Time Wasters: Arguing with Atheists
Buona sera. This will be an odd lesson in personal productivity, I guarantee it. Yours truly took a while to "come down" after some "discussions" in a forum with some arrogant atheists. (It wasn't even a forum that is set up for religious debates; they kept interjecting their snide remarks in the other discussions.) Flames were shooting out of my eyes when I was done.
Readers of this Weblog know that I have written up my problems with their "logic" and their antagonistic attitudes. You should also remember that I really do not care what someone believes as long as they do not attempt to destroy the faith of others. These people who try to destroy the faith of others are the same ones who cry, "Stop cramming your religion down my throat!" A Christian is offering their message of hope because they are motivated out of concern for where the other person is going to spend eternity.
By the way, do you know what the atheist offers? To strip away a believer's hope and replace it with the belief that there is no God, the universe happened by chance, life happened by chance, you have no purpose in life and when you die, you're worm food. Let me see...Heaven with God, friends and family who have gone before, or — nothing. Tough choice, huh? Love that atheistic message of hope!
Anyway. In that forum, I got tired of the atheists getting smug and condescending, putting down people of faith — and I went off! I posted a long rant taking them to task for being uncivil and discourteous, pointing out their bad "reasoning" and railing in general. These lovers of logic had poor answers for my statements (although they ignored most of them) and they responded with emotion ("You just hate atheists!"). One pretty much threw a tantrum, could not take my response to his reply and went crying to the other atheists. Naturally, I was judged to be a bad person, Scripture was misquoted at me, their double standards were evident (you know how I love double standards) and I was wrong for speaking up in the first place instead of tolerating how they abused other believers.
Articles that I have written here served two purposes. First, they helped me clarify my thoughts. Second, I hope they gave people something to think about so they can see how the arrogant atheists will act. OK, a third purpose was so that I could vent. After all, it is my Weblog.
All of this is because I want to point out a few things to Christians.
Life is short, and we do not need to waste time with people who are unwilling to listen to what we have to say. We have better things to do.
Readers of this Weblog know that I have written up my problems with their "logic" and their antagonistic attitudes. You should also remember that I really do not care what someone believes as long as they do not attempt to destroy the faith of others. These people who try to destroy the faith of others are the same ones who cry, "Stop cramming your religion down my throat!" A Christian is offering their message of hope because they are motivated out of concern for where the other person is going to spend eternity.
By the way, do you know what the atheist offers? To strip away a believer's hope and replace it with the belief that there is no God, the universe happened by chance, life happened by chance, you have no purpose in life and when you die, you're worm food. Let me see...Heaven with God, friends and family who have gone before, or — nothing. Tough choice, huh? Love that atheistic message of hope!
Anyway. In that forum, I got tired of the atheists getting smug and condescending, putting down people of faith — and I went off! I posted a long rant taking them to task for being uncivil and discourteous, pointing out their bad "reasoning" and railing in general. These lovers of logic had poor answers for my statements (although they ignored most of them) and they responded with emotion ("You just hate atheists!"). One pretty much threw a tantrum, could not take my response to his reply and went crying to the other atheists. Naturally, I was judged to be a bad person, Scripture was misquoted at me, their double standards were evident (you know how I love double standards) and I was wrong for speaking up in the first place instead of tolerating how they abused other believers.
Articles that I have written here served two purposes. First, they helped me clarify my thoughts. Second, I hope they gave people something to think about so they can see how the arrogant atheists will act. OK, a third purpose was so that I could vent. After all, it is my Weblog.
All of this is because I want to point out a few things to Christians.
- Know what you believe, so you can "give a response to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you".
- Know why you believe it, get a working knowledge of some of the science and history that supports the Bible. You probably won't be able to quote anything "on demand", but you can be more confident in your own minds.
- When you are confronted by an arrogant atheist, walk away. It is a waste of time. These guys only want to debate and try to play "Gotcha" by playing head games. But note this, if someone is an atheist or agnostic and is honestly inquiring about your faith, by all means, give him some time and discussion. If he or she is just playing you and dragging it out, it's time to graciously end the discussion(s). You can discuss it again later if you think your friend is being sincere later on.
- Pray for them. It's your duty as a Christian.
Life is short, and we do not need to waste time with people who are unwilling to listen to what we have to say. We have better things to do.
Comments
Well said, Stormbringer. I have seen a lot of that on the web, too, and the assertion that any sort of belief/faith/religion (they usually get conflated) is a sign of mental illness. One doesn't have to be of any religion to get that sort of attack; I've seen deists and agnostics labelled 'fellow travellers' of those wicked religious types. Who said Joe McCarthy was dead? :P