What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist etc

[Emz1066]

What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist etc

Hello sometimes i get asked questions and most of the time there are like scientists HAVE fully proven evolution and that Darwin was a christian but conviced himself from the evidence that god doent exist etc and how old the world is and that the bible isnt proof of existance , what do i say to people without getting angry ?

Some questions are like ive suffered all my life and was a christian and had faith etc but i was only happy when i became an athiest......

What do i say to these people?

 

[answers]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

This is a good question, have you tried praying for wisdom for your answer?
Something I tell my brother who uses science for an excuse is that if God isn't real than why does he feel the need to prove it? If you don't believe in something wouldn't there be nothing to resist? I mean we aren't denying a tree is really called a tree. We aren't searching for proof that a tree was called something else, we just believe that it is called a tree. Why don't we challenge this, maybe because Satan isn't there urging us to.
Just a thought.....

 

[jimmydiggs]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Hello sometimes i get asked questions and most of the time there are like scientists HAVE fully proven evolution and that Darwin was a christian but conviced himself from the evidence that god doent exist etc and how old the world is and that the bible isnt proof of existance , what do i say to people without getting angry ?

You need to start learning what is called: Apologetics

Apologetics will help you learn to defend Christianity at an intellectual level.

 

[shawntc]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Hello sometimes i get asked questions and most of the time there are like scientists HAVE fully proven evolution and that Darwin was a christian but conviced himself from the evidence that god doent exist etc and how old the world is and that the bible isnt proof of existance , what do i say to people without getting angry ?

Some questions are like ive suffered all my life and was a christian and had faith etc but i was only happy when i became an athiest......

What do i say to these people?

1. Does evolution disprove God? Not at all! I think you will find that a lot of Christians accept macroevolution (the type of evolution skeptics talk about) as fact. There are some inconsistencies with it. For more info I'd check out "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Strobel. But if you were to admit that evolution is real, that has no bearing on God's existence. Why would it? All it demonstrates is that that the universe and Earth are older than we previously thought. Genesis 1-11, which read as though the Earth were young, could be considered allegorical as opposed to literal. Evolution would explain how humans came into being using the matter and energy around us, but it fails to answer many other questions which may be used to demonstrate God's existence, such as:

• How did the universe come into being? Stuff can't come out of nothingness.
• The universe is incomprehensibly delicately set up to sustain human life. It's so amazingly unlikely the universe should be as it is that it screams of a Creator.
• Where do morals come from? If there is no God, then words like "good" and "evil" only mean what you make of them.
• How can you explain away the resurrection of Jesus? Any attempt to make an alternative has failed.
• What is the purpose of life? With no God there is no purpose, yet we strive desperately for purpose. Is that desire just an evolutionary accident?

2. What of Darwin? Darwin renounced Christianity after publishing his book "Origin of Species," but even before then he was hardly a man worth being called Christian. From what I've read, he had affairs.

3. How old is the world? Does that disprove the Bible? People who believe evolution to be true will also say the universe is quite old. Scientists currently measure its age to about 13.7 billion years old. That may appear to conflict with Genesis but again, if you interpret Genesis as allegory instead of literal (and there are good reasons why one may wish to do that), you will hardly find any contradiction. It doesn't disprove the Bible, for the reasons I've listed above.

4. What do I say to people? Just present them with facts in a calm, Godly manner. If they still get angry then you know you are dealing with people who don't really want to discuss with an open mind; they just want to assert their opinion and make fun of those who disagree with them. That's just a result of our society and the spirit of the age (the Bible says the devil is the prince of this world, so it's no surprise people who stand for their faith are belittled).

5. "I suffered as a Christian, but became happier as an atheist." First off, you'll have to ask, what do they mean by suffering? Perhaps they had some kind of abuse, and they are mad because God didn't stop it. I can't tell you why God would allow it, though one can speculate. But the fact God doesn't do something does not mean he doesn't exist.

People who are happier as atheists, most likely, never really embraced Christianity. They simply saw it as rules, routines, and getting up early on Sundays. That's not Christianity. It is so much more than that.

