss the theologies of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism without studying all those theologies in any detail. Somehow atheists are to blame if we dismiss all theology the way believers dismiss alternative theologies.
Sophisticated Theology (Part 1) 1st part of a video that's entertaining and intellectually challenging
 Sophisticated Theology (Part 2)Equally good 2nd part of the video
==See also==
*The Courtier's Reply
==References==
==External links==
*More sophisticated theology A large part of this is about how believers use sophisticated theological excuses for doing wrong, by PZ Myers
*Sophisticated theological arguments are unanswerable PZ shows when a Christian group couldn't answer arguments they deleted the thread.
*Myth: Atheist Critiques are Simplistic, Don't Understand Sophisticated Theology Christians expect atheists to follow higher standards than they follow themselves.
*Theology This is Atheism Wiki on Theology, it shows theology studies nothing real with quotes from Thomas Paine and Richard Dawkins. 
*Sophisticated theology This is Atheism Wiki on Sophisticated theology.
*Sophisticated theology on RationalWiki
===Videos===
These two videos are entertaining, they will help you answer Christians who push sophisticated theology.
Beside the 1st 2 videos are quotes taken from the comment section.'
*Sophisticated Theology (Part 1) "I﻿ really enjoy your videos. Thanks for your work."
* Sophisticated Theology (Part 2) "You have perfectly captured﻿ the smugness, arrogance and scientific illiteracy of the average theologian. Great job!"
*Delusional "Sophisticated" Theology This video has a hilarious imitation of a British Upper-class English, it also argues effectively that sophisticated theology is a way of believing the irrational. (quote from Proxima Centauri
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