Science vs

I mean it sincerely when I say you seem like one of the nicer, if not the nicest atheists I have come across, here or anywhere Second I want to apologize because I often come off as sarcastic and sardonic when debating atheists, mainly because I cannot take the atheist position seriously. So I am sorry ahead of time. Also, I am unaware of any structure for this debate as none was set forth. I am going to assume in posting rebuttals and arguments in this first round, that I am not breaking protocol. I also will purposely skip over some of my opponent's points, not because I do not have an answer for them, but rather because I have limited room to type and I want to hit the most important first. I will try to cover the other points in the next round. Now I want to pose 4 points that cause problems for the atheistic view: 1. The Atheist cannot account for morality[1] 2. The Atheist cannot account for existence[2] 3. The Atheist cannot account for rationality[3] 4. The Atheist cannot justify a need to disprove the existence of God I provided links to only the first three points because the forth, is a personal belief of mine. I would hope that my opponent could provide answers to my four points, because if he cannot, his arguments already made, really bare no relevance. I will also try to back up my four claims in this. First let's examine my opp's claim that other religions existing denies the existence of God and makes a good argument for atheism. I too study apologetics and as my opponent went to seminary, I admittedly, probably am not as well versed as he in apologetics. However all we have to do to disprove this claim is look at the sub title: "Other religions exist". I have to ask, how is this proof that Christianity is wrong, that God does not exist, and that atheism is right? This is shown numerous times in the bible. For example Galatians 1:6-10: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel" not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. [4] Look at the first line. Paul is referring to the Galatians practicing some other religion. Christians do not deny there are other religions. We just refer to them as false religions. I suppose a Muslim would say the same thing about Christianity and especially Judaism. For my opp to say that other religions being in existence nullifies the Christian religion is quite asinine. Christians do not deny the existence of other religions, but rather say there is only one way to God, through Christ[5] Next my opp claims that faith is rewarded to the same degree as disbelief. He uses prayer as an example. Now, I must admit that I am not the biggest proponent of prayer, but even I cannot deny what the bible says in 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance[6] This verse alone can conquer not only the claim that prayer does not work, but also provide an answer to the question of evil, which is a big argument atheists bring up God cannot be proven: This is a BIG category mistake that atheists and agnostics alike make all the time: God cannot be seen therefore he cannot be real. This is officially where I have to call into question whether my opponent really went to seminary or not. I could easily have called this claim into question in any previous paragraphs, but chose to wait until this point. You see, the question I have is where in the bible are there claims that God was a physical being? I will go ahead and answer that question but I still want my opp to answer in his own words as if I never provided the answer. Answer: No where. The bible in no way shape or form speaks of God being physical, but rather transcendent. [7] Let's define transcendence, transcendent and transcend Transcendence- the quality or state of being transcendent[8] Transcendent- going beyond the limits of ordinary experience[9] Transcend- to rise above or go beyond the normal limits of [10] Does God meet the criteria for being transcendent as defined above? Absolutely. Examples would be Moses and the burning bush[11]. Jacob Wrestling with God[12]. God manifested himself into the burning bush and the old man whom Jacob wanted to be blessed by. God went beyond what is considered normal by physical, human standards and manifested himself into these other things. My opp and any other atheist will probably continue to argue wanting physical proof of God, but it is just foolish for him to do so. As an aside, and kind of a nitpicky one, it must be pointed out that my opponent claims Bloody Mary does not exist. I present this[13]. The God of the Bible can be disproved. How exactly is that so? In order for that to happen, the Bible must be unequivocally proven to be a work of fiction. It cannot be as God Himself cannot be proven false. If the Bible is the inspired word of God, you must first disprove the existence of God. And you cannot do that without committing the category mistake of asking for physical evidence of God. And if you commit said category mistake, you are committing a semantic or ontological error[14]. Likewise in order to disprove God, you would need to prove the Bible to be false. You basically are running in circles now. My opponent goes on to call God evil. This reverts back to my claim that the Atheist cannot account for morality. What is evil? How is it defined? Who defined it as such? Certainly not man. Are morals subjective? Would my opponent say cold blooded murder is moral? What about child molestation? If he is not going to say those things are moral, then why not? I know what his course of action is. He is going to make an argument that God killed thousands of people and that still makes God evil. But he will not have a concrete answer, instead dodging the bullet and continue to be accusatory toward God. This does not work. Science is obviously better. My opponent seems to not know much about science. He seems to not know the history of science. Many classical scientists, inventors, mathematicians, etc. , believed in God[15]. In looking at the source provided, there is a who's who of great thinkers. Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, even to an extent Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin (please note the phrase "to an extent"). Then you have Richard Dawkins, who's claim to fame is writing books making fun of Christians. Compare the contributions and tell me who you are in better company with. Similarly, there are not many Christians these days that adhere to a literal 7 days of creation. In fact the only denomination I can think of that believes that is the 7th day Adventists. Personally I devised what I call the domino effect. In this theory I challenge atheists to explain creation of the universe. Start at the Big Bang and work your way down explaining each event that caused the last. At some point, even the smartest scientific minds could not explain the creation of the universe. This leaves logical cause for a creator. You cannot have a book without an author. Finally there is my opp's claim that Christians are not persecuted. I find this to be the most ridiculous and the most offensive. And I don't get offended often at all. This simply is not true. My opp asserts that in America, Christians are not persecuted. While this is heinously untrue, he acts as if Christians do not live anywhere else in the world, which is false. Another fallacy he makes is the assertion that Christianity is the biggest religious movement in the world. Islam is the largest religion in the world[16] AND the largest religion in the US[17]. The only source to claim Christianity is the largest religion in the world is CBN[18] BUT they also make the correct assertion that Christianity is the most persecuted world wide. Countries like China, Turkey, Iran among others persecute Christians without provocation. The notion that Christians are not persecuted is ridiculous. As I am running out of room, I will have to continue this section as well as hit other points my opp made in the next round. I will also post sources for China, Turkey, Iran in round 2 1. . http://carm.org... 2. . http://carm.org... 3. . http://carm.org... 4. . http://www.openbible.info... 5. . http://www.bibleevidences.com... 6. . http://www.biblegateway.com... 7. . http://carm.org... 8. . http://www.merriam-webster.com... 9. . http://www.merriam-webster.com... 10. . http://www.merriam-webster.com... 11. . http://www.biblegateway.com... 12. . http://www.biblegateway.com... 13. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 14. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 15. . http://www.godandscience.org... 16. . http://news.nationalgeographic.com... 17. . http://endoftheamericandream.com... 18. . https://www.cbn.com...