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Christian Debate Techniques 101

How to reason with non-believers
Don’t get engaged in a discussion about issues, logic or evidence. That is a satanic ploy. Instead, follow the techniques outlined below, and you can claim victory in the crusade against the godless. All good Christians should learn by heart the good and wholesome sentences below.

I am all in favor of issues, evidence and logic. I don't know what kind of "Christians" you have been debating with, but my faith appeals to reason and common sense. I would be more than happy to explain how Catholic faith is not based on sappy sentiments and emotionalism.

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Strategy 1: I feel really sorry for you!
Remember that no matter what you do, as a Christian you are a Better Person than the non-believer. Therefore, you must pity them. Also, it is obvious that the only reason people don’t believe in Christ is because they need an excuse to live licentious and immoral lives. Atheists claim they disbelieve because they have seen no evidence. That is a lie.

Yes, it most certainly is a lie. See?? We can agree on something, and we haven't even started yet. As for "better person than the non-believer", its not the Christianity I know. To be truly great, a Christian will seek to receive and esteem those of less status than himself. A little child for example. The lower in status the person we receive, love, and care for, the greater we are IN THE HERE AND NOW. A real Christian will see the value and dignity of others and see them to be more important than himself, especially non-believers. The mission of the Church is to identify with the poor. It's all right here:
Mattew 18:[1] At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
[2] And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them,
[3] and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
[5] "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; So there it is. Many don't get it. Christians are to receive EVERYONE as if they were Christ Himself. How well we do that determines how great we are. If you want to focus on our failures, you need not look far, but I respect your disdain for hypocracy.

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1) “I will pray for you.”

2) “Jesus loves you!”

3) “God loves you!”

4) “I feel sorry for you.”

5) “There must be some other reason that you are saying ‘no’ to God’s love.”

6) “But Jesus/God still loves you!”

Empty cliches, perhaps. I make no excuses for the shallowness you may have encountered. But if you are going to judge the depth of a persons intent with generalizations, what does that make you?

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Strategy 2: But Atheism is a Religion, Too.
It is obvious to all who have seen The Truth that to not believe in a religion is the same as believing in one.

7) “You have to believe in SOMETHING!”

8) “Everybody worships something.”

9) “It requires more faith to not believe in God, than it does to believe in one.”

10) “I wished I had as strong faith in God as you have in atheism (or, evolution.”

11) “You only believe that you are happy. But you can only find True Happiness through Jesus!”

I don't get it. Are you an atheist?

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Strategy 3: The Moral High Ground
Obviously, when the filthy atheists don’t accept the strong and logical arguments we have outlined above, it must be because they are morally filthy and corrupt.

You have no strong logical arguments above. Just emotional irony. And I have met many atheists and none of them are filthy. Please explain how morality is measured.

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12) “It is obvious you have already made up your mind, so I don’t want to waste my time arguing with you.”

13) “You have chosen to be blind to The TRUTH.”

14) “You have been fooled by the Devil.”

15) “Something must have happened that has made you bitter and angry on God.”

16) “I have met Jesus, so why can’t you?”

17) “Only the fool says in his heart there is no god.”

18) “You are running away from God.”

19) “You are hiding from The TRUTH.”

But you like being accused!!! Why else would you be here?

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Strategy 4: “What’s wrong with you?”
Since the FACT about God and Jesus is so obvious to us believers, there must be something wrong with non-believers who don’t accept the obvious TRUTH.

What is truth? I don't claim to own the truth, and neither should you or anybody else. Truth is not a possession, and it has to come from somewhere outside a person. Truth is not of our own making. Even Christ proclaimed that the truth He illuminated did not spring from Him alone. “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me” (John 17:6). Truth is not subjective. It represents the objective order of things. The person who comes to know something of the truth, then should experience humility, not vanity, for he discovers something that is not his.

Christ was emphatic in his denunciation of the Pharisees who claimed to know something of the truth but behaved with a pretentious snobbery. Truth is not he cause of Pharisaism, vanity is.

And both Christ and his Church are unrelenting in their advocacy of humility and in their condemnation of vanity. In fact, it may be far less tolerant of Pharisaism than the secular world. Consider, for example, the comment, “I hate anything fake,” made by Britney Spears, a veritable icon of artificiality and pretense. The secular world awards this kind of duplicity with celebrity. You hate anything fake, right Jester?

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20) “If there is no God, how can you explain the world we live in?”

21) “What has happened in your life to make you hate God?”

22) “Of course the Bible seems strange to non-believers. But if you had God’s Holy Spirit you would understand its wisdom.”

23) “Even if you don’t believe it, JESUS LOVES YOU!”

24) “Even if you don’t believe it, GOD EXISTS!”

I agree. These are not arguments.

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Strategy 5: “Your life has no meaning!”
Remember to make non-believers understand that without belief in God and Jesus, their lives are meaningless.

25) “Without God we are alone in the world.”

26) “A universe without God is a universe without hope.”

27) “Without God, life is meaningless.”

28) “Christianity is not only the best answer, but the ONLY answer.”

29) “You use your life on something negative (atheism) instead of using it POSITIVELY (Christianity).”

I agree its a poor strategy. If a person is indisposed or unwilling to receive the truth, arguments are a waste of time, and no one converts because they lost an argument. But sometimes they convert when their belief system comes crashing down.

Jester, you can accuse others for their methods, but you cannot accuse them for their intentions. So you manipulate people to misfire which proves your position. I say to you and I say to anti-Catholics: if you must disprove something to support your truth, it isn't really truth at all, because truth will stand on its own merits, or its not truth. The fact that one must disprove shows they have little or no truth. That is why Catholicism is not anti-anybody.

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Strategy 6: “Just you wait…”
If you still can’t make the unbelievers repent, make them realize that one day they will see the truth about Jesus. All it takes is some personal crisis, and they will find Jesus.

30) “Just wait, one day you will find God.”

31) “One day you will cry out for God to help you!”

32) “If you just believe, God will become real to you.”

33) “I was like you one day, and didn’t believe in God, but then…”

Some people have grown up in healthy Christian families and don't need to come to Jesus because they have always been with Him. Some people come to Jesus in drug or alcohol recovery programs. You will be judged by the way you lived your life on this earth, and God doesn't need you to believe in Him for that, He is much bigger than our opinions.

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Strategy 7: God will kill you if you don’t believe!
This is the last chance. By using obvious or not-so-obvious threats of destruction or hell, you can win any debate.

34) “One day you will realize that Jesus is your only salvation.”

35) “One day you’ll know I was right, but THEN IT WILL BE TOO LATE!”

36) “Find God before it is too late!”

37) “You better wear flame-resistant clothes if you continue being an atheist!”

You have been turned off by the fatalistic condemning god of Calvinism and so am I. I think such theology has done alot of damage to Christianity. But it aids the non-god of your invention. The one you designed from the mirror. I am willing to bet that if you made a list of all the things about God that you don't believe in, chances are I don't believe much of it either.