Some you will never "shut up". However, you can cause cognitive dissonance if not with them, a bystander reader. I never get caught up with assuming it is important to convince that person on the spot. Long term you can plant the seed of doubt, sometimes in them, but for all who may read it regardless if they respond in that post.
A couple of tactics I like to use are as follows.
1. Take their own words and use them against them.
For example,
Theist "The Koran says in this verse, "Allah is the one true God"
You come back with.
"Yahweh is the one true God. The God of the Bible is the one true God. Vishnu is the one true God. Does this make sense to you?"
Basically repeat the same sentence with their words and repeat it with different god/s inserted. The point is to get them or a reader to think if they would buy their own argument if someone of a different god claim were using the same tactic.
The other argument I use is combined with that.
Something like, "Does a hurricane need Poseidon to occur? Does lightening need Thor to happen? Was gravity invented by Allah? Quoting a holy book does not make the god real anymore than you believe in Allah because someone quotes the Koran"
It won't shut everyone up you run into. But causing cognitive dissonance does work and many former believers who are now atheists went through this process.
A couple of tactics I like to use are as follows.
1. Take their own words and use them against them.
For example,
Theist "The Koran says in this verse, "Allah is the one true God"
You come back with.
"Yahweh is the one true God. The God of the Bible is the one true God. Vishnu is the one true God. Does this make sense to you?"
Basically repeat the same sentence with their words and repeat it with different god/s inserted. The point is to get them or a reader to think if they would buy their own argument if someone of a different god claim were using the same tactic.
The other argument I use is combined with that.
Something like, "Does a hurricane need Poseidon to occur? Does lightening need Thor to happen? Was gravity invented by Allah? Quoting a holy book does not make the god real anymore than you believe in Allah because someone quotes the Koran"
It won't shut everyone up you run into. But causing cognitive dissonance does work and many former believers who are now atheists went through this process.
