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Permalink Reply by Kevin Ullmann on November 17, 2011 at 6:08pm

If you're talking to a mostly religious audience, I'd actually focus on why it's likely that the major monotheisms are all incorrect (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and how if you believe one over the other, you are making an arbitrary choice. I think the point that these religions cannot all be correct, and further that none of them are, is an easier point to make then the absence of a deity entirely. This will get them warmed up to the idea that religion is wrong, and you can end your talk by saying something like, now that you can see how weak of a foundation these three religions stand on, it's not a big leap to dismiss the idea of God altogether. You can suggest that at the very least, one should be skeptical of God's existence.

If you're set on trying to go straight for the jugular, though, and persuade people that there is no God, I would go with the idea that positing the existence of God doesn't actually help us explain anything. That's a pretty rich topic, because you can talk about how evolution explains biodiversity, different theories of abiogenesis, and different theories about how the universe came into being. Make sure to mention that it doesn't make more sense to assume that God exists and created the universe from nothing than to just say the universe itself was created from nothing. 

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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 18, 2011 at 2:24am

I definitely thought about discussing not just the Christian myths but Islamism and all of those but I only have 5 or so minutes and I don't want to jumble up my speech. I'll probably just some all of it up in to 'religion.' I want to say "my enemy isn't the faithful, my enemy is the faith.' I think that's a powerful line. I'll probably post a few paragraphs of my speech up to see what you guys think

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Permalink Reply by Adolfo Henrique Wernke on November 17, 2011 at 6:31pm

Talk about thermodynamics and evolution. Ya know, the primary concept of an almighty being coming out of itself going against the natural evolution as an introduction.

Then, you can talk about all the paradoxes of faith, the fact that holy books were written by guys who lived 5 thousand years ago (i guess it is 5, but i might be wrong), and if one of them is an evolutionist, talk about the formation of universe - the face those people make is delightful.

Don't forget to talk about all the bloody details about Church's history.

Good luck! 

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Permalink Reply by Adolfo Henrique Wernke on November 17, 2011 at 6:53pm

oh, btw, i meant "and if one of them is an creationist", not evolutionist :P

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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 18, 2011 at 2:36am

        I know a lot about evolution and I'd love to discuss in detail why evolution makes more sense, but my class is full of people that are not too science oriented and I'd be worried I'd lose their attention. I may have chosen too detailed of a topic to try to persuade people haha. There's so much to say in such a short amount of time! 

        My main point I want to make is that the intricacies of the universe are too wonderful to waste your time not wanting to find out more. I want to stress that there's so much more outside of the confines of religion. I also want to talk about how religion is destructive to a society. 

       I also want to discuss how morals aren't created through religion, that they are very likely brought about by a growing society and are synonymous with evolution.

 Like I said... too broad maybe.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Crisp on November 17, 2011 at 8:35pm

You will have a better chance at persuading them to apply reason than converting them, so to speak. Choose your material carefully. Not sure if you have read or watched Christopher Hitchens but, maybe watch some of his debates on YouTube. He and Sam Harris are very good at public debates. They hit on a lot of basics that the Christians tend to overlook. Good luck and please post your results. I would like to know how you did.

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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 18, 2011 at 2:39am

I only ever watch Richard Dawkins, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens videos. I love YouTube for those videos. I've spent countless hours watching everything I can. I am most inspired by Dr. Tyson because I'm a nut for astronomy. Thank you for the ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Gorey on November 17, 2011 at 11:42pm

here is some reference material:

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/whynotchrist...

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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 18, 2011 at 2:39am

Awesome!! Thank you very much, Greg. 

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Permalink Reply by Greg Gorey on November 18, 2011 at 1:54pm

No problem Keath. Just remember to stick to your guns and make 3-4 outlined points and back them up. Given how people think, this is the most effective way of doing something. 

 

Good luck by the way.

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Permalink Reply by Lewal on November 18, 2011 at 12:40am

I did this. My persuasive arguments revolved around my audience's practicing religion being pointless, basically because it was dying out. I gave them a brief history of Christianity to show them how they ended up being Christian and then proceeded to show them why Christianity was dying:

1) A "watering down" of the faith in an attempt to survive in an ever-changing and increasingly progressive society (using Catholicism's becoming indistinguishable from Protestantism as an example of faith dilution, and using gay rights as an example of America's becoming more progressive-- any perceived threat that things are changing should adequately shake them).

2) how the masses were made privy to information only the privileged had been prior to the dawn of the age of information. Heavily implying without specifically stating that our society's becoming more intellectual as a result means that less people stay dumb and therefore less people believe in gods. And then remind them that the chances of their children retaining their faith throughout adolescence, much less into adulthood, are increasingly lower and lower. I'm pretty sure I also said the sentence "I'm sorry Christians, but you're dying out the way of the Native Americans" when I was talking about religion being culturally delegated to isolated regions (like the bible belt). Anything to make them feel like that society will soon ostracize them into extinction. The basic idea is "You can swim against the current, but you can't change the tide, and the tide is no longer in your favor".

3) and then I just threw up a bunch of graphs. Polls and surveys showing the rapid decline of Christianity in America in recent years.

 

This should open any on-the-fencers' eyes to a new perspective. But to the religious, this approach may come off as a bit arrogant. So prepare to profess complete confusion at the notion that you've offended anyone.

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Permalink Reply by Keath Vickery on November 18, 2011 at 2:44am

Hahaha dude, my hat goes off to you. I'm proud of my atheism but I feel way too damned secluded in Oklahoma to say things like that to a definitely 100% christian audience. It's awesome you've done this though. How long did you talk for?

 

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