Scathing remarks from Atheists

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alias235

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Is there any suitable or adequate way to reply to these remarks?

“Christianity- The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Yeah…makes perfect sense”

or

“Prayer: the idea that God’s plans are so unimportant that he’ll change them if you ask him to”

or

“Christianity is 2,000 years old. Mankind is older. So how come nobody knew about God and his laws before then. No one could be absolved of sin. Nobody even knew what constituted as a sin. Did they all go to hell without a chance to save themselves? Jeebus was a little late, no? Explain. If you can.”

or

“Christianity: the belief that a Jewish god-man who was his own father can make you live forever if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, which is magically transformed from wine and bread, and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master so he will remove an evil force from you (which he created and can destroy at any time) which present in everyone because a woman ate a magic apple after being tricked by a talking snake who he also created. Okay…”

For the record, I’m not “trolling” or anything… I just want to know a suitable defense against such harsh comments in the case I ever get attacked by this again.
 
I would tell them to grow up and figure out how to show respect towards other people.
 
Christianity gets its roots from Judaism. Tell them to look it up. It’s really old. One of the oldest beliefs in human history. Ask them to explain how the universe started and prove it. Tell them to disprove Gods existence before you’ll waste time arguing with them if they realy dont want to hear what you have to say anyway. . After all, your the one who has something here. They have nothing, atheism.
 
“Christianity- The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Yeah…makes perfect sense”
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Ah, the materialist reductionism game. Ask him if he minds if you go desecrate his mother’s gravestone; after all, it’s just a slab of concrete with some meaningless scribbling on it. Or ask if you can dig up her corpse and do unspeakable things to it. Just a pile of rotting meat after all.

There’s literally nothing you can’t make sound stupid by reducing it to its base physical constituents. Apply that principle rigorously, though, and you’ve made a ruin of life.
“Prayer: the idea that God’s plans are so unimportant that he’ll change them if you ask him to”
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Can’t say I’ve heard this one. We have plenty of Biblical examples of God being moved by prayer, though. He nearly destroyed the Israelites on at least one occasion and nothing short of Moses’ intervention saved them.

Such is the nature of love.
“Christianity is 2,000 years old. Mankind is older. So how come nobody knew about God and his laws before then. No one could be absolved of sin. Nobody even knew what constituted as a sin. Did they all go to hell without a chance to save themselves? Jeebus was a little late, no? Explain. If you can.”
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God exists outside of time; therefore the salvific power of Christ’s sacrifice is showered on men at all points in time.

I like the tone you used in presenting atheist arguments, btw, and that’s not sarcasm – you capture spot-on the insufferable, puerile ignorance of the typical atheist.
 
Confronted with such blasphemy, I would simply take the opportunity to profess my love for Jesus and then pray for these unhappy people who seek to degrade what they don’t understand.
 
Farsight001 said:
I would tell them to grow up and figure out how to show respect towards other people.
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This. If you even have to respond at all, that is. The kind of people who post these regurgitated memes generally aren’t open to reason anyway.
 
sw85 said:
I like the tone you used in presenting atheist arguments, btw, and that’s not sarcasm – you capture spot-on the insufferable, puerile ignorance of the typical atheist.
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And if you attack them like that, is it any wonder this is what you get? The vast majority of atheists go through life rarely thinking of God or religion. The examples in the OP are simply not typical of atheists.
 
Jesus taught us to “love our enemies” and to “turn the other cheek.” Luke 6:

[27] But I say to you that hear: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.
[28] Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you.
[29] And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also.
[30] Give to every one that asketh thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.
[31] And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner.

Seek not revenge. The atheists will receive their just desserts in the next life.
 
When I first returned to the Church, I didn’t know what to do about the pain I felt when I heard comments against the Church. I prayed about it, and realized that Christ felt a lot more pain than I ever would or could, and I was sharing in that pain.

That being said, I would pray for people who say things like that.

And if they had really annoyed me, I would tell them 😉
 
The type of people who usually post stuff like that are generally vulgar and not open to any real, serious discussion anyways. It’s best to “let go and let God”.
 
