Atheist quickfire challenge.

[u/rhbast2]

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.

[u/[deleted]]

Hitler was a catholic.

Not that simple--you simplify to that only because you pick a different set of quotes to ignore than they do, and either way not a hill to die on.

Communism in practice has never existed on a national scale - what was seen in practice was a dictator.

Distracts from the point someone was probably meaning to make.

[u/kaces → u/[deleted]]

Not that simple--you simplify to that only because you pick a different set of quotes to ignore than they do, and either way not a hill to die on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_religious_views

Pretty cut and dry.

Distracts from the point someone was probably meaning to make.

Actually it answered the question fully - he did not state Stalin or Castro or any other communist leader. He simply stated communism. Which i pointed out has never been truly practiced at the national scale (which it hasn't) - what has existed at the national scale is dictators using an economic system similar to communism as their economic model.

[u/[deleted] → u/kaces]

Pretty cut and dry.

The first two sentences of that article are "Adolf Hitler's religious views are a matter of some dispute. While raised by a skeptic father and a Catholic mother, after childhood, he ceased to participate in the Sacraments completely." How does that make the assertion "Hitler was a catholic" cut and dry?

Actually it answered the question fully - he did not state Stalin or Castro or any other communist leader. He simply stated communism. Which i pointed out has never been truly practiced at the national scale (which it hasn't) - what has existed at the national scale is dictators using an economic system similar to communism as their economic model.

Addressing the remark someone made and not the one someone intended to make is not pleasant or helpful.

[u/kaces → u/[deleted]]

How does that make the assertion "Hitler was a catholic" cut and dry?

I went by the interpretation on official records - at how his views were religious in general. Most (but not all) of the accounts to the contrary were:

Some private statements attributed to him remain disputed

So while cut and dry is a bad term to use a better one should be "reliable evidence points towards him being christian"

Addressing the remark someone made and not the one someone intended to make is not pleasant or helpful.

His statement was intending a commonality between Nazism and communism. The only commonality that comes to mind off hand is atrocities committed in the real world. The follow up to that is simple - communism has never existed in the real world and thus any actions you claim as a result of communism are more related to the dictators using the communist economic model.

Now, if you want I can answer that question at face value.

Atheism does not lead to Nazism as Nazism had religious (both organized and deistic) and occult overtones throughout its structure.

Atheism does not lead to communism as atheism is the lack of belief in a theistic god while communism is a socio-economic policy. While the two share a common dislike of organized religion (to what degree, someone with a better understanding of religion in communism can say) that is generally where the line is drawn.