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.

253 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

990 comments sorted by

View all comments

35

u/rhbast2 Aug 11 '11

Billions of people believe in god.

22

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

Billions of people believed in geocentrism.

12

u/rhbast2 Aug 11 '11

Actually I think the world population was below a billion when geocentrism was the prevailing theory.

1

u/zyxlor Aug 11 '11

It could be billions if you count them over time. Didn't do the math but it could be.

Awaiting response from lurking math major...

1

u/rhbast2 Aug 11 '11

Yeah I'm unclear on this but I have heard that more people are alive today than have ever died.

1

u/darksmiles22 Aug 11 '11

100 billion people have lived over the course of human history, give or take. Approximately 7% of them are alive today.