Debate Killers: How Theists Avoid Honest Debate

This morning I ran across a great article at atheism.about.com. It outlines many different ways in which theists, when presented with the opportunity to have a rational discussion with atheists regarding the question of God, instead insist on approaches that effectively end the debate before it even begins. Below is a quick summary of the "Debate Killer" tactics often employed by theists:

Presume to Instruct Us that We're "Really" Agnostics, Not Atheists

Presume to Preach and Proselytize, As If We Needed It

Commit Obvious and Egregious Logical Fallacies

Try to "Prove" Something By Quoting the Bible

Threaten Us With Damnation or Say Atheism is a "Bad Bet"

Pretend that You Don't Have the Burden of Proof

Cut & Paste Arguments From Others That You Can't Defend

Ignore What We Say and Pretend that We Didn't Just Object to that Argument

Offer That Same Argument Again That We've Refuted a Million Times

Announce That You'll Be Praying for Us

(Details of each tactic can be found in the original article.)

Now Austin Cline, the author of the above referenced article, takes the tack that these tactics are "errors", and states that "These errors can be avoided if theists know about them in advance and care.".

Apparently, Austin has never attempted to debate with Ray Comfort.

Ray, as well as his more prolific sycophants, know full well what they are doing when they employ these tactics. It's not an "error" on their part at all...it's a concerted effort to divert the dialogue away from rationality - where they know they are weak - and into an area where their "arguments" are unassailable, because such quaint notions as "logic" simply don't apply.

In short, while some theists may indeed employ these tactics erroneously, believing they are legitimate dialectic strategies, many of them employ them knowing full well that they are illegitimate and will only derail honest debate...and do so with precisely that end in mind.