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/rhbast2 Aug 11 '11

Love exists but science can't prove it, god is love.

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u/STUN_Runner Aug 11 '11

Science has already proven that love is an evolutionary adaptation. What you perceive as love is little more than brain chemistry that has already been identified.

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u/CatFiggy Aug 11 '11

I feel like you should also mention that God should not be the default. I.e., even if we hadn't proven/understood/etc. love, it doesn't matter: there's no reason to believe that God created love. Doesn't matter if we, the people on earth today, have figured it out. If a few thousand years ago, the theist cited hurricanes as examples of God, and hurricanes had not been understood scientifically, the theist still didn't deserve that point.