I have been watching a lot of debates between atheists and theists and I have come to the conclusion that there is a problem. I am not sure what it is exactly, but something is nagging me. It seems to me that the atheist is always at a disadvantage. The titles of these debates are evidence in favor of this. Also, it seems that atheism is synonymous as naturalism or that it is Christianity vs. atheism. Atheism is not a religion that has morality codes attached to it like Christianity, therefore why are these two even paired? Finally, if a Xtian asked me if I believe in God or what is my evidence for the nonexistence for God or gods I would simply ask-- what god? I do not mean to play stupid or be a smart ass, but seriously what are you talking about? What God? The universe is one thing and gravity another, but this narrowly defined being-- come on! Is not obvious to these people that there god is made up and they are debating beliefs that have no bearing on this thing's existence or nonexistence. Please, give me some input so I do not think I am the only person that thinks this whole us versus them thing is ridiculous.

It is ridiculous, indeed. Theism vs. atheism are just two ways of seeing the same reality. As you mentioned, Christianity has morality codes attached to its beliefs. So, Christians feel insecurity or a threat to their morality when someone denies the foundations of Christianity.

I made a few posts in this forum. I grew up as an atheist and accepted Christianity later in my life. I admit, the reason I made the posts was the feeling of insecurity in my own beliefs. So, reading and making the posts made me think a lot about my own beliefs. I am thankful to this website, because now I found very good reasons *for myself* to believe in Christ. I realized what it really means *to me*. It does not matter what other people think, whether Christ was a real person or not and whether any of the events in the Bible took place. If Christ exists only in my mind and my heart, that's very much real and good enough *for me*. Christianity helps me to make and justify my decisions and makes me happier. That's all that matters *to me*. If atheism does the same for atheists - I'm cool with that.

Although the specific debates are rather meaningless, I still find this forum useful, because it helps each party to justify their own ideas in their own eyes. Internet is a great place for these debates. In person it might get more ugly. I have a friend in a forestry service who took survival classes. They were instructed that two topics are an absolute tabu for a group of people in a lifeboat or a similar survival situation - politics and religion. Stick to women and sports. It's a lot safer.

Here are a few quotes about argument and debate which both sides may enjoy.

http://www.bored.com/findquotes/cate_534_Argument&Debate.html

I think the tendency to pair an postion against a whole religion has more to do with the misconception on the part of many christian theist that atheism actually is a religion. After all, the phrase "It takes more faith to be an Atheist than to believe in god" is fairly popular amongst Christians. I believe these debates are arranged to cater to the Christian audiences who truly believe atheism is a religion of sorts.

You must also remember that many believers are taught to believe that the existence of god is contingent on the truth of ALL other beliefs attached to it. This is why they tend to try to argue for the existence of god by arguing for the truth of the extra beliefs regardless of whether or not they are logically connected.