Hey all, I've been dying to get onto this site, just so I could find some people to discuss this sort of thing. I'm new here, and no doubt this has probably already been discussed in previous threads but I haven't waded through everything so here goes. I was extremely moved about a month ago in, of all places, a Target when I overheard a young girl professing the benefits of Satanism to some guy who seemed to be nodding his head becuase she was more than fairly attractive. I was overcome by a sense to lovingly confront her, but quickly realized that, being young in walk with Christ, (even at *shudder* 28!) I had no real argument ready to dispute whatever claims she might have made, and quickly busied myself in pretending to be interested in housewares. This profound realization of my own religious ignorance made me dive into research, and my faith and fire was quickly restored after zipping through Lee Strobel's [i]The Case for Faith[/i] in only two days. It was everything I needed. Right around this time, A debate on Nightline (I think May 9th) between the so-called [i]Rational Response Squad[/i] and Christian advocates Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort was staged in a Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan -- Anybody happen to see this? I did, and walked away shaking my head. Although the pair of Atheists were certainly no great credit to Atheism, and offered absolutely no evidence (in my opnion) that refutes the existence of God, I was appalled by the performance of Cameron and Comfort. The crowd at the debate, judging from the interviews done on Nightline, was a vast majority atheist, and stayed that way. The point I'm coming to is that all this lead me learn in the past few weeks that over the past few years, a series of manifestos from a "new school of Atheism", have hit bookstore shelves in the form of Richard Dawkins (who I like to call "Big Dick"), Sam Harris, Bertrand Russell and the like. While I'm glad to see the Christian Apologetic camp responding (Lee Strobel, R.C. Metcalf, James A. Beverly and the like), I'd been wanting to discuss this with the people on this board -- thoughts on the debate, Theism and Atheism in general. I'm currently reading "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins (it's good to know what arguments are made by the other side) -- This guy needs to stick to Evolutionary Biology.

Post edited by: Kreator, at: 2007/06/13 02:43

I need to star working on my apologetics! Mypraize forums has made me realize how much I lack (a lot)...so thanks for the enlightening on my current state of ignorance..... By the way Kreator, thanks for putting up this thread, made me interested in finding out how to defend my faith better.... :) What's a good book to start reading with?