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A conversational atheist is a person who engages and challenges people – that he both agrees and disagrees with — in an effective way.

A conversational atheist takes the time to understand what “the other side” really thinks and why.

A conversational atheist can clearly explain his own thought processes to himself and others.

A conversational atheist is a person that can engage in a compelling and thought-provoking encounter without the interaction devolving into a fireball.

Nonbelievers who seek to engage religious folk, tend to honestly care about the nonsense and very bad things that flow from superstitious thought: religious and otherwise. While this is great for motivation and spurring action, this mindset is less useful for holding a productive conversation. The holders of beliefs that you find dangerous and absurd most likely honestly hold those beliefs with good intentions. This is an important point to continually remind yourself this fact if you want to be effective, it helps to keep you calm and focused. If your goal is to be effective and have a positive impact on the world, engaging every person that you disagree with as though he is a complete idiot is less than useful.

So, how do you state things in ways that forcefully attack the ideas without attacking the person?
This site contains some long arguments, some short arguments, some quick questions, some weird and interesting questions, some brief stories, some conversation starters, a bit about arguing in general, a bit about tactics…
It should go without saying that being a quick and logical thinker to begin with is an indispensable tool in the belt of an able conversational debater. Often, when dealing with how to argue with people, sites will link to a long list of logical fallacies.  While it is definitely useful to know when you or others are making logical mistakes, many of the arguments I've seen tend to involve people talking past each other. To address that end, I’ve started listing a few Tactics in how to maneuver in religious discussions.
I also have a number of essays that are intended to be thought provoking and conversation starting.

General Essays: -- Topics that relate to religious belief in general

Christianity: -- Topics specifically related to Christianity

Islam: -- Topics specifically related to Islam

Challenges: -- Responses to arguments and frequent challenges

References: -- Useful bits of information that should be readily available

I’ll be posting more essays, tactics, and general references in the near future.

Many of these arguments will be fairly unique, or at least use a unique approach.

The main point of this website is not the arguments in particular; although by themselves it should be an interesting repository — especially if you are just starting out.

Feel free to use as many arguments that you find useful or interesting as often as you like. It’s useful to have an outline of the thoughts already written out for you, but I’m not looking to make clones of myself with everyone parroting the same exact arguments. The point is to give you the skills, methods, thought processes, and tactics to handle arguments as you encounter them — AND TO GO OUT THERE AND ENGAGE PEOPLE.

Here are a few things to think about as you journey into the wide world and engage people of all kinds of beliefs.

Beginning Considerations:

First consider the audience -- who are you arguing with, and who is hearing your interaction.

Arguing with your parents requires different considerations than arguing with a street preacher on the corner.

Second, decide who you are trying to convince. If you are talking in a setting with an audience, perhaps you aren't trying to convince the person you're arguing with -- but the people who are listening.

Third, and very important, find out what the person you are talking with ACTUALLY believes.

Fourth, stay focused on making statements and arguments that he would fundamentally have an issue with; i.e. consider what kinds of things would be most compelling/devastating to their worldview. Ask yourself, "if I could convince this person that this point is true, could he say, 'all right, so what?' If so, stop arguing that point!"

Fifth, make the most defensible claim that you can (which is often a weaker claim than you may initially want to argue).  An example of this: Mohammad's moral example could be improved.

If you want to get better at interacting, conversing, arguing and debating with theists you have to get out there and engage people.

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