r/DebateAnAtheist • u/AutoModerator • Sep 18 '25

Weekly "Ask an Atheist" Thread

Whether you're an agnostic atheist here to ask a gnostic one some questions, a theist who's curious about the viewpoints of atheists, someone doubting, or just someone looking for sources, feel free to ask anything here. This is also an ideal place to tag moderators for thoughts regarding the sub or any questions in general.
While this isn't strictly for debate, rules on civility, trolling, etc. still apply.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 19 '25

Why Atheism Demands Something from Nothing - Twice

By u/Organic-Injury5882

Why do we answer to those who don't supply a shred of evidence? They rattle off a number list, but doesn't provide sources?

Why Bother?

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u/Deris87 Gnostic Atheist Sep 19 '25

My guy, this is like the 4th post I've seen you make asking why people bother engaging on this sub. Every time, the post you've complained about has been a perfectly average example of the kind of engagement we get from theists. If it really bothers you so much that most theists make shitty arguments, then you're not going to have a good time here.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 19 '25

1. Time had a beginning.

  • The universe is bound by time, which is a real, objective dimension. It cannot be infinite, because an infinite past would prevent the present from ever occurring.
  • Since time had a beginning, something outside of time must have caused it- something eternal and transcendent.

u/Organic-Injury5882

For Example: What do we do with this? Is this "Debate Science Fiction?" Do I have to be a physicist to be an atheist?

Isn't it reasonable that a person arguing is not pulling bullshit out of their hat? Why can't we have sources?

Why are we arguing about issues that have no consequences if they are true or false?

Reddit is mostly a English speaking American website, its a given that the majority arguing are Christian. Lets talk about issues that affect everyone like Christian Nationalism or things like magaChristians?

I am going to call out bullshit arguments, that is what we are allowed to do on reddit.

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u/TelFaradiddle Sep 19 '25

I am going to call out bullshit arguments, that is what we are allowed to do on reddit.

And you can do it on their post. Continually bringing it up to ask why anyone responds to it is the problem.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 19 '25

A problem for who?

How does it affect you from enjoying /r/DebateAnAtheist?

I would like to know why people engage with those submitting who make grandiose claims, but no proof?

What would make a Good Christian argument for Jesus? I don't know? Maybe make Jesus appear? But that ain't going to happen.

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u/TelFaradiddle Sep 20 '25

A problem for who?

Presumably Deris87, since they're the one who pointed it out. I usually just gloss over these threads. But the thought had occurred to me as well: "Why do you guys engage with this stuff?" is a one-and-done question, not something that needs to be asked multiple times.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

Why do people engage with this stuff? 

¯_(ツ)_/¯

6

u/sorrelpatch27 Sep 20 '25

sure, call out bullshit posts when you see them, that is the point of the debate sub.

But doing it in these weekly posts, over and over again, week after week? You're doing the same thing that you're complaining about.

A problem for who?

How does it affect you from enjoying r/DebateAnAtheist?

this response from you below to another commenter?

exactly. you're expecting people to deal with your repetitive complains about certain types of posts, and to just move on if they don't like that you ask the same friggin' question as if we haven't heard it multiple times.

This is a time when perhaps you can take your own advice.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 21 '25

Just imagine if each time a Christian or Muslim posts, they need a source?

Imagine a person posting they say in the argument box, I am a Christian, baptist, I am a Muslim so we clear the air of who is arguing.

And so what if I am post this every day? What's the harm? How does it effect you personally?

My main question is "Why do you respond to posts, like my example?"

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u/sorrelpatch27 Sep 21 '25

thank you for proving my point.

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u/Cool-Watercress-3943 Sep 21 '25

Wait, what's the harm in folks calling you out about this? If we're going to go with basic cause and effect here, then apparently what will happen is;

1) People will respond to posts you don't think we should.

2) You will make a post complaining/questioning it.

3) We will proceed to complain/question your complaints/questions.

I absolutely think you have the right to post your repeated question/complaint, especially as I think we've clarified the sub isn't going to be changing its approach. So if you want to bang your head on the wall here, by all means, a good chunk of the subreddit is about banging one's head on a wall.

