What do you do to combat atheism?

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SteelArchangel

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What do you do to combat atheism?

I was on an unnamed theological forum site that encourages debate between the religious faiths. An atheist boldly began questioning me before resorting to calling God a very foul slang term for a woman’s private area.

I tell said atheist that using such language takes away their argument and just makes them a loser. BAM! Suddenly I’m blocked and banned by the moderators (who by the way, both are Protestants). They tell me that me referring to the atheist as “a loser” is shaming, and harassment and in violation of their rules. I offer up that referring to God multiple times with such derogatory language is hate speech. Flat out, I’m told that the atheist is “characterizing God, but since God is not here posting, it’s not an attack”.

Again I figured the moderators that site would help but they didn’t. In fact I find more and more “Christians” who stand up for atheists and insist on their view of things. While I realize that can lead to conversion, the “freedom of speech” in this case is weak.
 
Sounds like a terrible site, but you probably violated community guidelines by personally attacking him even if it was mild.

Nothing good ever came of internet debates anyway- they are just echo chambers.
 
In my experience no amount of proof will move an atheist to accept God. Better to challenge their idea that ‘science explains everything’. OK, so explain what dark matter and dark energy are and how they interact to hold the universe together. It was in the news today that they have just discovered a galaxy that has no dark matter so astrophysicists are back to square one.
 
Agree. I don’t think “text chess” online debates really get anywhere, but they can be fun. We are made to communicate face to face in person when it comes to meaningful interaction, and evangelization demands no less.
 
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Arguing on the internet is extremely futile. Sites like that really exist as echo chambers.
 
I pray with my rosary in public.

I’ve made myself an Uber rosary where I linked two identical ones together so it’s double in length with two crosses and everything.
 
SteelArchangel said:
but since God is not here posting, it’s not an attack
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That comment make me laugh, sorry, because it’s like saying ‘well He’s not here so He can’t be offended’ as in their way of thinking he’s not a real person …
God is everywhere, knows every idle word we say, every thought, attitude etc etc.
And God would have been deeply offended.
A prayer asking God to forgive this person and to touch their heart and open their eyes in this circumstance is best.
I don’t think anything you could say to this person/people would change anything.
 
Even most believers will say that faith is necessary to believe in Christianity. In other words, many say one has to want to believe in it before they can believe in it. No other topic gets that pass. A person can be shown that general relativity is real even if they don’t want to believe in it. That’s not to say that Christianity isn’t true, but you’re not going to get atheists (generally a skeptical bunch) to believe in something that first requires belief in it.
 
Dan_Defender said:
In my experience no amount of proof will move an atheist to accept God. Better to challenge their idea that ‘science explains everything’.
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The problem is their definition of ‘proof.’ Most equate proof with physical, measurable evidence. Yet that’s not something we can provide, because God is not a physical being. I had one agnostic pose the question “What is God?” with the expectation of a scientific answer, and the problem is just that: they look for scientific answers to philosophical questions. And then when you try to explain transcendentals to them, you’re looked at as a loon for asking them to quantify justice or love.

The only way to evangelize an atheist is to first discern whether they are intellectually honest, which is a massive hurdle. After that point, depending on the individual, you can start posing philosophical softballs to get them at least on the “ground level” of theism. And we also have to remember that God has to give this person sufficient grace to convert as well.
 
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Honestly, it sounds like you were debating some kid calling himself an atheist and swearing up a storm just to be edgy. Not worth debating.
 
  1. Avoid poorly moderated sites like the plague they are.
  2. As a Catholic, you come under fire from both atheist and Protestant. No place to be a martyr. Time to bail.
  3. Find a well-moderated site or refer others here. They will either shape up or suffer the hammer.
  4. As to online trolls, there is literally nothing - outside of prayer - that you can do for them. They are not listening, they are telling. Intellect cannot defeat ego in a discussion.
 
Postivism. When an atheist claims: “There is no God”, this is a testable hypothesis and the burden of proof is thus on them.

Atheism tends to be quite unscientific.
 
Belief isn’t simply a voluntary choice, either. We understand that. You might want to believe something but just cannot. When Catholics describe the sin of unbelief it’s a wilful opposition to the gospel, not an involuntary inability to accept it because of some intellectual obstacle. Striving for truth is virtuous in itself, and truth cannot contradict truth. I think claiming there is no such thing as truth is when people start to really fall into spiritual torpor.
 
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I think you’re going to be hard pressed to find people with a willful opposition to the Gospel, certainly no more than the number of people who willfully believe in the Gospel. The atheists I know have taken in the various arguments for various faiths (including Christianity) and found them wanting.

The thing is the question is so big and in a way so vague in descriptors that it can neither be proven nor disproven. That means that different people can look at the same evidence (such as it is) and come to different conclusions. That’s why I compared it to something like general relativity (or vaccines, or economic systems). They have strong and in some cases indisputable facts to back them up. Religion has no such facts that can used in a discussion.
 
As a non-believer I am sorry someone with views maybe approximating to some of mine treated you like this. It may surprise you but I suspect the abusive ‘atheist’ may actually believe in (a) god. As well as gods, I don’t believe in dragons but I know lots of stories about them doing terrible things. Because I really don’t believe in them I feel no urge whatsoever to call them names or condemn them even if I am talking to someone who believes in them. But your atheist seems angry at a god as if the god were real. Such atheists are often extreme in their words but I am sure there would be a higher probability of them becoming believers than a non-believer like me. I am fascinated by belief, and have no interest in changing others’ beliefs - though I like to find out more by questioning beliefs.
 
My philosophy professor would be against this. He would label Catholics as Defenders Of Weird Beliefs, thus we Catholics have to them defend it. Since we are “Defenders of Weird Beliefs”, we won’t be listened to.
 
FiveLinden said:
As a non-believer I am sorry someone with views maybe approximating to some of mine treated you like this. It may surprise you but I suspect the abusive ‘atheist’ may actually believe in (a) god. As well as gods, I don’t believe in dragons but I know lots of stories about them doing terrible things. Because I really don’t believe in them I feel no urge whatsoever to call them names or condemn them even if I am talking to someone who believes in them. But your atheist seems angry at a god as if the god were real. Such atheists are often extreme in their words but I am sure there would be a higher probability of them becoming believers than a non-believer like me. I am fascinated by belief, and have no interest in changing others’ beliefs - though I like to find out more by questioning beliefs.
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You’re close to what I think the truth is. It’s probably not a god that the atheist might believe in that he’s attacking. It may well be the god that was being presented to him.

If you describe a God that’s loving and caring then you’ll get a different response if you describe a vengeful God prepared to drown women and children in a great flood.

One can only respond to what is presented.
 
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