If the conversation is specifically about Jesus, I say the bottom line of the entire Bible is the instructions Jesus gives about how to get into Heaven, and I point out all the stuff he says in Matthew, Mark, and Luke about following the Law of Moses down to the last iota, leaving your family, selling all your possessions, giving all your wealth to the poor, practicing strict nonviolent pacifism, abstaining from all sin even in your thoughts, and even cutting off body parts that tempt you to sin, like, make yourself a eunuch for the kingdom of Heaven’s sake. Jesus says in many places in all four gospels that to enter Heaven you have to actually DO all the things that Jesus commands his followers to do. Most Christians have never heard of this, and it stuns them, and they go away. See http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/JesusEthics.htm

It’s that simple. They are not logical or rational and no amount of those will fill a hole dug by willful ignorance. They KNOW they are wrong but they just can’t bring themselves to admit it because no one likes to admit they are wrong… and how do you admit you are wrong about the most important (imaginary) thing in the whole universe?

You can’t rationalize the irrational. So just be nice to the dicks and don’t let them bully you and don’t let them push you around. The answer if you don’t know is always, “I don’t know but I’m willing to learn in a scientifice, objective maner. But I’m not going to mindlessly follow a bood written by people who would worship a laptop if they saw one.”

The new testament of the bible was assembled from various writings at the council of Nicaea…

This is not true, though it is a common misconception. See the “Canonization” section here.

When watching the awesome theist non theist debates, one side will say Hitler was Catholic and the other will say he was not. Which is it?

Hitler was nominally Roman Catholic, but was certainly not devout or practising by the time he came to power. Having said that for someone who purportedly did not believe in god he sure spent a lot of time talking about how he believed in god! Furthermore the crimes of the Nazis were carried out principally by christian Germans so this nonsense about “Hitler the atheist kills people therefore atheism is dangerous” is exactly that. Nonsense.

W.L. Craig says that the NT is the best primary source of the accounts of JC. I thought that the current bible was written and rewritten over and over again. Which is it?

The new testament of the bible was assembled from various writings at the council of Nicaea under the Emperor Constantine after christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire, principally as a means of controlling what was a dangerous cult. Knowing this means that we cannot hold the gospels to be a reliable account because if anything they suggested ran contrary to the official line of the Empire they would not be included. Secular sources are notoriously silent on the subject.

How do you shut down the god in the gaps theory. Anyone can talk for minutes about evolution, but all “one of them” has to do is insert god in the beginning or at the end of said pontificating. Then there is first cause, or even “the cause”. We can talk all we want about biology, but then all the theist has to say is, “Well, who or what is the cause in the first place.” No one can possibly know all the anwsers from all the sciences, so what should we do when the believer gives the non answer of god.

It begs the question “If everything has a cause, what caused god?”. Of course the answer is that god doesn’t have a cause because… hey, it’s god! So to that I would suggest we simply say “The Big Bang didn’t have a cause then. No need for god! Simple!”

Kriss

T Rav,

One of the best of which I believe is in Daniel (or Ezekial?) about how Alexander the Great would come and sack Tyre, or something…

Actually, this one rather sucks. I’m sure you can find some comprehensive prophecy-debunking sites with a few internet searches.

llewelly,

But that doesn’t mean ‘agnostic’ is a ’statement of certainty’.

I think this may have been but a bit of sloppy writing on t3knomanser’s part; I suspect he was trying to convey that agnosticism is a statement regarding certainty–namely, that it is lacking.

It’s up to them to prove that god exists if they are the ones living and judging according to that standard/belief system and want to argue about it. It’s all very circular.

It’s more of a statement than a question, but whenever they say “He died for your sins!”, my brain is always too shocked by the stupidity to come up with a witty response. “Uhh…no he didn’t?”

How do others here handle that little gem of wisdom?

You could just say “Oh that was really nice of him. I just wish he had asked me first though, I’d have told him not to bother…”

sorry if this posts twice