Sometimes I get into mini-debates with Christians on Twitter and Google+. I probably shouldn’t even bother, but I’m fascinated by the way Christians think. Especially since I used to be one of them. They actually believe they’re making good points, but what they’re really doing is making terrible excuses.
Here’s how some of my mini-debates with Christians have gone (this is an amalgam of several conversations):
Theist: What would it take to convince you that God exists?
Me: Well, he could at least perform some miracles like he supposedly did in Bible times.
Theist: What about the miracle of creation?
Me: I’m not convinced the universe is a creation. Why doesn’t God perform miracles anymore?
Theist: He does. [link to site with poorly sourced miracle claims]
Me: I’m not convinced. Why can’t God just appear to everyone and settle this?
Theist: God is under no obligation to appear to you.
Me: Seems a little suspicious. Doesn’t God want to convince me that he exists?
Theist: He doesn’t have to. How dare you make demands of God!?
Me: I’m just asking for some evidence. How do I know he’s even there?
Theist: God has already revealed himself to you, but you suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
It’s amazing how Christians think they are being perfectly reasonable when they say things like this. All you have to do is replace the word “God” with “Thor” and you can see how ridiculous their explanations are.
Me: Why can’t Thor just appear to everyone and settle this?
Theist: Thor is under no obligation to appear to you.
Me: Seems a little suspicious. Doesn’t Thor want to convince me that he exists?
Theist: He doesn’t have to. How dare you make demands of Thor!?
Me: I’m just asking for some evidence. How do I know he’s even there?
Theist: Thor has already revealed himself to you, but you suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
When your explanations can apply to any god or mythical being, they’re not really explanations. They’re just excuses.
This is what I’m expected to believe: God used to perform amazing miracles in front of thousands of people (which apparently didn’t affect their free will to believe), but today he only performs small miracles that can’t be verified. He could appear to everyone right now thereby saving billions of souls, but he doesn’t want to.
Well, how convenient! God has decided to be invisible, intangible, and inaudible. Why? He has his reasons. Christians always have ad hoc fallacies up their sleeves.
On top of that, they have the gall to claim God already revealed himself and I just won’t admit it. What’s funny is they think they’re winning the argument when they say this, but in reality they’ve already lost. They’re basically declaring, “I win because I say so.” That’s not how this works.
And again, notice you could say all these things about Thor, Zeus, Poseidon, or any other made-up god. He doesn’t want to reveal himself? He doesn’t have to reveal himself? He already has revealed himself? Excuses, excuses.
The reason I don’t believe Yahweh exists is because his behavior is indistinguishable from all the other gods that don’t exist.
The conversation you created here is really a great example of how theists can get so angry when being asked a simple question. Its an automatic defense that they leap to, even when the question is not confrontational in ayway. This for me is evidence alone that theists are not sure of their own beliefs.
Those have got to be the worst examples of “theist” debate I have ever read.
There are far better.
Sorry, these are just some of things I’ve heard from theists on Twitter and G+ recently. I think they’re pretty common arguments.
Great you’re a skeptic, we need more skeptics. I think you make good points and I do agree theists are making excuses. But I want to make some suggestions for improvement.
“he could at least perform some miracles like he supposedly did in Bible times.”
Why doesn’t God perform miracles anymore? Why can’t God just appear to everyone and settle this? Doesn’t God want to convince me that he exists?”
I think these questions are a mistake because they concede that God exists (Why doesn’t God, Why can’t God just appear, Doesn’t God want to…). The questions seems to admit that God already exists, a presupposition. So you’d wanna ask a little differently. Some suggestions: “What is God?” “how do you know that the existence of God is true?”
“Theist: He doesn’t have to. How dare you make demands of God!?”
For this I would suggest responding: “Who is God not to be made demands from?”
“Theist: God has already revealed himself to you, but you suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
How do you know it’s true that God that has revealed himself to me? What makes you confident that I’m supressing the truth?
I don’t know if you’re already familiar, but check out Street Epistemology for how to talk to people about their beliefs
https://streetepistemology.com/
Thor bless you 😉
Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the questions such as “Why doesn’t God perform miracles?” and “Why can’t God just appear?” I disagree with the idea that they concede God exists. All of those questions have an implied “if God exists…” at the beginning. So I could have said, “If God exists, why doesn’t he perform miracles.” But I didn’t think it was necessary to phrase it that way because I thought it was implied. Obviously, I don’t believe God exists, and I don’t think anyone would read this and think that I do.