I'd like to know what some of these "proofs" are. A couple of the ones I've seen aren't really the kind which I could tackle, but most seem to be defeatable.

Any more questions, feel free to ask.

 

[shawntc]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Above all, though, don't put yourself in situations that you aren't equipped for, because it will only do harm. Build up and keep your faith. Learn what you need to know before engaging skeptics, otherwise they will have the higher ground. There are all sorts of books and websites that you can use to learn.

Most skeptics you encounter, likely, won't actually be wanting an open-minded debate. They've already decided for themselves that God exists and will only belittle you if you disagree with them. I can tell you this from experience.

 

[Emz1066]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

its usually just the one person who will tackle me with questions like this others are nicer and more open minded about it , she said someone suffered as a child through out and always prayed and had faith and nothing happaned but i see what are saying and i believe you if i get asked again i know how to respond thank you #

 

[Dude653]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Evangelism is important, but even Jesus Christ himself instructs us not to cast our pearls to swine. He also tells us to walk away and whipe the dust from our feet when people will not recieve us. I think that outt ime here on this earth is far to prescious to waste on people who will not hear us

 

[oracle2world]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Tell them sorry, not everyone will be touched by faith. And move on to another topic.


I trained as a scientist and, like all scientists, understand the scientific models we create and study are incomplete. We also use incorrect models because they are convenient. An organic chemist uses stick-and-ball models and chemical structures to document and visualize new chemical reactions. No chemist believes these models exist on the molecular level, we are told from chemistry 101 onwards they do not.

A meterologist explains the path of hurricanes by invoking the 'Coriolis Force'. It makes calculations convenient, but does not exist. (It is an artifact of assuming the earth does not rotate, a selection of an incorrect inertial frame of reference.)

The mathematician Kurt Gödel proved that some things were unprovable in the realm of mathematics. And so on. (Hey, I'm just getting warmed up!)


If the atheists push on your further, just say:

"I did not go looking for my fath, but accept it and God's unconditional love, even on days when I don't particularly like my God. It is what it is."

Don't get wrapped around the axel with these folks. Everyone has experienced God's uncondtional love. If they don't want to get with the program, it is not something for you to change.

 

[chip]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Well, the preface to Darwin's seventh edition, the last edition he participated in, lays out his frustration with the lack of evidence for cross species evolution (natural selection however is a valid concept). When I read his tome I was not a Christian and in high school, I considered his statements to be that of a frustrated man whom was dumb enough to suddenly believe in God. Yeah, how we change, eh?

Many in my life were and remain atheists or ignostic, no argument, no proof will turn their firmly held belief set, they just change the argument. It can be frustrating. One claimed that Jesus never existed and I spend hundreds of hours researching out primary sources, which had to be non-Christian, to prove there was just such a man. The he changed the argument to - prove he was God's son. Yeah, right, using non Christian sources.....

I have found that cold evangelism is a whole lot of effort with nothing to show for it, maybe some seeds got planted, but not much else. However, the one whom seeks you out more than likely has the Holy Spirit working on them and will ultimately be reached. You need to be in prayer for them as well as prepare yourself to be ready for their questions (know your Bible!, know your own Testimony! - perhaps several different takes on it so that it is appropriate to several different settings - not knowing how you came to Christ).

And, if you are being attacked, rejoice that you are being sought out and attacked!, it means you are making a difference and they can not stand it.

 

[Nautilus]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

meh, my best friend/roommate knows im a christian. He is for lack of a better term norse paganistic to atheistic. AKA out of all the beliefs out there he prefers norse paganism. We get along great. We just dont shove religion in each others faces. Not surprisingly it works. So i mostly just ignore atheists when they come up to me with those questions.

 

[shawntc]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

There is a time to answer the skeptics, but as I've also mentioned there is a time to ignore them, as Nautilus said. You don't want to be ignorant of the reasoning behind your faith, but you also need to be aware when people just want to start a pointless fight.

 

[sunikpor]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Titus 3:9 "But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain". 2Timothy 2:23 "But foolish and ignorant questions avoid, knowing that they do produce strifes". I believe thiese words answer your question because the BIBLE has the answer to every question.

