Long term advice when debating theists.

[*Deidre*]

I mean this in the best way possible, but I was once a theist, and if you think that a theist is going to magically drop everything, and follow your way of thinking, it won't happen. Debating theists is fine, if you recognize that nothing you say is going to change their stance. However, you may plant seeds that grow at some future point, but even then, people abandon their spiritual and/or religious beliefs when they realize the falsehoods associated with them. And it's often not an easy departure, because much of faith is an emotionally charged 'feeling.'

A theist will always appear like he/she isn't debating 'fairly' because they are arguing from a point of faith, while an atheist is arguing from a point of objective truth.