I Chose My First Battle

[Ramen666]

Today I was at the college cafe place just studying for my math test (which by the way I think I did awesome). Then some people came up to me and said " Mind if we ask you a few random questions. I was thinking " Yeah shoot I don't care...and here is the excerpt of that converation....oh yeah they are recording it to for reference...here we go

 

Them- Are you religious?

Me- No

Them- Do you believe in God?

Me- No

Them- Do you beleive in morals?

Me- Yeah?????? morals come from the society and the surroundings of that place and not God

Them- Then why have morals for yourself

Me- It is funny you should say that you keep refering to me, the thing is Christians are no different than me, they have certain morals for themselves and do certain things for themseleves to avoid hell for themselves....

Them- Then why do you have morals if no one is telling you what to do such as God?

Me- whoa ok? first off I have morals because that is the right thing to do, second of all have you even read the Bible and said what it says is morally right, for Gods sake it says in the Bible that if a woman gets raped that she must marry that man.....but obviousally Christians don't follow those morally right things

Them- ( silence )

Them- well...ok thank you vary much for your time...

 

My first batte could of been tweaked I know but this is the first time debating against someone I don't know but I feel I shocked one of them...the one holding the camera nodded her head and agreed with me The one asking the questions was a Christian I find out later when he walked off I saw his hat, I knew I was ticking someone off....

[evergreen]

I think you did well!

If that ever happened to me, I'd probably get all flustered and weird and end up making an ass of myself.

[kellyb]

Me- whoa ok? first off I have morals because that is the right thing to do, second of all have you even read the Bible and said what it says is morally right, for Gods sake it says in the Bible that if a woman gets raped that she must marry that man.....but obviousally Christians don't follow those morally right things

Them- ( silence )

Them- well...ok thank you vary much for your time...

 

Haha...that's a good one.

I had fun with some Mormons who showed up at my door the other day.

 

Mormon: Do you believe in God?

Me: No, I used to be a Christian, but now I'm an atheist.

Mormon: Why?

Me: That god doesn't make any sense. Like...take the tsunami. Did god actually cause it, or did he just sit back and watch the show?

Mormon: Well, god inspired humans to help each other after that...there was a lot of charity...

Me: NO, that would be humans being good in spite of what god caused/allowed to happen. A lot of the people helping other people were atheists, buddists, muslims, etc. That's humans being good...not God. God was the one who could have stopped the whole thing from happening in the first place.

Mormons: So you believe in evolution and all that? You know, a lot of scientists are deciding that there HAS to be a God! The world would have never come into being without a God!

Me: No, that's just a creationist urban legend. I know people are telling you that, but it's not true. The only scientists saying that are ones who believed in God all along. And there's not a lot of them. Your Sunday School teachers are basically just lying to you about that. It's not true.

And what's up with this whole "animals eating other animals to live" thing? What sort of All-Loving God comes up with THAT system? Does it really sound like something a good and loving god designs, or does it sound like the product of a brutal, godless universe where life came about through natural selection?

Mormons: Huh. I dunno. Anyway, thanks for you time.

[Mman2000]

Here's one I use a lot:

 

"If the bible is truly infallible and completely accurate, faith should not be necessary. If it truly has all the answers, why do I have to accept them on nothing more than faith?"

[Ramen666]

Here's one I use a lot:

 

"If the bible is truly infallible and completely accurate, faith should not be necessary. If it truly has all the answers, why do I have to accept them on nothing more than faith?"

 

Wow I like that one a lot but it depends on the questions given at the time.

 

EDT: I forgot one other part of the questions they asked here it is:(Its hard remembering the whole thing)

 

Them- Where did the Earth come from then since God did not do it?(remember a Christian is asking me)

Me- The Earth could of came from anywhere Big Bang, ect but I am not saying I know and just because science doesn't have the answer does not mean God did it. One more thing I would like to point out is same thing? Where did God come from then?

Them- (silence)

 

That is where the moral question comes in. I think reallly think during the observation they where giving me more questions than anyone else because I was the only atheist as I watched everyone else do it. Do they think we don't have morals or what? Today is a groundbreaker for me now this is my first confrontation and being straight about it in 2 years.

[robbie]

Good one.

 

If that happened to me, I'd probably consider pretending to be a Christian. Then I can excitedly agree with them and start dropping in things like "Don't you just hate all those libruls making slavery illegal...Paul says for slaves to obey their masters" and "What's all this PC nonsense about not stoning to death women that dare to speak in public?!"

[quicksand]

Them- Then why do you have morals if no one is telling you what to do such as God?

These are the same people who will argue freewill when you bring up the problem of evil and suffering in the world as some kind of answer.

 

Ugh is right.

[robbie]

Them- Then why do you have morals if no one is telling you what to do such as God?

 

 

I think we need to point out the implications of this when religious people bring this up, because they're actually appalingly sickening. Basically, what they're saying is that, if they didn't think anyone was watching and going to punish them, they would have no problem raping, torturing, murdering, stealing and generally causing significant harm to innocent people.

 

Anyone who needs a 'god' watching over their shoulder to do what is right is a monster completely lacking in morals. As I recall, I got a warning for that over at CF, so it's obviously a touchy subject.

[Robbobrob]

Them- Then why do you have morals if no one is telling you what to do such as God?

 

 

I think we need to point out the implications of this when religious people bring this up, because they're actually appalingly sickening. Basically, what they're saying is that, if they didn't think anyone was watching and going to punish them, they would have no problem raping, torturing, murdering, stealing and generally causing significant harm to innocent people.

 

Anyone who needs a 'god' watching over their shoulder to do what is right is a monster completely lacking in morals. As I recall, I got a warning for that over at CF, so it's obviously a touchy subject.

 

Thank you for this post. I have been asked this question before, and had never been able to come up with an answer that satisfied me. It is interesting that without God, Man could NEVER decide what is a good thing and what is a bad thing. (weird than that they consider that the FALL of man, when Adam ate the apple and discovered morals).

[starelda]

Nice

 

I think if it were me I'd get all flustered and not say anything very convincing. I'll no doubt attempt to one day if someone brings up the topic of religion. I did have Jehovah Witnesses at my door the other day....usually when they come around here there's one or two and I consider opening the door and seeing what they have to say for themselves...this time there was six of them though . I didn't think I'd dare take on six for my first in-person battle.