 

[Emz1066]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

thanks guys that cleared it all up for me

 

[Shilo]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Romans 1:18-25
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

God created us to know he is there he is the long in everyone’s heart that can be filled with nothing else.
Even people who say there is no GOD know he is there and are confused by the pain and state of the word. Only way someone can not believe there is a GOD is if they pushed him away for so long that their mind has become harden.
You have seen a car accident, tornado , or coffee spills does it ever turn into something that is orderly no always causes disorder.Therefore for everything on earth to have a purpose shows intelligent design. From the smallest bug to every person.

Science is called an art and therefor even in that shows they do not have all the answers.
What people might call evolution is nothing more then the progression of sin.
It was proven in the Garden that Adam and Eve lost something from the fall. Sin has been shown to change the makeup of brain function. Call it what you want but when disease causing bugs mutate to resist healing. That is the same as a heart that becomes heard and refuses to heal. The Spirit is always played out somehow in the physical.

 

[Shilo]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e


God is sitting in Heaven when a scientist says to
Him, "Lord, we don't need you anymore. Science has finally
figured out a way to create life out of nothing. In other
words, we can now do what you did in the beginning."
"Oh, is that so? Tell me..." replies God.
"Well," says the scientist, "we can take dirt and
form it into the likeness of You and breathe life into it, thus
creating man."
"Well, that's interesting. Show me."
So the scientist bends down to the earth and
starts to mold the soil.
"Oh no, no, no..." interrupts God, "Get your own dirt."

 

[chasten]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Hello sometimes i get asked questions and most of the time there are like scientists HAVE fully proven evolution and that Darwin was a christian but conviced himself from the evidence that god doent exist etc and how old the world is and that the bible isnt proof of existance , what do i say to people without getting angry ?

Some questions are like ive suffered all my life and was a christian and had faith etc but i was only happy when i became an athiest......

What do i say to these people?

I dunno. I always just say the evolution theory hasnt been proven, and most the time when people turn from god to science, its because their trying to disprove god, so gods theory was written by people, and thats why they dont beleive, but the evolution theory hasnt been proved, and it really was made by people. So that blows that logic out of the water. The bible is based on faith, that means you cant see it, kinda the point, and if you never try it, I guess youll never find out. And dont be mad. Matthew says we are to shake off the dust of your feet. Sometimes people just dont have faith enough to find out, so all you can do is tell them, and if their stuck in their ways for one reason or another, you cant help that, just keep on truckin!

 

[xXTroubleXx]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

I agree with some things shawntc said ... No one should ever walk into a debate without knowing how to defend their position. In casual conversation, however, it's easy to be caught off-guard and there is no shame in saying "I understand what you're saying, but I'm not prepared to talk about this, can we please change the subject" (or something like that).

I want to add this though b/c I think it's relevant.

How do you 'engage' people in a debate or conversation? Do you plan your debates and establish rules and/or etiquette in advance or do you treat any kind of argument you have with a skeptic as a debate? Do you walk up to random people on streets and ask them questions or do you talk with people you know? Also, what is your tone of voice like? Would people feel like you're being intrusive and pushy or are you more calm and easy to talk to? If you engage someone the wrong way, you've already done more damage there than in what you're actually saying. This goes both ways for skeptics and believers.

I have had good, bad, and neutral experiences when engaged in conversation by christians (ranging from family, friends and strangers), so I would strongly advise anyone seeking to engage another person in a controversial subject to be very aware of what they say and how they are saying it, as that might actually rub off on the person in a way that makes them feel like they're being attacked.

Also, controversial questions about religion are not necessarily attacks. If I asked you, "How can you believe in God if the earth is most likely not only thousands of years old?" That is not an attack. It is a question. The delivery of that question by the other person's tone may make you feel attacked, but that is entirely dependent on the tone of the conversation and the person you're talking to. If someone is speaking to you in a way that you do not want to be spoken to, you tell them it's making you uncomfortable and that you feel like they are attacking you. I've had conversations with christians that were about very intense topics, but what made the both of us not want to kill the other person was the fact that we were actually INTERESTED in hearing that person's opinion, and that reflected in our tone of voice and the flow of the conversation. When someone asks you a question, you shouldn't feel attacked by default of the nature of the question. They are controversial questions, so of course you might feel something not sit well inside you if someone asks you your opinion about something or says something you don't agree with.

