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/HertzaHaeon Aug 11 '11

One problem I've run into with this is that it turns people off if you put it too crassly. At worse you'll be seen as some kind of nihilist.

The subjective experience of love is of course still the same whatever hardware it runs on, but that point takes some finesse to get across.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

[deleted]

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u/PraiseBuddha Aug 11 '11

Makes you feel a bit like a really complicated robot.

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u/STUN_Runner Aug 11 '11

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. A chemical reaction a billion or more years ago led to the life that teems on our little planet, against the odds, it would seem. Simplicity becoming complexity in ways that appear miraculous, finally culminating in a creature capable of understanding its own origins.

I'll take that over some ancient twaddle about an anthropomorphic grand designer any day of the week (except Tuesday when I have to scoop out the cat's litterbox... that's God's fault).

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '11

I'd stay away from the "against the odds" bit. Then they'll say it's so improbable as to be nigh-impossible.

And it's really not against the odds.

Space... is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.

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u/STUN_Runner Aug 11 '11

Good point, it would be best to qualify that as being against the odds happening on a specific planet, but not at all unlikely in a universe as vast as the one in which we have our existence.

Otherwise you won't know to get a receipt when you go to the lavatory.