I wouldn’t respond to comments like this. However, you could tell the person they can figure out if Jesus Christ is real or not while they are tormenting in hell. That’s where they’ll be going since they are ignorant of Christ. One way or another, sooner or later, they will be made foolish to themselves for not believing the truth. My advice to you is to tell them the truth and let them be condemned by the truth.
 
In general, I don’t think people making those comments are mature enough to be in the discussion. So perhaps you may take the advice of St. Ambrose:*To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger.*Now, if you want answers to the parts for your own satisfaction, I think sw85’s answer about reductionism is totally fine for the first and last one you quoted. You can make anything sound stupid, like the atheist idea of the cosmos forming out of nothing. Likewise you can make anything sound rational. For instance, let’s define schizophrenia - the quality of a person that spans the full range of emotion.

As for prayer, if God’s plan includes man’s prayers, then it doesn’t make the plan unimportant if it factors in prayers. That doesn’t even make sense.

The 2000 year old one is a strawman because the Church does not teach pre-Christ persons are damned, nor that they were ignorant of God.
 
alias235 said:
“Christianity- The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Yeah…makes perfect sense”
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Atheism: the belief that there was nothing, and then nothing happened, and nothing exploded creating everything and then a bunch of everything randomly rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs
“Prayer: the idea that God’s plans are so unimportant that he’ll change them if you ask him to”
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Materialism: When life sucks, suck it up because that’s how it is.
“Christianity is 2,000 years old. Mankind is older. So how come nobody knew about God and his laws before then. No one could be absolved of sin. Nobody even knew what constituted as a sin. Did they all go to hell without a chance to save themselves? Jeebus was a little late, no? Explain. If you can.”
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Don’t debate this one. The term used for Jesus is often referenced in exorcisms by Demons who refuse to say the name of God… to copy such a reference is beyond the pale. Someone deliberately using this term is out to do nothing but defile.

Incidently, the answer here lies in a distinct ignorance of Jewish teaching… the dead before Christ didn’t go to hell, they went to sheol to wait for the Messiah to come and offer them salvation. They got their fair chance, the same as anyone today.
“Christianity: the belief that a Jewish god-man who was his own father can make you live forever if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, which is magically transformed from wine and bread, and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master so he will remove an evil force from you (which he created and can destroy at any time) which present in everyone because a woman ate a magic apple after being tricked by a talking snake who he also created. Okay…”
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Atheism: the belief that the same species that spawned Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong Il, and the bevy of other atheist dictators who together murdered more people in the 20th century than in every previous war COMBINED, is somehow noble when separated from the grace of God.
 
alias235 said:
Is there any suitable or adequate way to reply to these remarks?

“Christianity- The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Yeah…makes perfect sense”

or

“Prayer: the idea that God’s plans are so unimportant that he’ll change them if you ask him to”

or

“Christianity is 2,000 years old. Mankind is older. So how come nobody knew about God and his laws before then. No one could be absolved of sin. Nobody even knew what constituted as a sin. Did they all go to hell without a chance to save themselves? Jeebus was a little late, no? Explain. If you can.”

or

“Christianity: the belief that a Jewish god-man who was his own father can make you live forever if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, which is magically transformed from wine and bread, and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master so he will remove an evil force from you (which he created and can destroy at any time) which present in everyone because a woman ate a magic apple after being tricked by a talking snake who he also created. Okay…”

For the record, I’m not “trolling” or anything… I just want to know a suitable defense against such harsh comments in the case I ever get attacked by this again.
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The best defense, I think, is charity and humility. When people see that you always act with love and respect no matter how much you are provoked, they might very well decide to stop bothering you, or decide that, even if they don’t agree with you, they have to respect your beliefs when you make a point of always living according to your convictions.

I think you should just tell the atheist that you are sorry they are experiencing such obvious pain and bitterness in their lives, but you genuinely hope that they will find peace and happiness.

However, if these insulting remarks continue and are happening in school or in the workplace, see if there is any policy about harrassment, bullying, hate speech, or anything that can be used to stop this person. You are entitled to be treated without prejudice, just like everyone else is. Being atheist doesn’t give anyone the right to insult religious people with impunity.

