Mistakes christians make when dialouging with atheists.

[Evoman]

I thought this was an interesting little piece. Its from a Christian apologetics website, and advises Christians on how to speak with atheists. Now, I vehemently disapprove of its purpose (to speak to atheists in order to convert them) but it does make several good points. It has a list of common mistakes christians make...and to be honest, every single one of these has been committed several times on this website.

So if there are any christians here still trying to have meaningful dialogues with atheists or *snort* convert them, its not a bad place to start.

Following DU copyright rules, I only put down 3 of them, but there is a whole list of mistakes, so click on the link.

http://www.carm.org/atheism/christianmistakes.htm



"Stating that Atheism is a religion
Atheists will repeatedly tell you that they are not in a religion. A religion almost always is defined to include belief in a deity of some sort. Atheism is non-belief in a deity. It isn't necessarily a "belief that there is no God," but is "not believing either way."
To label an atheist as a religious person is to put up a roadblock to effective communication. It would be like someone saying to a Christian, "You believe in a mean, tyrannical being who likes to torture people." The Christian would simply role his eyes and think that the person doesn't know what he's talking about. So, how much effective conversation could there be in either instance? Not much.

Stating unsupportable facts
No one has all documentation for everything they say. It is not reasonable to require proof from an atheist on everything said. Nevertheless, if you are going to state a fact or two, it is good to have the documentation at the tip of your tongue -- at least occasionally. It adds an air of credibility to your argument. Of course, you don't have to document everything, but if you have some illustrious fact to use, try and have it documented.

Never admitting when you are wrong
Pride is a harmful thing. It caused the fall. It ruins marriages. It leads to anger and self-righteousness. It has no place in the Christian's life. Never admitting you are wrong is being prideful. If an atheist, or anyone, proves you wrong in something, be kind and courteous. Admit you made a mistake and go on. Everyone makes mistakes, even atheists. There is nothing wrong with admitting an error. It no more proves you are wrong about Christianity than being wrong about the color of a boat means boats don't exist. But, if you never admit when you are wrong, you will not be able to convince anyone in a discussion of your position. You will simply loose the respect of the one with whom you are debating. "


On edit: For the atheists, click on the "atheism" link on the bottom...it leads to another page that has a link to the "common mistakes atheist make" as well.

On further edit: The website is chock full of advice for arguing with atheists, and criticisms of atheism...there is entirely too much bullshit on it as well (misinterpreting the atheist position, etc). But this article itself isn't too bad.