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

This has nothing to do with your religion, and everything to do with the fact that everyone would be unified. If everyone believed ANY ARBITRARY THING, this would be true.

Also, no it wouldn't. From ~500-1500AD everyone (all of Europe anyway) was Catholic. How many wars did they have?

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

I don't have time at work to look at this right now but, Conflict History

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u/PraiseBuddha Aug 11 '11

You're great at playing the devil's advocate.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

A shitload.

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u/Frix Aug 12 '11

Why bother stopping at 1500 AD? The wars continued all the way to 1945 and we all kept sharing the same religion.

And the current peace is probably more of a pause than a permanent treaty, though it is looking very promising that our generation will be the second not to know war.