In your post, you just make it sound like the question is an attack, but I think it's more about the person you are talking with and how they are speaking to you. You can have a perfectly good conversation with a skeptic and you can have a perfectly awful conversation with a skeptic. It depends on the attitudes of both people, and you can say any number of things in order to get yourself out of a bad conversation or insure that you have a great conversation with someone and hopefully both people will walk away having gained something from talking about whatever it is you talked about.

 

[jimmydiggs]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

Hello sometimes i get asked questions and most of the time there are like scientists HAVE fully proven evolution

How do you prove something to be true?

and that Darwin was a christian but conviced himself from the evidence that god doent exist

So, someone who once claimed to be a Christian, no longer claims to be a Christian but rather claims to be atheistic, on the basis of evidence.

Ok?

That doesn't effect whether something is true or not.


Right now, you claim to be a living person. If you started running around, "I've examined the evidence! I'm dead! I'm dead!" Are you? No, of course not.

Same situation. What we claim to be true, isn't true by the fact that we claim it as such.

I don't believe God's existence stems from available evidences. Rather, I believe available evidences point to God's existence because he exists. Truth is true, by the necessity of it's nature (it's true because it's not false). The truth of something is not contigent (dependent) on the supposed evidence.

and how old the world is and that the bible isnt proof of existance

Well, to put it in a form of deductive logic.

1) What the bible tells us, is true.
2) The bible tells us the age of the earth is roughly 6000 years old.
3) Therefor, the earth is roughly 6000 years old.

You don't have to know the "how" of 3) (how to explain it scientifically that is) to know it's true. An example of how we do this in our daily lives as younger people, students in school would be a math text book. How many times have you put together a math equation...

You can work out a problem step by step (this is really evident in algebra for me personally) and come up with an answer. You compare it to the answers in the back of the book, and find that you're answer does not match with the answer in the book. So now you know, assuming the accuracy of the book that your answer is wrong. You don't know what is wrong in the steps, or how you went wrong, but you know it is wrong. Same situation with the age of the earth. We may not know how it is 6000 years old on the basis of science (although there are good arguments out there), but we don't have to know good scientific arguments, to know that it is 6000 years old or so, when scripture tells us it is.

, what do i say to people without getting angry ?

People will be angry if you stand up for Christ. That's something we have to realize. Humans by nature seek to minimalize conflict, even if that means putting up with things we otherwise would not (to an extent). Christians express this natural fact, when they seek to avoid conflict with non-Christians, and in doing so often attack those who do stand up for Christianity.

John 15:18
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

Some questions are like ive suffered all my life and was a christian and had faith etc but i was only happy when i became an athiest......

They were never a Christian.

1 John 2
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

What do i say to these people?

As a general rule, I wouldn't get too upset if people don't "see things your way", because everyone operates on different assumptions. The atheist assumes there is no God. The Christian assumes there is. The atheist assumes the ability to use reason in and of itself, the Christian recognizes the inability of reason to account for itself. Etc etc.

It's called a world view. It's how we interpret things in the world.
This is an excellent article.
Feedback: Should Christians Accept Evolution Because a Leading Skeptic Says They Should? - Answers in Genesis


I don't normally pay a huge amount of attention to AIG, but they get some things right.

 

[KevinV]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

A person shouldn't need proof of the existence of God and the afterlife to live a good life in service of the Christian faith. The whole concept of faith is believing in something the human eye can't see.

 

[Cari99]

Re: What to do when atheiests attack you with questions and "proof"god dosent exist e

I just want to clarify something said above. The Bible says humans were created 6000 years ago, since the genealogies seem pretty detailed, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Earth is 6000 years old. I don't want to start a silly debate on the different interpretations or anything, just pointing that out.