Anon, i believe you were engaging with atheists in the wrong way.

While not every atheist requires this (eg: atheists who are live-and-let-live, atheists who keep their beliefs private), there are some outspoken and combative atheists who I've engaged and defeated them completely and identified the patterns they use (they never go outside of them). It's very simple.

First: you need to understand that atheism has zero (0) arguments that haven't been defeated resoundingly already. Their best argument, "the problem of evil", stems from ignorance and unwillingness to learn the scripture they're arguing against (plus when they use "God", that means the whole scripture can now be used against their reasoning, and it's a matter of you of simply having a well-versed biblical faith).

Secondly: every whine = ignore. every complaint = mostly ignore. Every assertion = ask them to provide evidence for their claim. A lot of combative atheist try to control the argument, and you don't let them do this by quickly and immediately pointing out their fallacies and red herrings (otherwise you're going to be dragging yourself through their mud - don't go there. know your line and don't cross it). Additionally, with combative ones, to save time never let a question you ask go unanswered. Ignore everything they reply with (which will likely be more questions or more assertions) and just say "since you're not interested in answering questions, but more interested in talking at people there's no point continuing"

Thirdly: i can see by your unstructured and rambling post that your throwing out a lot of loose ends that can let people jump on to attack you. It's stupid. You need to keep your words tight, and provide no loose end you can't cover, and they will try latch on to that, but there will be no gaps for them to get in.

I fought successfully and victoriously in the 2005-2015 new-atheism battles. I will admit i was a bit rambling in 2005, with the sword (the word of God) cutting both me and them. But by 2010 i was cutting them more than me. by 2015 it was only them getting cut. It was a 10 year battle that massively leaped me to levels of faith i had never known to exist before. And where i stand now i can say there are still yet higher levels to attain and especially: unless you're looking to grow your faith and live as Christ asked, engaging with atheists that way is likely to end up doing more damage than good.

Anon, i believe you were engaging with atheists in the wrong way.

While not every atheist requires this (eg: atheists who are live-and-let-live, atheists who keep their beliefs private), there are some outspoken and combative atheists who I've engaged and defeated them completely and identified the patterns they use (they never go outside of them). It's very simple.

First: you need to understand that atheism has zero (0) arguments that haven't been defeated resoundingly already. Their best argument, "the problem of evil", stems from ignorance and unwillingness to learn the scripture they're arguing against (plus when they use "God", that means the whole scripture can now be used against their reasoning, and it's a matter of you of simply having a well-versed biblical faith).

Secondly: every whine = ignore. every complaint = mostly ignore. Every assertion = ask them to provide evidence for their claim. A lot of combative atheist try to control the argument, and you don't let them do this by quickly and immediately pointing out their fallacies and red herrings (otherwise you're going to be dragging yourself through their mud - don't go there. know your line and don't cross it). Additionally, with combative ones, to save time never let a question you ask go unanswered. Ignore everything they reply with (which will likely be more questions or more assertions) and just say "since you're not interested in answering questions, but more interested in talking at people there's no point continuing"

Thirdly: i can see by your unstructured and rambling post that your throwing out a lot of loose ends that can let people jump on to attack you. It's stupid. You need to keep your words tight, and provide no loose end you can't cover, and they will try latch on to that, but there will be no gaps for them to get in.

I fought successfully and victoriously in the 2005-2015 new-atheism battles. I will admit i was a bit rambling in 2005, with the sword (the word of God) cutting both me and them. But by 2010 i was cutting them more than me. by 2015 it was only them getting cut. It was a 10 year battle that massively leaped me to levels of faith i had never known to exist before. And where i stand now i can say there are still yet higher levels to attain.