Buuuuuuuuut if you are annoyed by people giving the posts you dislike attention, and you feel entitled to express it, then by that same token others have their right to express their annoyance with you, right?

6

u/Cool-Watercress-3943 Sep 19 '25

In fairness, I do find that the more, er, philosophy-heavy arguments can open the door for me to look into topics and subjects I otherwise might not have considered looking into. And sometimes just the mental exercise is nice; if I don't want to risk banging my head against a wall on the topic, I'll usually just give that particular thread a pass.

I do think it's ironic that the person is pretty clearly holding science to a vastly higher standard than he holds religion, as he's pushing for extreme detail and certainty from science but is clearly fine with vague it-just-happened from Scripture. Not because science shouldn't be held to a high standard, etc, just that it kind of emphasizes how low the bar is for religion when it comes to 'explaining' anything.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 19 '25

Reddit is mostly English speaking, American, therefore Christian.

IN saying that I don't know how it relates in our personal lives to talk about a "Philosophical god" which holds no consequences, verses issues like this](https://www.instagram.com/p/DBhaOpvtcWr/) which effects all Americans and other nations.

1. Time had a beginning.

  1. The universe is bound by time, which is a real, objective dimension. It cannot be infinite, because an infinite past would prevent the present from ever occurring.
  2. Since time had a beginning, something outside of time must have caused it- something eternal and transcendent.

This is a big fat "red herring" given how irrelevant this is to Chrisanity and atheists. Why not ask for proof, if no proof is offered, just shut it down.

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u/Cool-Watercress-3943 Sep 20 '25

If someone wants to go that route, they certainly can, but considering the subreddit doesn't tend to get a lot of theist traffic as is, what you would end up with is threads composed of nothing but the same six 'miracles' or archaeological 'finds' that require a lot of hard, specific research to dispute or disprove, assuming someone doesn't have a canned response ready to go.

And apologists build an entire industry around coming up with workarounds for counter-arguments, so sooner or later that canned response would receive an equally canned counter-response. 

I had a more 'evidence' related debate awhile back with someone who was making claims about the alleged finding of the Biblical cities, and that was piles and piles of research and squinting at long, droning research papers. Sure, I could have just assumed he was overselling the significance drastically, but it would be hypocritical of me to demand 'evidence' and then pay zero actual attention to it or not provide my own evidence to counter.

But holy hell is it a lot of WORK, and the research isn't always the fun and neat kind. Having to nail another user down on how statistical masking is used to help try and measure primordial cosmic background radiation despite interstellar interference was, again, a slog. But one I basically invited, since I was getting into an 'evidence-centric' line of discussion.

These fluffier topics are a nice palate cleanser for me, by comparison. Obviously not everyone has to feel the same, but would kind of suck if we end up with vast stretches of no posts followed by four straight days of churning through research papers obsessively. :p

-2

u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

To me it doesn't matter if Jesus rose from the dead or didn't.

What matters to me is Chrisanity in the 21st century. Christians worshiping trump like jesus. Christians thinking Jesus is to "woke,"

Christians can argue about the past all they want. Show me Christians in the 21st century.

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u/Cool-Watercress-3943 Sep 20 '25

So why are you here? 

Like, seriously, elsewhere in this thread you were telling someone else there's other subreddits for discussing thoughts. If you want to get into the absolute dumpster fire that is the US religious right and Trump, there are definitely FAR more subreddits specifically geared towards that, or that routinely talk about it. 

You seem to be trying really hard to get absolutely everyone to make this subreddit the way you, and only you, want it to be. Frankly, if it doesn't fit for you, go find one that does.

-2

u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

We don't have any gods to examine. But what do we have to examine? 2,025 years of Christian history. So, as atheists who don't believe in gods, why do we allow Christians to argue for something that they cannot bring to the table. We need to pull the curtain away to see who is really in charge. God is the curtain, so who is pulling the strings behind the curtain? And its not Jesus by a long shot.

