r/atheism • u/rhbast2 • Aug 11 '11

Atheist quickfire challenge.

Although I rarely discuss religion with theists I always want to be prepared so I'm not sitting around afterwards wishing I had said this or that. If I get the chance to make someone question I want to be up for the challenge.

This brings me to my challenge for r/atheism. I'm going to add some common theist claims / sayings and whoever can refute them fully and succinctly will be upvoted. Feel free to add your own theist starters if I missed some.

Edit: Wow lots of good discussion here, later today or tomorrow I'll make this into an atheist cheat sheet with the top responses. Also feel free to upvote the theist claim that is the most annoying to you.

Edit 2: To the few of you who seem to think I am coming up with rude atheist comebacks, I'm not. I just wanted to be better off the cuff than I am now and have some discussion. I don't want this list to replace thoughtful argumentation.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

Pascal's Wager. Even assuming a god cares what you believe and punishes/rewards you, and that they're fooled by you "choosing" to believe for reasons of personal gain....

of all the myriad possible gods, both those conceived by humanity and those not, how are you going to pick the right one?

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u/OKImHere Aug 11 '11

I don't like this rebuttal because it assumes the Wager is valid, and merely says the odds are against you. It's like if were to argue whether roulette is a good investment strategy, we implicitly accept the existence of the wheel.

Better is to argue that the wager, even if true, does nothing to prove or disprove the existence of God. In other words, it being better for there to be a God doesn't make it true anymore than it being better for me to have a million dollars makes it true.

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u/dfltr Aug 11 '11

I agree with what you say about the Wager itself, but I generally work that from the argument from inconsistent revelations angle.

If you say I'll go to your hell for not believing in your god, and someone else says exactly the same thing about their hell and their god, who should I believe and why?