Debating Creationism

"Debating Creationists on the topic of Evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."
- Scott D. Weitzenhoffer

Its a good point, and very true to anyone who has slogged through that 3.5 hour conversation at the various family holidays.  It takes one sentence to say "Radiocarbon dating is unreliable" and several pages or even volumes to explain how it works and is, in fact, as reliable as any other established scientific procedure.  You dont see Creationists debating XRay technology with their physician presenting them with their prognosis.


In my experience the best thing one can do is avoid topics neither participant is an "expert" in, and keep the conversation as biblically focussed as possible.  Ask them to explain the various apparent contradictions in the Bible, and focus on real life examples of the bible either being silent or flat out wrong.  "How exactly is an appendix an "intelligent design" ?  Why do I need glasses exactly?  Why wont God heal amputees?  Why doesnt God reveal himself to people...is he shy? Nervous?  Can create the whole physical universe but has trouble with the whole materializing thing?

One particularly powerful statment and something generally difficult to refute is "If God puts together marriages in Christian Churches, why is the divorce rate equally as high among christians as non christians?"    Why is the instance of child abuse higher among priests than almost any other group in society?  etc.  They are old but very difficult to refute.  The fun ones I like are the paradoxes of the almighty: "can god make a machine so complicated even he cant comprehend it?"  If God is bigger than the universe, Does he have to wait 6 trillion lightyears to see his hands?  If so, why couldnt he have made light faster, or the universe smaller?

etc. Enjoy!