I have noticed a trend in both atheist and theist posts on RRS and other debate style forums. People here do more mud slinging and smearing of their opponents than the Bush white house. People don't so much as answer questions posed, as they simply claim everything to be "specious" or "irrational". I believe the solution is to think before you type, just like how people make bad arguments when they don't think before they speak. That and perhaps an effort should be made to not reiterate what the 80 posts above you just said. IE: the seemingly popular "irishfarmer" created thread in this here forum. I'll finish by having a sample debate.

Hi, I am currently in debate with a Christian who believes in evolution. He believes that the book of genesis is metaphorical. So it’s impossible to show him the contradictions between genesis and science.  I was wondering if you guys had any ideas that might help me out.

The question is: Does God exist? If he/she/it does exist would he/she/it condone the incalculable amount of slaughter that has and still is being perpetrated in the NAME OF RELIGION?
Is it a conscionable god that slaughters millions Jews, gypsies and countless other unwanted undesirables (including INNOCENT babies and children of these unwanted undesirables)...or the unwanted Chinese, Vietnamese, Turks, etc. Etc. Etc. Let’s not forget the millions of Catholics, Protestants and Muslim, in fact; has any race been spared from ending up in the HATE cycle of killing the unwanted that “God” does not want? Is God a cold hearted mass murderer just in the morning, or in evening? What are God’s guidelines for killing off the sinners? Why does God need to revert to killing at all? Or does the messenger of God carry out all the murders? Who benefits from all the killing, God or the messengers?
Could there have been a better God strategy? How about the all powerful and all seeing God simply visiting each and every sinner in town and command that they stop sinning... Let me tell you that if God talked to me just once I would never “sin” again. Why did only a few men in the last ten thousand years talk directly to god? Why can’t everyone talk to God?
It is time to be honest. Question what you have been duped into believing. Who knows, you may find that you can find a God like tranquility and peace within yourself without having to believe that God is running the show......BELIEVEING IN A GOD IS LIKE PLAYING POKER… YOU MAY FEEL YOU ARE GOING TO WIN, BUT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL! YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL ALL THE CARDS ARE PLAYED. Soooo choose carefully. You don't want to go through life thinking there is a god when there may not be one!

Isn't it?

We can state that god being uncaused is an absurdity, but what of existence as a whole? Is there any reasonable cosmology that doesn't imply some uncaused state of existence. Don't we run into the same problem of infinite regress whether or not the uncaused is a concious entity or a mindless mass/energy state?  

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I'm really tired of hearing Christians whine about not having prayer in school and that we want "under God" taken out of the pledge. "Under God" has only been there since 1954 - so we manage to win 2 world wars and get through the Great Depression without becoming communist or a dictorship without God's help, so there's no reason to have it now. How would you feel if it was "Under Allah" and there were readings from the Koran, or "Under Vishnu" and redings from Hindu texts, or "Under the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and reading pasta recipes? Not mentioning any god or having any prayer is neutrality, not promoting atheism.

How do you fel about people like Lee Strobel, and C.S. Lewis. Strobel was a journalist and Lewis was an Oxford professor and they both set out ot disprove Christianity, and became Christians. What do you have to say about them? I've just always wondered that. This really isn't a topic for a debate, I'm just wondering.

An all knowing god created defective humans, so he could kill them later.

Are humans irrational by nature? Everything seems to indicate that's absolutely the case, and religion is a perfect example of this.

When Ancient Greece was at the peak of its progress, people like Democritus managed to, more or less, figure out some of the things we know today. But in the end, the Roman empire collapsed, and we ended up having 1000 years of ignorance thanks to the Christians. 

 But science began to rise up against the irrational Christian beliefs, even though the church fought back by doing kind acts like setting Giordano Bruno on fire.

Today, nations like Poland and the US could go back to the dark ages thanks to the fundies that are taking control of their governments step by step.  The problem isn't confined to the west. Turkey is becoming another Iraq and Malaysia is another fine example of that. Muslim fundies are taking control of the Turkish and Malaysian governments. The same thing happened to Iraq. Feminists gained a lot of power before the Ayatollahs took over. Needless to say the feminists were persecuted.

Thoughts?  Comments?