If these comments are occurring regularly in a more informal situation, you can express how much it hurts you to have your beliefs caricatured with such scorn, and, if the person refuses to treat you with respect, you can make a point of spending less time in his or her company. You don’t need to surround yourself with people who insult your faith instead of trying to build it up.
 
promethius said:
Materialism: When life sucks, suck it up because that’s how it is.
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For the materialist, life can’t even “suck.” It’s just molecules colliding whether one labels the interaction as “sucks” or “doesn’t suck.” The pool table of the cosmos has been set into motion. Everything that happens is just one atom colliding into another.

As a matter of fact, all those people praying and believing in God are just biological entities following the spread of interacting molecules, perfectly following the laws of physics, according to the materialist.

I would say it’s hypocritical for them to make fun of such physics and biology, but then again, I suppose they have no control over the colliding molecules making them say those things. :rolleyes:
 
alias235 said:
Is there any suitable or adequate way to reply to these remarks?

“Christianity- The belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Yeah…makes perfect sense”

or

“Prayer: the idea that God’s plans are so unimportant that he’ll change them if you ask him to”

or

“Christianity is 2,000 years old. Mankind is older. So how come nobody knew about God and his laws before then. No one could be absolved of sin. Nobody even knew what constituted as a sin. Did they all go to hell without a chance to save themselves? Jeebus was a little late, no? Explain. If you can.”

or

“Christianity: the belief that a Jewish god-man who was his own father can make you live forever if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, which is magically transformed from wine and bread, and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master so he will remove an evil force from you (which he created and can destroy at any time) which present in everyone because a woman ate a magic apple after being tricked by a talking snake who he also created. Okay…”

For the record, I’m not “trolling” or anything… I just want to know a suitable defense against such harsh comments in the case I ever get attacked by this again.
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After all of the work this person has put into finding out about Christian teaching(NOT) it is amazing that they remain so ignorant.
 
MarcoPolo said:
For the materialist, life can’t even “suck.” It’s just molecules colliding whether one labels the interaction as “sucks” or “doesn’t suck.” The pool table of the cosmos has been set into motion. Everything that happens is just one atom colliding into another.

As a matter of fact, all those people praying and believing in God are just biological entities following the spread of interacting molecules, perfectly following the laws of physics, according to the materialist.

I would say it’s hypocritical for them to make fun of such physics and biology, but then again, I suppose they have no control over the colliding molecules making them say those things. :rolleyes:
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It’s delightfully absurd, isn’t it? 🙂
 
alias235 said:
Is there any suitable or adequate way to reply to these remarks?
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Yes. You tell your (argumentative) opponent to come back to you when he decides not to engage in straw man arguments.

Any seven year old can make silly caricatures of what somebody else believes or is professing, but it takes real critical thinking to actually dissect what someone else is saying, carefully, and craft a robust rebuttal which follows from what the person actually believes or is saying.
 
alias235 said:
Is there any suitable or adequate way to reply to these remarks?
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Ask them if justice exists. If they say it does not, ask them to give you all their money and if they say no, tell them that’s the charge for having this conversation with you. If they think that’s not fair they’ve admitted that justice exists because it is unjust for you to take their money as a charge for a two minute conversation which is about to get longer.

Now that they have admitted that justice exists, ask them how they can believe that justice exists if they have never seen or touched it. In fact there’s plenty of evidence that justice does not exist: look at the nightly news. And yet we have judges and police who are out to enforce justice. What’s the point if there’s no such thing as justice? Your atheist friend is making the same arguments about God: he can’t see God, but what he can see is all the evil in the world. On the basis of that evil he’s arguing for the nonexistence of God, but on the basis of what’s on the news I can argue for the non-existence of justice. Yet your atheist friend obeys the law (I hope), so he’s completely okay with building a system of laws and regulations (a religion) around something called justice. Yet he’s not okay with building the same system around something called God.

The difference, though, is that there’s empirical proof for the existence of God and specifically for the resurrection of Christ and the truth of Christianity. Once you’ve opened the door, walk him/her through it.
 
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