For religious people: How do you handle people trying to debunk your religion with scientific logic?

Question

I was just wondering, do you listen to the criticism? Do you just hold on to your fath and ignore it? Is it painful when somebody seems as though they might be right? Etcetera, etcetera...

I'm personally an atheist; I'm just asking for curiousity's sake. Lets not have any angry comments. =)

Answer 1

Well, you know, a co-worker who I've come to respect highly and he me, is a "rabid atheist" not only does he believe for certain there is not an ultimate end-all - Creator Source of all things - aka GOD -- but he attacks anything and everything Christian. So he tries to debunk my religion with scientific logic a lot.

How do I handle it? I pray and pray. And I keep reminding myself that he is not attacking me, he is not attacking God (how can he? I mean, he himself will say "God Does Not Exist"), he is attacking his own anger. And ~ahem~ {GOD} has put me in his path for some reason. I remind myself of these things.....

And then whenever he tries to "scientifically" challenge me to prove God exists, I challenge him to prove God does not exist in the same manner/discipline ("scientifically"). Basically it can't be done. And that, basically makes the agnostics the most reasonable of the spectrum -- atheist - agnostic - theist

Okie dokie.... I do listen to the criticism Yes.
I do hold on to my faith, and yet I will not ignore it......When someone comes after me in that manner (and believe me, if I'm in a discussion like that, it's not because I'm trying to tell someone what to believe or not believe, it's because they are trying to tell me they think there are problems with what I believe) .....When someone comes after me in that manner, I think they are working through something in themselves and I somehow appear available as their muse or sounding board or something - maybe someone to argue with who won't hate them in the morning.....I do not ignore it, but I do especially at those times hold on, cling on tight to my faith. There are many nights I've gone to sleep just praying and praying and praying the Lord's Prayer, and a RCatholic prayer about "O Come Holy Spirit" just to quiet my heart and mind enough to where I could sleep.....So in summary
- Yes it hurts, it hurts like hell (and I mean that, I'm not just cussing - I believe we experience hell whenever we depart from the will of God which can be translated into atheistic terms as well - another time another topic...)
- No I don't ignore it. I work through it and thank God for this next opportunity to grow in Him and in faith and love....and I thank God for this next opportunity to be the Christ that this person is looking at here an now.

Who knows (scientifically) who will be proven right or wrong in the end? No one - No one (except Jesus 2000+ years ago) has ever come back in person from the grave to tell us what happened next. But you know what? God isn't a "scientific" God, God is a personal God. And so if my unprovable un-repeatable personal experiences with Him amount to a bunch of adolescent and young adult hallucinations, then so-be-it. And if your unprovable un-repeatable personal experiences that give you reason to say He does not exist amount to be a bunch of un-rational hallucinations, then so-be-it.
It hurts nothing in the here and now so long as we don't try to attack each other for not subcribing to our own personal un-repeatable experiences....
And in the very end, if I'm wrong, then I've left a legacy, and if you're wrong, then you will be introduced personally to God at your judgement and it will be all good because God Loves You Too :) even to the point of letting you remain skeptical until presented with hard "scientific" irrefutable evidence.

Hugs for the good and sincere question.

Answer 2

Well, as a fellow believer in logic, I find myself slightly shocked at your conclusion. I am also a Christian (not religious, but still, I have a belief). Maybe it's what your family believes, but I've always found that if you have a logical mind, Christianity makes a lot of sense. First of all, there are plenty of facts backing up Christianity - archaeological evidence, and such. One Google search and you can find these - or look up "Creation" magazine, it's filled with articles on archaeological discoveries that point towards a higher being, or, if not that, the Bible being true. Second, I have come to a logical conclusion that, when dealing with God, there are a few times when logic just has to fly out the window. Because some things are impossible to explain logically - the source of life, for example, has puzzled scientists for over a century, and they're still no closer to finding an answer. But back to my logical conclusion. It doesn't mean I say "Hey - that doesn't make sense - oh well, it's God. Nevermind." God makes things in this world be logical. Actually, we base logic on our environment, but you get what I mean. Occasionally, he overrules logic, but that's because he can. Logically, the guy who created EVERYTHING, should be able to overrule logic. Third, as I mentioned before, atheism does not explain everything logically - the source of life is one large hole in their argument, as is their still-missing link. Or their theory that embryo's go through various stages of animal before becoming human - that was also proven false a while ago. I grow up in a world where people mix the Catholic religion with evolution. I've grown up surrounded with 'facts' that prove evolution is true. But it's all an illusion. In school, they show you all this evidence, but when you look it up, you find out it was disproven five years before the school book was first published. It gets very confusing. I hope I answered your question, and remember - never be narrow-minded, but don't be so open-minded your brains fall out. Oh, and the term "atheist" is vastly overused. If someone is atheist, they've come to a stage of not caring, and are filled with complete apathy to everything, because nothing matters. There is no beauty, no meaning. Richard Hawkings, for example, is NOT an atheist. He is a humanist - or (also) an anti-theist. An atheist doesn't care if people believe in God. A humanist - or an anti-theist (I'm not saying they're the same thing, but they're two examples) - do, and will be very passionate in their arguments against God. Instead of basing your views on Christians on the people around you (they seem very unstable, or aggressive, by your description) look up books, articles, and other Christians. All the Christians I've met are relatively calm and collected - they might get passionate when talking about what they believe, but not aggressive.

