A Challenge To Believers And Non-Believers To Fess Up

[Minnesota]

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What argument made by the other side do you find most compelling?

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[technomage]

Why do I have the feeling that there will be a thundering silence...?

So I'll break that silence first: the most compelling counter-argument to my belief that I have ever faced is the Atheist assertion that the lack of objective evidence indicates that there is no God. I have absolutely no counter except to rely on my subjective experience (while acknowledging that my experience could be erroneous, or my interpretation could be wrong), and my faith.

As far as effective Christian counter-arguments ... well, frankly, I've yet to find one. And I'm not being insulting when I say that. Many Christian apologists have a presuppositional viewpoint--this frequently means that they have either not examined all of the evidence (especially evidence that is contrary to their claims), or have not been willing or able to evaluate the evidence.

Justin

PS: I notice that you didn't answer....

[Duder]

Minn -

Can you narrow the question down to a specific dispute, such as whether or not God exists, whether or not Christianity is the one true religion, or whether or not Jesus was resurrected on the third day for the remission of sin? There's a lot to argue about in religion - and the arguments for some claims are more compelling than the arguments for other claims.

[Gilgaron]

Probably the first cause stuff. Because even though a first cause may not be necessary, it certainly would appeal more to my brain. That's one reason I didn't think Flew's change of position was a big deal, I've stepped back and forth before. Less so recently than I used to, though.

[shunyadragon]

What argument made by the other side do you find most compelling?

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Christian arguments are the least compelling, because they are simply based on the presupposition that what they believe is true. This is unbelievably shallow.

I believe the argument for God is convincing, but far from proven. The problem is the link between the arguments for God and those for the Biblical God of Judaism and Christianity is just not there. The Biblical God is such a Stone Age childish brute that there is nothing that would support this in the objective worldview today. Any narrow egocentric world view of God and revelation, whether Jewish, Christian, Moslem or whatever is simply absurd beyond belief in the face of what we know today, and in itself lends support to the atheist argument.

The atheist argument is better, and I can easily debate Christians using this argument.

The Baha'i worldview of God, which I believe, is more real for today's world and gives an adaquate explanation for the nature of the divine source as it is revealed through time in the human experience. IF there is a God it is the natural God reflected in the creation and the diverse evolving universal experience we witness in the history of existence and humanity.

The explanation for the diversity of the beliefs concerning God, the soul and the spiritual realms is simply how the human experience records revelation on their level of understanding at the time and place it was revealed.

The evidence in the Baha'i worldview consists of the cyclic purposeful nature of the history of humanity reflected in the progressive cyclic evolving nature of the universe. This can be witnessed in the events around the world in the human experience that occured simultaneously and cannot be easily explained by coincedence. The conclusion of this evidence is that the spiritual nature of humanity, like our universe, has a birth, a childhood and a progressively maturing nature that corresponds to the cyclic physical evolution of existence and humanity. Like our universe and solar system, there also is likely a death where our world will pass away making way for a new creation to follow.

IF there is a God, this is IT!

IF there is not, this was a wonderful glorious journey and a great story!

God is not a chess player with the white pieces.
God is the sea and we are the fishes.

[Superbug]

The most compelling argument is the big number of theists in the world. There must be something behind this phenomenon, though it's not necessarily a god.

[lee_merrill]

The most compelling atheist argument for me is .....

Just what I didn't say, we don't know for sure and cotton-pickin' certain.

Maybe that's the most compelling agnostic argument, actually.

To me, anyway...

Blessings,
Lee

[Minnesota]

Minn -

Can you narrow the question down to a specific dispute, such as whether or not God exists, whether or not Christianity is the one true religion, or whether or not Jesus was resurrected on the third day for the remission of sin? There's a lot to argue about in religion - and the arguments for some claims are more compelling than the arguments for other claims.

I purposely made the question a broad one so that people could address whatever position they saw to be in direct contrast to their own. I did not intend the thread to necessarily generate a debate.

[spiritmech]

For me the biggest issue against Christianity is the presence of evil everywhere. There was a time in my life that I was very angry with God because my life wasn't going the way I wanted it to. If He's that good of a God He should make us all happy, right?

So that was my biggest obstacle.
Steve

[Captain Ochre]

For me the biggest issue against Christianity is the presence of evil everywhere. There was a time in my life that I was very angry with God because my life wasn't going the way I wanted it to. If He's that good of a God He should make us all happy, right?

So that was my biggest obstacle.
Steve

Had to read your message to remember that you're correct.
The argument from evil is the most compelling challenge against Christian theism.
The argument is extraordinarily difficult to nail down, however, and Christians should never lose sight of the fact that the problem of evil is a big problem for any worldview. Some are great at handwaving the problem (Nihilism comes to mind), of course, even if they can't explain apparent evil.
So, even though the argument from evil is a daunting challenge, it's curiously also a reason to prefer a Christian-theistic worldview (IMO).

[Xmansmommy]

One of the biggest problems for me as a Christian is the contrast between the God of the OT and Jesus of the NT.

Justin, I'm curious why you would think there would be thundering silence?

I guess ultimately the argument I find most compelling is, those that have sought God and haven't found Him. Or at least not to thier satisfaction.

[salvationfound]

The biggest for me is that God allowed the creation of reality tv. You would
think he would bring a plague of locusts to all those castaways on Survivor.

[Solly]

For me the biggest issue against Christianity is the presence of evil everywhere.

Ditto. that is the challenge I find it most difficult to answer, esp when people don't want a theological tome in reply, but something snappy.

[Xmansmommy]

The biggest for me is that God allowed the creation of reality tv. You would
think he would bring a plague of locusts to all those castaways on Survivor.

!!!!

[chsalvia]

For me, the most compelling argument for the existence of God is the "fine-tuning" argument based on cosmological constants. Yes - I know, it's not conclusive and there are many other explanations, but as far as theological arguments go it's probably the top one. At least, I can safely say that out of all the arguments for the existence of God, it's given me the most pause and the most to think about.