can one debate religion?

[ungoliant]

due to the fantastical nature of religion, the fictional nature and the magical elements, is it proper to debate it?

what i mean is, one can't prove a negative, how can one prove something fantastical?

there are some things that cannot be proved, wouldn't something like religion be one?

[ReFLeX]

18th rule of skepticism: If there are claims, then we will debate them.

[Just thinking]

Perhaps what ungoliant is questioning is whether or not one can have a proper debate with some religious types. They do not look objectively upon their religion or its claims in a manner consistant with non-spiritual reality. Many times they already have an established conclusion and selectively pick and interpret evidence so that it supports same, unlike science which collects all available evidence and draws conclusions from the former -- even to the point of changing the conclusion with the introduction of new evidence. And the amount of woo needed to support some religious claims is many times (for some of us) simply too much to accept without anything more than metaphoric reference.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

[RandFan]

It's damn difficult. However there are enough folks like myself around who benefited from such debates and I was one who suffered from magical thinking. Yeah, keep debating. Try to keep the debates respectful and low key. Move it more to a discussion if you can. That was the strategy of one atheist who played a big part in my conversion.

[Belz...]

Perhaps what ungoliant is questioning is whether or not one can have a proper debate with some religious types. They do not look objectively upon their religion or its claims in a manner consistant with non-spiritual reality.

The same can be said of homeopaths and other non-religious woo.

[ReFLeX]

Perhaps what ungoliant is questioning is whether or not one can have a proper debate with some religious types.Perhaps, but the the 18th rule is more of a truth than a command.