It occurred that these were children and that perhaps we should get a bunch of atheist kids of the same age to debate them. I have no idea exactly where one would a bunch of atheists 10 and 12 olds without going to say China.

Then I thought ;"just a cotton pickin' minute;this is a forum for adults,not children. imo it's not an appropriate place for children of that age period.

Overwhelming a bunch of CHILDREN with scintillating wit and logic isn't much of an accomplishment,and certainly not something to boast about.

As far as I can tell I've not seen anyone boast here, and I don't think that that was ever the intention either.

I read some of the debate and I think they could write really well for being 10 year olds or what they where. The pictures that they had looked like 7-9 year olds to me, which generally can't write so well that they did and would probably not have found an atheist forum. I for an example didn't know about atheism until I was 14 years old.

By they way, I don't think those photos where themselves, they looked like commercial photographs or something.

They challenged us to the debate, we saw a chance to present them with the evidence. This forum is open to any age group, and I don't see a problem with having children here if they want to discuss things. I don't think we overwhelmed them with wit or logic either. I think we overwhelmed them (although there were meant to be 4 of them) with evidence and reason.

I don't see any of us boasting about overwhelming them, but rather presenting a good argument.

I agree with Adrian we don't limit access here based on age, only maturity.

While they did appear to be pretty smart for their age they trust bad sources and have yet to learn about detecting bias and trusted sources for information. Also based on what was said about what they are supposed to do when they encounter an atheist it seems to me that other religious leaders have told them exactly what to say and do and taught them to never deviate from their trained path of quotes and propaganda. Because if they do they might start to think about it, and thinking is detremental to faith.

Call me suspicious, sceptical or whatever, but I don't think it was a gang of " kids " that you were engaging.

No worries, the tinfoil hat is not often a bad thing. And I can see where your coming from. I just can't picture an adult trying to do it, I can't think of what they would gain.

Given their writing style I'd guess they were between 14 and 16. And I also think they were being coached.

Well theyd've attended many sermons on the subject and discussed it in detail in small groups, so armed with that they were ready to go out into the big wide world and chew off some meat. Unfortunately they were still ill prepared for serious challenge. I'd love to see how much more informed creationists would fare.

(April 6, 2009 at 6:43 am)padraic Wrote: It occurred that these were children and that perhaps we should get a bunch of atheist kids of the same age to debate them. I have no idea exactly where one would a bunch of atheists 10 and 12 olds without going to say China.

My daughter (just turned 14) and most of her friends are atheist, I don't think the problem over here (UK) is lack of disbelief, I think it's lack of interest ... the difference is that I am more than willing to put myself out there and say I'm atheist, it's important to me because I believe religion is a bad thing. Both my daughter's are atheist (the other is 19) but where I can logically detail all the reasons why I am they don't give a crap ... it's just obvious to them (it's just obvious there's no god, shrug and walk away to do something more interesting).

Kyu