Answer 3

There might be some smart cookies out there, but so far no one has offered me (real) scientific evidence that debunks my religion. Actually, and I'm not saying this to try to convert you or convince you of anything regarding my faith, but out of "fyi" I've found more scientific evidence in the Quran that supports my religion. I've never found a contradiction in science and religion unless the science part was an unproven theory or the religious part was an innovation and not really something from God. That's my perception anyways.

Answer 4

Many of the great scientists of the past and the present have been and are Christians, who see no conflict between their science and their faith. Science only concerns itself with explaining scientific phenomena. The scientific method is based on the observation of repeatable, measurable events. Any event that is neither repeatable nor measurable is of no interest to science since theories can not be developed nor validated for events that can’t be duplicated, predicted or measured. Science is competent to answer questions about how matter behaves according to the laws of nature, but science is not competent to answer the question of whether or not the laws of nature have a Lawgiver


Discoveries, especially in the last 50 years has shown that the complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today. The human brain's complexity shows a higher intelligence behind it. There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, and relate to other people. How does one explain the human brain? "Chance" or "natural causes" are insufficient explanations.

With out God we are saying:

Nothing produces everything

Non life produces life

Randomness produces fine tuning

Chaos produces information

Unconsciousness produces consciousness

Non-reason produces reason

None of which makes sense!

We've learned a lot through science since the Civil War. So many seem to be still trying to apply Darwin's 19th century thinking to a 21st century reality, and it doesn't work. Explanations from the steamboat era are no longer adequate in the world of cosmology, physics, astronomy, biochemistry, biology in this age. The only option left is that God exists!

Answer 5

As a Christian I love a healthy debate, the Bible is backed up by not only scientific evidence but also archeologic evidence as well. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of both Christians and Atheist don't take time to look at all of the facts here on earth outside of their own beliefs. Hope this somewhat helps.

Answer 6

I have little if any interest in the raging debates/rant exchanges where the "creationists" and "evolutionists" duke it out -- although it's kind of amusing to see what both sides come up with at times. Both act as if evolution (if true) would completely discredit Scripture and somehow prove that God doesn't exist.

But the Bible was never intended to be a science or history textbook, and the truth of the Gospel is not dependent upon what science discovers. Contrary to popular opinion, many of us do not believe that faith and science are incompatible.

Answer 7

Don't mind it a bit. Science can not disprove God but tends to support the idea that things do not happen accidentally, like life or the universe. For example, the odds of all the components of a simple cell being in one place a a given time is estimated at 1 times 10 to the 40000th power. Vanishingly small odds.
But I think you are talking about those who interpret the Bible literally. I personally like what science brings to the argument as did Einstein.

Answer 8

I've never actually had an atheist try to debunk my religion... but that might have something to do with the fact that I don't proselytize, assume that I'm right and everyone else is wrong, or claim that the symbolical mythology of my religion is historically accurate.

Answer 9

It's not that they are trying to debunk with "logic" but shady doubletalk. They hide behind clinical studies to cover their own ignorance and prejudice. And talk about nit-picky! It's like talikng to a dogmatic, self righteous Christian! They believe they are right so much that it never occurs to them that there might be another point of view.

And it's really ironic because most consider themselves to be more enlightened than people who believe in some sort of deity. And they become the very thing they abhorr: ignorant.

My own life experiences have led me to believe in a loving higher consciousness, and I have seen some pretty outrageous things. I try not to force my views on to Atheists, but try to explain to them my point of view, if they ask.

I personally believe that if you honestly believe you cease to exist after death, then that is what shall happen to you. Direct your life energy to heaven, then that is what shall become of you. Kinda how things work in this life: Aspire to do better and you become better (get that job promotion, graduate, things like that). Another option is to sink to the depths of depravity--that's what shall become of you. It's all about consequences to the action performed.

It's important to respect other religions and atheism, because we cannot just look at each other and speak words and know exactly what is going on in another person's soul. A person can claim to be or appear to be a devout Christian, but harbour deep evil, bigotry and hatred in their soul. Or vice versa. So I consider carefully what others say, no matter what their background is.

It is important to me to be as real and as authentic a person I can be. It makes me vulnerable, but what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?

Anyway, I hope you get some decent answers to this. Have a happy night!

Edit: By the way, I'm also aware of productive, kind, compassionate, open-minded Atheists. But they're also the ones who do not try to "debunk" religion with "logic", but just graciously smile tolerantly around the holidays! And thanks, you guys!

Answer 10

I'm a Christian. When somebody attempts to debunk my faith with science, I listen to them. I can often learn a great deal from what's being said. I'm rather a fan of science, myself. At the end of the day, I might politely disagree with the potential debunker regarding some (but not all) of their conclusions regarding my beliefs, but I'm certainly willing to listen to comments from the opposition and consider them carefully.