Cult mind control begins with “unfreezing,” which involves confusing and disorienting the victim, breaking down their sense of reality. This leaves them open to reprogramming. One way of accomplishing this is to bombard them with confusing, conflicting ideas that they can’t readily process. Their mind will shut down, leaving them open to new ideas that the indoctrinator wishes to introduce.

This is the function of the Evangelical “dump.” When you ask an Evangelical, especially one who is familiar with apologetics, a challenging question, they will spew out a verbose, convoluted argument that supposedly justifies their belief. The arguments of people like William Lane Craig also fall into this category. They sound plausible, but that’s only because they’re couched in such convoluted, academic sounding language. When you take a step back and step through them point-by-point, you readily see that the arguments are completely vacuous.

I don’t think that Evangelicals realize that they’re doing this, but they are engaging in a type of unfreezing. They are engaging in cult mind control. They are trying to break down the reality structure of their victim, in an attempt to indoctrinate the victim with Evangelical dogma.

And it works. I think this is why so many Evangelicals look up to William Lane Craig. This is why the Evangelical dump is so prevalent in conversations with them. They themselves find it persuasive and satisfying.