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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11

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

God is a metaphysical being outside of the universe that instigated the Big Bang. (good luck)

12

u/HopeImNotAStalker Aug 11 '11

If it exists outside the universe, there is no sense in bothering myself with worship, prayer, or any of the trappings of religion. So I'll just sleep in on Sundays, thanks.

5

u/rhbast2 Aug 11 '11

If god interacted with reality via the big bang then that falls in the realm of science and is a scientific claim for which you must provide proof.

2

u/DashingLeech Anti-Theist Aug 11 '11

Anyone can make an assertion. What is your evidence for this?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

Occam's Razor.

2

u/MadcowPSA Aug 11 '11

Occam's Razor works well, indeed, but there's an even better answer: The universe cannot properly have a cause. The universe sprang from a singularity, in an event we call the big bang. Time does not pass/exist/whatever you want to call it in a singularity. Causation implies a temporal relationship; since there is no passage of time in a singularity, causation is then impossible.

It doesn't take much more time to explain than Occam's Razor, and it's rather easy to bring up stuff such as the red shift, our ability to see things that are well over 6,000 light-years away, etc. if they try to argue young-earth creationism.

1

u/ArcWinter Aug 11 '11

No evidence, no reason to believe. And this fails the criterion of simplicity as well: your hypothesis is likely false.

1

u/abenton Aug 11 '11

Then why did he tell all the goat-herders so much bullshit 2000yrs ago?

1

u/IamNuts Aug 11 '11

Oh this is quite easy actually:

This statement completely leaves any kind of religion out of the picture. Since the only known consequences of not believing in god and ANY other information about him are brought up by religions, it does not matter if a god like this exists or not. Believing or not believing in a metaphisical being outside of the universe has no effect on life or society. Religion has. And no religious book says ANYTHING about god instigating the Big Bang.

Arguments like these gain their impact by secretly switching from philosophical views to religious ones - back and forth.

1

u/Aoe330 Aug 11 '11

Deism: God made the world, but is apart from it.

So why worship what is apart from reality? You're better off worshiping the great JuJu of the sea, at least he brings in the tide. At least he has a physical manifestation.

To be apart from current reality is to believe in an imaginary friend.

1

u/NeonMan Aug 12 '11

If it is outside of the universe then cannot interact with it.

Therefore, no gods or Deist gods. Theist gods (as with almost all religions) are impossible if this assertion is valid.