Official debate with local pastor.

[LastPoet]

He ill never allow a younger person to set him straight, his own pride will not allow it. He will spend most of the time throwing sand in your eyes to divert from the real question: How does he know there is a god?

[reverendjeremiah]

Let hime prove without a doubt that his god exists before you alow him to make any quotes from the bible or from authority. do not let him change the subject, or compare his crap to evolution...until he proves that his SPECIFIC god exists, there is no sense in listening to all of the shit made up about him.

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dont let him discuss a generic god either... make him specifically prove that his brand of god actually exist.

[Watchman]

It would really help me out if you guys could give me some advice or a few spears to throw at him. haha

I disagree …. Take the fight to him..
Personally I think he will expect you to go after the wildly irrational Old Testament. .
so don’t ….
Go straight for JC.
You could try this line ….
Ask what he thinks is the reason that there is absolutely no archaeological evidence for the existence of the City of Nazareth during the supposed time period of Jesus’ incarnation. (remember the Gospels refer to Nazareth as a city ,not a village or hamlet…its supposed to have been big enough to have its own Synagogue [you may recall JC was evicted from it] . But on the ground ? nothing.

See below ..
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/nazareth.html

Of course he might come back with “If there was really a problem with the evidence for Nazareth there would be more about it across the Internet. So try this ..
http://www.nazarethmyth.info/book.htmlAnd

Then what does this lack of Nazareth mean for the fabled prophesy of the messiah being called a Nazarene (Mth 2:23) and ,incidentally , just where does that particular prophesy come from? Exactly .

As a follow up why not try the Gaderene Swine (Mrk 5:1)… you remember they were supposed to destroy themselves by charging down a steep slope into the Sea of Galilee.
Garder was supposedly to the south of the sea … but if you use Google-maps you can pull up maps ,photo’s and even topographical maps of the area. And see for yourselves the terrain …. its as flat as a witches tit. No steep places. (And incidentally the supposed position of Garder is over 5 kilometres away from the sea… and the other side of a stream ..so these must have been some really fit long distance running porcine athletes.)

That little lot should give you some ammo.
Hope it goes well.

[Blam!]

You could dismiss local pastor off with this statement:

"I have no interest in making an argument with a person unable to distinguish the mythology from reality, nor I am in mood to listen your baseless claims. I am man of logic, so if you present empirical evidence in the existence of your god, then I'll listen."

If pastor brought the word of "faith" into debate, then you'll have to remind him that faith and logic is mutually excessive.

[Doubting Thomas]

I agree with Reverendjeremiah. Don't let him argue from the presupposition that God exists and Jesus was his son & only way to salvation, blah blah blah. Make him prove that God exists before you let him go on. And none of this "Look at a rainbow/a baby's smile/creation" bullshit. Argument from design is not factual.

And don't even think about going unless he's buying your dinner, then order the most expensive thing on the menu, and don't forget dessert. That's the only way I'd take time out of my busy schedule and agree to talk religion with someone whose motives are to try to convert me. Personally I wouldn't even agree to have lunch with a proselytizer if there was absolutely nothing in it for me. I've already debated with countless fundie Christians, I'm not going to be converted by just one more.

[8BitAtheist]

Use REAL logic and rationality and then he's done.

[JohnDG]

True *blam* but ive been showing these christians that you don't need god to be good, in fact ive helped them out quite a bit because my friend does and he has my respect. They listen to what I say and are convinced the holy ghost came to them through me and that makes no sense. But I use it as a launching point for my arguements and beleifs so this is a rare occasion I believe. Christians that actually listen to an atheist/humanist and honestly I am sure some of it is getting through.

[Blam!]

I don't know your friends, JohnDG. But it's somewhat no-brainer if they gave the credit to holy ghost for your goodness that you developed over years.

[Rhizomorph13]

JohnDG,

I would suggest playing the game to a draw. Do not defend your non-belief, the burden of proof lies with the believer. Continue to question why he believes in God and then pick apart those reasons if you can. Also... be nice, we have enough bad press without constantly generating more ill-will with the "enemy". Most clergy I've spoken with are pretty good people, for the most part, with a genuine drive to help out mankind.

P.S. look out for the deprogramming van they might try to stuff you into. If they hold out a rag and ask you if it smells like chloroform, DO NOT INHALE. You wouldn't want to end up in Uncle Touchy's naked puzzle basement.

[reverendjeremiah]

You could dismiss local pastor off with this statement:

"I have no interest in making an argument with a person unable to distinguish the mythology from reality, nor I am in mood to listen your baseless claims. I am man of logic, so if you present empirical evidence in the existence of your god, then I'll listen."

If pastor brought the word of "faith" into debate, then you'll have to remind him that faith and logic is mutually excessive.

And even if he DOES present evidence that his specific god exists (and not some nebulous generic "god" concept) then he has to present good evidence on why such a god is worthy to be worship. He also has to present evidence that such a god actually created everything...and so on, and so on...all of the burdon of proof is on him.