The big list of atheist gotchas

By Gene X. Christian

This week I was listening to Seth Andrews, The Thinking Atheist, on his podcast and he went into a mini-rant about things that are said to atheists on a regular basis.

In this episode, Seth had a conversation with a caller who felt that engagement with believers who question his atheism was feeding their onslaught of low-quality questions about his unbelief.

Seth’s response?

“You don’t owe them an answer. You can give it if you want. But you’re not there to keep them comfortable, you don’t have to make them happy, you don’t have to satisfy any gaps in their knowledge, you choose to or don’t choose to — if they want to believe, fine, the burden of proof is on them. You can get on with your day for what it’s worth.”

— Seth Andrews, The Thinking Atheist, “Jamie Fox is Blessed” December 30, 2024

Without further delay, here is but a sampling of statements thrown at atheists by believers (usually Christians).

The Big List of Atheist ‘Gotchas’

• I’m not a monkey. You people believe we came from monkeys.
• Evolution is just a theory.
• It takes more faith to be an atheist.
• You have just as much faith in science.
• You were never a true Christian in the first place because if you had been a Christian you would have never left Christianity.
• You took this verse out of context.
• It was a different time.
• You need the Holy Spirit to guide you into the proper meaning.
• Science cannot explain X, so God must have done it.
• I had a personal experience and you can’t tell me it didn’t happen and that it wasn’t real.
• Better safe than sorry. Pascal’s Wager: I would rather believe and be wrong because even then, what have I wasted?
• How did something come nothing?
• The human eye is too complex to have evolved.
• Scientist X is a Christian. He believes in God. You say you believe in science? Listen to that scientist.
• All religions deserve respect.
• The United States was founded by Christians as a Christian nation.
• They discovered Noah’s Ark on a mountain in the Middle East.
• There are no atheists in foxholes.
• If it’s not true why has it been around for thousands of years?
• Ignore the Old Testament, read the New Testament.
• Where do you get your morals from?
• Hitler was an atheist.
• You want to kill God so you can be your own god.
• It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.
• Darwin had a deathbed conversion. Even Darwin accepted Jesus and rejected ‘On the Origin of Species’, his own book he discarded as false before he went to be with the lord.
• I had a near death/after death experience.
• There are no transitional fossils.
• Prove God doesn’t exist.
• Science is a religion.
• Why are you stealing my joy?
• For someone who doesn’t believe in God you sure talk about Him an awful lot.
• You may not believe in Jesus, but He believes in you.
• Just look at the trees, flowers, etc. There has to be a Creator for all of this.
• If Christianity isn’t true, what is the year?
• The bible wasn’t written by men. It was written down on tablets/papyrus/parchment/scrolls/codices. The word was spoken directly by God.
• If there is no God, then what is the point of life?
• You just want to sin.
• There are so many copies of manuscripts that the Bible must be true.
• L:ogic won’t help you understand God who is beyond comprehension.
• [That version of the bible] isn’t the right version to use to read the scripture properly.
• The bible is inerrant and 100 percent literally true.
• You are interpreting that literally; that passage is metaphorical.
• Why do atheists celebrate [insert religion-adjacent holiday name] if they don’t believe in God?
• Atheism is a religion.
• Your judgement is clouded by rationality.
• I know the bible is true because it says so in the bible.

This list will be added to over time, so feel free to shoot me your favorites and I will update this list. In time, we can dive into each of these deeper.

Published on 2025-01-04

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