Atheists have it wrong

Went to see a debate down at Angel Place between a panel of theists and a panel of atheists with the title of “Atheists have it wrong”. To say I was expecting a thought provoking debate would be a bit of an understatement.

Instead, what I got to witness was tired old arguments dressed up in big words on the atheist side, while the theists lost me when their opening speaker said he had an atheist heart and an atheist mind (he just believes in god)

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, I became a fence sitter because I found the religious explanations suspect (So what we say it be fanned for eternity being the general message) and atheists are typically tied up in their intellectual towers due to their embracing science as the way to truth (meaning those of us with a high school education having to decipher the wording used in their arguments even as we miss their next statement)

In the end, when it came time for the audience to vote, I had to side with the atheists (who had a 10% swing to them, or 2/3 of the original undecided vote) not because I embrace atheism (happy to sit on my fence), but because they presented the better case.

Though I found their stance on “all gods are man made and designed to enslave women” a little ignorant and simply confirmed the speaker in question was a feminist. At least she was a funny feminest so no black mark on that front, especially when the woman on the other side said religion had not enslaved her…which reinforced the atheists claim that women were being freed due to seperation of state and religion which was allowing women greater opportunities.

I am not really sure of the direction the theists panel was pursuing, but half the time if they weren’t insinuating they had the moral high ground, they seemed to be reinforcing the atheist stance which I thought would be counter productive to their goals within the debate.

The atheists need to consider toning down their big word usage so uneducated riff raff like myself have a better chance of understanding their statements without the need for a decoder ring.

Then again, I guess debates are geared more towards those who feel they are already knowledgeable in the particular subject, which kind of counts me out.