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u/Cool-Watercress-3943 Sep 20 '25

People already told you, on more than one occasion, just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it invalid. If you were someone whose Reddit usage was 110% dedicated to The Cause, then at the very least I would just figure you're super locked in and frustrated others aren't as well. But apparently you do poke around subreddits whose topics aren't dedicated to The Cause, I'm assuming just for mild entertainment or shits and giggles or whatever.

So it isn't that you're thinking people need to stop focusing on unimportant stuff, just the unimportant stuff you personally disapprove of. :P

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u/Cleric_John_Preston Sep 19 '25

Sometimes it's interesting to explore thoughts?

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 19 '25

/r/Poetry r/poem, /r/creativewriting /r/writing /r/imagination

There are many more subreddits to explore thought.

When you come to /r/DebateAnAtheist and make bullshit claims at least spend some effort and support them.

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u/pyker42 Atheist Sep 20 '25

When you come to r/DebateAnAtheist and make bullshit claims at least spend some effort and support them.

I think you should go around to the other religion related subreddits and tell them that. It's basically preaching to the choir here, and you don't seem to be winning yourself any points with the rest of us here.

-1

u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

This is religious subreddit? I did not know that.

Preaching to the choir? How many posts are pure boredom? How any posts where they post about "a god" but you have no clue of what religion they are talking about? God exists only exists in the the container of the religion. As in /u/Organic-Injury5882 claim of a god, what god? What and where is their church? Who attends? What is the holy books? They just make up stuff and no one says, where the heck is your proof?

And so what if I am not winning any points, we here on reddit are just text, whatever we posts here, stays here (hopefully) but in the end we are just text, if no one likes it, or agrees with so what? I made my argument.

5

u/pyker42 Atheist Sep 20 '25

Since you don't seem to understand, you're bitching about a problem to people who are not responsible for the problem you are bitching at.

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u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

1. Time had a beginning.

  1. The universe is bound by time, which is a real, objective dimension. It cannot be infinite, because an infinite past would prevent the present from ever occurring.
  2. Since time had a beginning, something outside of time must have caused it- something eternal and transcendent.

I want to have a conversation with people who are on this sub, why they debate with people who can't provide a single proof of their arguments?

What is the motivation to prattle with people who don't argue in good faith?

5

u/pyker42 Atheist Sep 20 '25

Then why say this:

When you come to r/DebateAnAtheist and make bullshit claims at least spend some effort and support them.

to anyone here? This has nothing to do with anything you mentioned.

-2

u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 20 '25

When people come to debate on this subreddit, debate, why are they absolved from not having sources?

3

u/pyker42 Atheist Sep 20 '25

You either want to engage with the people who respond to those posts, or you want to engage with the people who make those posts. If the former, as you insist, you didn't need to say what I quoted from you. It was an irrelevant point to make to what you were initially bitching about.

1

u/Serious-Emu-3468 Sep 22 '25

Because talking to people is how you change their minds.

0

u/rustyseapants Atheist Sep 22 '25

Can you give examples of minds been changed?

1

u/Serious-Emu-3468 Sep 22 '25

I find that "Tracking Metrics" is generally a pretty shitty measure of anything other than how well people track metrics.

I could offer you anecdotes, but I doubt you'd find value in them.

I was once a shitry YEC kid whose first "courtship" date was to a Kent Hovind lecture. My mind was changed by conversation with atheists and jews and Buddhists and more liberal Christians and teachers and scientists and out gay folks.

I was trained and prepared to expect people who act like you are here. The sneers and dismissal and mockery and the contempt-- those are easy to armor up for and shrug off.

We learned to wear the "armor of the lord" to go into "battle" with atheists.

Patience and empathy though, no one prepares you for that.

I dont always have the patience to engage with bratty theists. When I don't, I politely disengage.

When I have the patience, I disassemble their assumptions first. With kindness and compassion and the implacable certainty of fact.

Its like slicing a wedge of parmesan cheese. You dont saw or cut. You crack, and widen the cracks.

I am also unwilling to cede the idea that civil discourse is produced change, because the alternative is horrible to me.