What are the best arguments against Christianity?

Started by escapades, December 06, 2016, 02:29:43 PM

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escapades

What are some of your favorite arguments against Christianity in general? I enjoy using philosophical/logical arguments, but I’m looking to expand my arsenal of topics I can use. One topic I find particularly interesting argues the invalidity of Christianity based on the fact that Christian writings stole so many things from previous religious traditions. This article summarizes the argument well:

Does anyone else have any topics they’d recommend bringing up while debating? I’m fairly good at arguing from a philosophical stance, or a moral one, but like I said, I want to become more diverse in my approach. Thanks!

PickelledEggs

Some of my favorites include citing Bible passages that contradict themselves with other passages.
Some are ones that cite contradictions in documented history and geography
Some are philosophical (Epicurus)

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PickelledEggs

Btw.
I edited out your link. (please read through the rules)

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Mr.Obvious

You don't have to go in providing counterarguments
Ask them to back up their claims. I have been for years.

Still waiting to this day.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

widdershins

My favorite argument is, "You want me to believe in magic, so show me some magic."  They HATE when you refer to "miracles" as "magic", but by the definition of magic miracles are, in fact, magic.  It's even more fun when you point out the parlor trick Moses did turning the staff into a snake, and how all modern day miracles which can't be easily explained away (what many people think of as "miraculous" today is plain damned stupid, such as seeing a license plate which held significance for them at the time) all miracles today amount to parlor tricks.
This sentence is a lie...

Unbeliever

Arguments against theistic (omnimax) Gods work as well against Christianity as any of the other theistic religions.

Arguments that are specific to Christianity (as have been already mentioned) include things like the lack of historical evidence for any such person as Jesus, biblical criticism, anti-intellectualism, and so on. My favorite is maybe Christian history, and the idea that "by their fruits ye shall know them." Christians have been killing, torturing, raping and stealing for thousands of years, with (according to them) the full approval of their God.

I could go on, but I'm getting worked up... :taz:
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

PickelledEggs

Quote from: Mr.Obvious on December 06, 2016, 03:04:52 PM
You don't have to go in providing counterarguments
Ask them to back up their claims. I have been for years.

Still waiting to this day.
It's still good to know the counterarguments, imo. Although, it is true that the bottom line is that they need to back up their claim.

The counter arguments are just fun bonuses

aitm

A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Baruch

#8
Quote from: escapades on December 06, 2016, 02:29:43 PM
What are some of your favorite arguments against Christianity in general? I enjoy using philosophical/logical arguments, but I’m looking to expand my arsenal of topics I can use. One topic I find particularly interesting argues the invalidity of Christianity based on the fact that Christian writings stole so many things from previous religious traditions. This article summarizes the argument well:

Does anyone else have any topics they’d recommend bringing up while debating? I’m fairly good at arguing from a philosophical stance, or a moral one, but like I said, I want to become more diverse in my approach. Thanks!

There aren't a lot of philosophers here.  There are some of us who have been Christians or married to Christians .. many of whom are highly knowledgeable about Christianity.  My single biggest argument against Christianity, is history (the part we definitely know about, not the Gospel period).  But I am a history buff, particularly ancient history.  But Christianity isn't all bad either.  Every human practice has some positive aspects.

But on a separate thread, in the general philosophy section, we could have a little chat about metaphysics, Nietzsche etc ... and not bore the other folks to tears.  I read philosophy daily, as part of my Greco-Roman discipline ... that and practice conjugating my Latin verbs, just like Brian had to do in that movie about the real Jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAfKFKBlZbM
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Blackleaf

#9
Here's the simplest argument against Christianity that I've thought of. Imagine a world that is exactly like this one, except for one thing: God isn't real. You still go to church, you still believe in God, but God himself doesn't exist. What, in your life, would be different? Nothing, because that is the world we live in.

If you talk to God, does he talk back? No. Have you ever seen any miracles, like the dead being raised? No. Have you observed anything from God that could not be explained by random chance? No. Then why do you think that he exists?
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

Mr.Obvious

Quote from: PickelledEggs on December 06, 2016, 05:14:01 PM
It's still good to know the counterarguments, imo. Although, it is true that the bottom line is that they need to back up their claim.

The counter arguments are just fun bonuses

Yeah, I know what you mean.
But asking specifically for counter-arguments for a specific religion, to me, conjures up the idea that somehow this said religion needs debunking; forgetting that it needs to... bunk? (How do you say that?) first.
What's the point in preparing yourself to take down christian arguments? You might as well spent extra time in thinking up ways to counterargument toothfairyanism, FSM-ism, invisible-teapot-around-neptunism and any other made up -ism one can imagine. If you understand logic and intellectual honesty, you'll already have all the arsenal you need. Doing more just feeds the delusion that there is more worth to one branch of imagination than there is to another. All you say to your opponents is; your ideas are challenging and I need to prepare to take them down.

You don't.

They don't even lift off.

But... that's just my two cents.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

Unbeliever

Quote from: Mr.Obvious on December 07, 2016, 12:40:16 PM
Yeah, I know what you mean.
But asking specifically for counter-arguments for a specific religion, to me, conjures up the idea that somehow this said religion needs debunking; forgetting that it needs to... bunk? (How do you say that?) first.
What's the point in preparing yourself to take down christian arguments? You might as well spent extra time in thinking up ways to counterargument toothfairyanism, FSM-ism, invisible-teapot-around-neptunism and any other made up -ism one can imagine. If you understand logic and intellectual honesty, you'll already have all the arsenal you need. Doing more just feeds the delusion that there is more worth to one branch of imagination than there is to another. All you say to your opponents is; your ideas are challenging and I need to prepare to take them down.

You don't.

They don't even lift off.

But... that's just my two cents.

Trouble with that line of thought is that representatives of the Christian religion are avid to turn America into a theocracy. It then becomes necessary to debunk it, unlike "toothfairyanism, FSM-ism, invisible-teapot-around-neptunism and any other made up -ism one can imagine." None of those other things is trying to make itself into a totalitarian secular power.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

No other religion in the US ... but two ideologies in the US .. Democrats and Republicans ;-(
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

davoarid

#13
Quote from: Blackleaf on December 06, 2016, 07:31:44 PM
Here's the simplest argument against Christianity that I've thought of. Imagine a world that is exactly like this one, except for one thing: God isn't real. You still go to church, you still believe in God, but God himself doesn't exist. What, in your life, would be different? Nothing, because that is the world we live in.

If you talk to God, does he talk back? No. Have you ever seen any miracles, like the dead being raised? No. Have you observed anything from God that could not be explained by random chance? No. Then why do you think that he exists?
I feel like this is also a  pretty strong argument against the existence of Enceladus, the ice moon of Saturn, though....so maybe not such a strong one?

Hydra009

Quote from: davoarid on September 16, 2017, 09:16:14 PM
I feel like this is also a  pretty strong argument against the existence of Enceladus, the ice moon of Saturn, though....so maybe not such a strong one?
Do you expect Enceladus to answer prayers, write/inspire holy books, and make miracles happen?