The majority of Christians interested in rational discussions about the existence of God and whether or not Christianity can be declared as truthful have a tendency to use several resources that, at least on their minds, seems to make sense.

1 - Start the discussion by assuming that God's existence is the norm and therefore the burden of proof is on the non-believer (to prove god does not exist)

2 - If 1 doesn't work, use an appeal to ignorance or complexity to support the idea that god must be the divine creator of the universe, never mind the fact that does not prove one particular god exists or even that he needs to be all powerful and perfect

3 - If because of 2 you are asked why the Christian god is the one true god (and not any other god) proceed to use a very weak argument to justify your position and use biblical scriptures as evidence (in particular you can point out that - (1) Miracles narrated by the bible are true, but not miracles claimed by other religions (2) That other religions are evil and self-destructive (3) That other religions are merely in denial of god)

4 - You will eventually be asked for inductive evidence that Christianity is true, and your best bet is to quote the bible. When asked why the bible is accurate, just name one or two basic historical facts about the possible existence of Jesus and how that (even if it was true) makes the rest of the bible reliable.

5 - If someone points out fallacies on 4, you can simply quote scripture and tell everyone how Jesus completed the prophecy on the old testament and was awesome until the day he was crucified.

6 - Christianity rests mostly on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead by divine intervention, so if someone asks for evidence for that event you should either argue that Jesus did resurrect because it says so in the bible or that there's an imperceptible separation between the material world and the physical one, accusing the other side of simply not being able to perceive the distinction between both and therefore making the resurrection seem like a natural occurrence.

7 - If someone criticizes not the lack of evidence but Christian morality and God's goodwill and omnibenevolence, proceed to make up excuses to justify genocide, sexism, homophobia, hatred and suffering. When asked why women can't be a part of most churches, just reply that they're "different" than men, meaning implicitly that they're your property and inferior versions of our species.

8 - If nothing else works, accuse your opponent of being angry at god, intellectually weak and unsophisticated. You can also make appeals ad populum and tell everyone how happy you are for being a Christian.

9 - If you're a Seventh-Day Adventist, just tell your opponent that the discussion is pointless because Jesus is coming right now and everyone who doesn't believe in him will be destroyed.




Important --> Repeat all steps, not necessarily by that order, until (1) You lose the debate but are still convinced to be right and just stop caring because those evil unbelievers are going to hell anyway (2) You realize that you have lost and become ashamed of your irrationality (3) People get so tired of your reasoning that they insult you out of irritation and frustration (4) You don't want to troll people anymore  (5) Jesus actually returns from the dead, if that ever happens

Heh.

For me, I would say provide what people are asking for. For me, the benchmark is set so low that almost anything will do, but a minimum its evidence that is testable, verifiable and repeatable to verify the claim, as it is for every other claim made to me.

Yet this very easy and simple benchmark is apparently too high for every deity claim ever made throughout the entirety of human history.

you have made the proverbial nut shell for the Christian argument sir.

(July 14, 2015 at 8:11 am)Dystopia Wrote: 7 - If someone criticizes not the lack of evidence but Christian morality and God's goodwill and omnibenevolence, proceed to make up excuses to justify genocide, sexism, homophobia, hatred and suffering.

To be fair a lot of them don't even bother to defend it.

They just point at you and call you 'fools' for daring to question god's morality...

(July 14, 2015 at 8:54 am)Napoléon Wrote:

(July 14, 2015 at 8:11 am)Dystopia Wrote: 7 - If someone criticizes not the lack of evidence but Christian morality and God's goodwill and omnibenevolence, proceed to make up excuses to justify genocide, sexism, homophobia, hatred and suffering.

To be fair a lot of them don't even bother to defend it.

They just point at you and call you 'fools' for daring to question god's morality...

Or use arguments to justify it. "God committed genocide because he was mad at Humans, and for him some lives are like ants for humans, insignificant". "Forced sex is not rape as long as it is inside marriage, for you must procreate because it's god's will"

1. Provide some credible evidence.

Dystopia Wrote:6 - Christianity rests mostly on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead by divine intervention, so if someone asks for evidence for that event you should either argue that Jesus did resurrect because it says so in the bible or that there's an imperceptible separation between the material world and the physical one, accusing the other side of simply not being able to perceive the distinction between both and therefore making the resurrection seem like a natural occurrence.

The words highlighted in bold by me are synonims and therefore can't work in that antithetical manner towards one another. I think you meant immaterial.

Also, paraphrasing here, instead of implying credibility to the claim that Jesus might return in the end, you should rather point out the ridiculousness of that proposition. You should stand by what you mean to the end, not give ground on anything, not even for humorously ironizing purposes. The people you are actually addressing, being this deluded, certainly won't get sarcasm.

Other than that(or, rather, these), great job on...whatever you've got there, I guess. Please do inform me how many theists you'll have deconverted with this along with the atheists you made laugh.