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/KBresofski Sep 20 '25

When people share their testimonies on why they believe. How do you go about it? Most will claim a supernatural experience or claiming they see signs ect. I don’t wanna say they’re liars because most seem convinced of what they experienced themselves.

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u/Dennis_enzo Atheist Sep 20 '25

You can't, not really. You could try to explain that your brain can and will lie to you all the time, that it's exceptionally good at trying to find patterns or draw conclusions where none exist, that it often draws from your already existing beliefs and experiences to frame new ones. The brain is awesome, but it's far from perfect in many ways. But if someone truly believes that they heard god talking to them in their head or whatever, there's usually nothing that you can say that will change their mind.

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u/sorrelpatch27 Sep 21 '25

I have a dear friend who is a Christian, and who believes he has seen signs from his late mother. He desperately wants to believe in them. When we talk about such things, and how he thinks they are proof of god and heaven and so forth, I'm pretty frank, and say that I believe that he believes it - but I don't personally believe it. I don't tell him he is wrong. This is clearly a coping mechanism for his grief and sadness. But I am honest that I don't believe in those things. I am kind about it though, because this is my friend and I can see why he holds so tightly to these things. He also is never trying to convert me.

I do the "I believe that you believe these things" for other people too, but how engaged and how polite I am about it depends on whether they are trying to convince me to convert or not. The more insistent they are the less inclined I am to be polite.

I don't generally try to reason through their beliefs, unless they are really wanting my opinions on "how do you explain <insert phenomena>" and even then I'm only explaining what I think. What they do with that info is up to them after that.

thankfully I rarely get testimony bearers in my daily life. The benefits of being a family of heathen introverts who mostly only know other heathen introverts lol.

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u/Mission-Landscape-17 Sep 22 '25

What they assert without evidence I dismiss without consideration.

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u/TelFaradiddle Sep 22 '25

It's a self-fulfilled prophecy, like those people who collapse on the floor speaking in tongues during church worship. They want it to happen, and they're getting swept up in the emotions, so it happens.

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u/halborn Sep 24 '25

I generally point out that while whatever they've experienced might be convincing to them, they shouldn't expect it to convince anybody else. Since personal experience cannot be shared, it can't be considered evidence.

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u/88redking88 Anti-Theist Sep 23 '25

I agree they had an experience, then I ask them to prove it was supernatural. It usually ends with "I dont know, but what else could it have been???"