Originally Posted by a Christian
Some things to keep in mind:
1. Remember that they are people, just like you are. Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, they are not some lower life form we share this planet with.
2. More than likely, they are smarter than you are. This can be difficult to come to grips with, but it does appear to be true and is a claim that is actually supported by the Bible ( 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 )
3. Statistically, they are also as moral, if not more so than you are. While it is a good thing that they generally are highly moral, it is a shame that we, who often times claim the moral high ground, seem unable, or unwilling, to match our words with our lives.
4. They will probably thump you in debate. They are much more likely to have carefully thought through their position and understand why they believe what they do. We are more likely simply to present some argument that the person we heard it from guaranteed would destroy the enemy. The problem with that is that many of them have heard the same arguments many times and are easily able to counter them.
5. Don’t under-estimate their knowledge of the Bible. Many of them are more familiar with the Bible than the average Christian is. And they know all of the passages that will cause you a problem, and will not hesitate to challenge you with them.
So, as a Christian, what chance do we have when doing battle with the godless empire? Here are some suggestions that may make your stay here more rewarding.
1. Don’t feel like you have to win all of the battles. You are not going to. In fact, you may not win any of them. Be satisfied with being able to clearly and logically express what you believe and why. While you may never convince another person on this group, you will have helped yourself by taking the time to understand what you believe and why, and to verbally present it. 1 Peter 3:15 says in part “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” We are challenged to give an answer, not to win a fight.
2. Be respectful, open and truthful. The remainder of 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to make our defense “with gentleness and respect”. Realize that the people you are debating with really do have a lot to offer. Don’t throw away the opportunity to learn from them because they do not believe in the God we hold dear. Don’t make the mistake of believing that everything an atheist says is suspect.
3. Treat them the way you would like to be treated yourself. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7:12: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus tells us to initiate the desired treatment, not just respond to others in the way we are treated. Most atheists here will treat you with at least the same amount of respect that you show to them.
4. Be willing to admit that there are things you don’t know. Believe it or not, it will not hurt your position.
5. Remember that our walk is by faith and that we cannot prove that God exists or that the Bible is true. We might be able to make an argument to support those beliefs, but do not mistake that for proof.
6. Remember that while the Bible may be authoritative to you, like it is to me, to an atheist it is just an old book and has no more authority than the Iliad.
7. Enjoy your stay with us, learn and share, and don’t get too worked up about anything.
8. Don’t feed the trolls.
Comments
8 responses to “Christians Tips To Doing Battle With Evil Atheists”
Fantastic. How I behaved in my “uber-christian” days is perfectly portrayed in this post. The part that gets me is how are you supposed to logically explain why you believe in the bible?
I don’t want to be argumentative here – I just want to point out something, a fundamental difference in viewpoint which precludes any chance of winning an argument with an atheist such as myself. We do not respect faith. It is something that we not only do not aspire to, but to believe in something without evidence is anathema to us.
As Sam points out, it is difficult (I would say impossible) to logically explain why one believes in the bible. Indeed, even a cursory knowledge of the history of the gospels runs counter to any logical explanation for believing that the biblical Jesus (as opposed to the historical Jesus, whose existence is moot) ever existed. The existence of a carpenter named Jesus who taught about Judaism is not at all an extraordinary claim. I have no problem with the existence of the historical Jesus, and there is some (not really all that compelling, though) evidence that he did exist. But the Jesus of the bible is another matter. There is no way any atheist will ever accept eyewitness testimony as sufficient to substantiate the extraordinary claims of the miracles, etc. of the biblical Jesus. You will hear the quote of Carl Sagan a lot that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Eyewitness testimony is the worst type of evidence accepted in a court of law, and is only accepted because extraordinary claims are not being made. We know people commit crimes.
This would be true even if the gospels represented eyewitness testimony, but they do not. They were written by authors unknown decades after Jesus’ supposed crucifixion. They are based on oral tradition and perhaps sayings of the historical Jesus contained in the hypothetical Q document. This nowhere near qualifies as extraordinary evidence for any event contained within the bible.
We demand evidence, not appeals to emotion. Stories of how religion helps people do not sway us, since they say nothing about the validity of the truth claims being presented. Nor do philosophical arguments not grounded in empiricism. Some say that we set up a standard of evidence that Christianity can not meet. I agree. But we set the bar based on how extraordinary the claim is first, then test the claims themselves. We do not set the bar on the basis of what the evidence for the claims can meet. That is simply intellectual dishonesty. Francis Collins, for instance, is guilty of this.
Beautiful, can I translate this to spanish and publish it in my blog?
[…] Diciembre 2009 · Dejar un comentario Esto vino del blog de Monicks: Unleashed, y ella transcribe los consejos de un cristiano en un grupo de google Ateísmo vs cristianismo. […]
Sure you can, be my guest.
Thanks.
Brilliant! Oh, and that 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 is quite enlightening:
For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[a]
rAmen.
Atheists are human beings, just like you, who see the same evidence you see and have come to a different conclusion. And they are going to win the argument, and you should just let them win and be nice to them, and wrap yourself up in the blanket of faith knowing that even if an atheist wins the argument, because you have no proof whatsoever to validate your position, it’s all okay because you believe in a god that allegedly loves you (though there’s no proof to his existence or this love aside from that you occasionally “feel” it) and this work of fiction called the bible tho no more valid than the works of Homer should be considered authoritative and somehow more important than any other work of man, because it was writ through man by a loving god you can’t prove exists.
How can anyone write or read that without becoming an atheist in the process?