In my many conversations with apologists, Bible thumpers, and the extremely pious; I've found that the most effective way to "win" starts off by showing that the argument for a) the existence of god, and b) the god they believe in, require completely different proofs. Former apologist John Loftus writes about it in his blog 'Debunking Christianity' as well. Numerous nonbelievers, like Sam Harris, successfully use the same strategy.

The Proof for Deism

Arguing for the existence of god is called "natural theology", or deism. This god relies on gaps in scientific knowledge. We should have no problem on a practical level with this. Until those gaps are filled, this god will always exist. So, arguing against deism is basically useless because either way it won't matter.

The Proof for Christianity

But Christianity is something completely different. Christianity does not rely on gaps in scientific knowledge. It relies specifically on whether the Gospel accounts of miracle stories attributed to Jesus are true. Just establish this obvious distinction first.

Soon, I will place another post up for the next step, which is simply the basic argument for why we should reject Christianity. But if you want to watch a short version of it, here's how Sam Harris did it at the La Ciudad de las Ideas debate earlier this year.

The other day Jesus graced me with a parking spot at the local supermarket. Hallelujah! It really is wonderful that we have a God that loves us so much that He can grace us with things most people take for granted, like the occasional parking spot, and that leads me to what this meditation is about. I’m not shy about praising the Lord.

It’s okay to speak about religion positively, but it’s not okay to criticize it. In fact, it’s a social taboo. It’s a taboo that God Himself put into our social relations.

From what I understand, every major critic of religion out there needs to hire security. Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (former Muslim), and many others, all need to protect themselves from the righteous. Poor nonbelievers. If you would only believe in our ancient Bronze Age stories, you wouldn’t need to protect yourselves, now would you?

Speaking of Sam Harris, let me show you how deluded an unbeliever is when debating against believers: