Christian Apologist Impersonates an Atheist, Atheists Respond

Apologist Sean McDowell posed as an atheist to teach Christian students how to debate atheists. It wasn’t a good idea. Here’s why.

Sean has been role-playing as an atheist for christian students for a while, but he recently stepped up the act, telling students in an apologetics class in a christian high school that he really is an atheist. He then held a Q&A where he discussed the multiverse and fine-tuning, biblical prophecy, consciousness and many other subjects related to theology and apologetics. The discourse between Christians and atheists is already strained, and while I think Sean wants to improve that discourse, acts like these are not the way. If we want to understand how someone thinks, we need to talk to them, not someone impersonating them.

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Sources:

Sean’s “Atheist Encounter” act

Sean’s follow-up video

This video contains 100% therapeutic grade skepticism.*

*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA

[DissedRedEngie]

"We wanted to teach what atheists are, so here's not an atheist"

[Mathewrath]

After i declared myself an atheist, my father said that he finally understood when a friend of his said that she would have preferred that her sons died than seeing them going further away from God. So basically my father told me that he wished that i died early as a christian, rather than live longly as an atheist. So much love in christianity.

[Funnysterste]

Imagine a debate between an atheist and a christian, while both playing the role of the other without knowing the opponent does the same.

[moseptyagami]

Him: uses a ton of atheist arguments
One of the Christian students: that actually makes sense, I think I’m an atheist now.
Him: wait-

[autonomouscollective]

The one thing Sean couldn’t do that an atheist will, is to say “I don’t know.” He *had* to give an answer to everything, no matter how cringe-worthy was the answer.

[miguelquintana]

The students should have known this guy was a Christian. He never says "I don't know".

[Paulogia]

It's not easy to take on 90+ minutes of content in 47 minutes. Well done! Proud to contribute a part.

[ayumi]

I’m a closeted atheist in a strict Muslim household. Thank you for your videos, they really inspire me to keep going on :)

[mattcraig]

This is such a terribly stupid exercise. “Here’s what an apologists thinks an atheist sounds like.” They’d be so much better off actually having an atheist come and speak to the class. What a waste of time and back patting exercise.

[MrRipley]

His atheist arguments still sound like he is a Christian. It’s odd.

[mr.f]

As an educator, it would be really weird for me to bring in a speaker who was pretending to be who they say they are. Why not just bring in a real atheist? His students were asking questions in good faith and were being gaslit by an impersonator.

[MrWynne-zbkp]

I'd honestly be so upset if I was talking to someone claiming to be an authority figure in a subject I am trying to understand more only for them to reveal it was an act and they didn't believe a thing they were saying. I came to the class with trust and now I'm going to not only have less answers to my posed questions, but I'm going to be skeptical about speakers and that class going forward. This only has the opposite effect of what he wanted.

[christiangraulau]

WHen I was like 13 I had a debate with myself where I was my normal Christian self and then I responded as an atheist to ask myself questions. I wasn't an Atheist but my caricature of an atheist literally ended up winning the debate

[pgbollwerk]

The biggest problem with the “fine tuning” argument is that the universe is very clearly NOT fine tuned for life. 99.99%+ of the universe is extremely unsuited for life. Even our tiny planet has vast regions that are unsuited to life. I don’t get how anyone thinks this is a good argument.

[Sasha-uper]

The thing with the fine tuning argument, is that the environment we live in has never changed for life, life has always changed for the environment. The reason we "fit so perfectly" into our environment is that those who do not fit so perfectly did not survive and life has evolved and adapted to the environment.

[MorganHorse]

Can we mention how disturbing it is that there are essentially anti-atheism classes at some high schools.

[ddiamond]

Every time I watch this video I always have the same two thoughts a second after each other:
1) that's actually pretty dope! They're trying to represent the other side as best they can without actually inviting an atheist!
2) wait... why not just actually invite an atheist?

[dyamonde]

he might be roleplaying an Atheist, but he still argues like an Apologist. Apologist Arguments usually only come in one of three flavors: based on false information, based on logical fallacies, or based on pure semantics.

[c_archive]

How is the universe "fined tuned" for us? We have one tiny speck of it and outside of that we will literally die. It's almost like we adapted to the surroundings or something.

[Othique]

Something that stuck with me was how when that girl said "I didn't understand anything you were talking about, why would they go through all that instead of just believing in god?"

And I'm floored by it.
Instead of taking it as an opportunity to study something they don't know about... they think "it's so much easier to give up and just believe in god".

Congrats... that's exactly why you're stuck in a cult.
This is why your own bible calls you sheep.