Debates are another important part of being an atheist. You have a different point of view than most people around you. Reason why, it's common to expect you may get some theists trying to refute that point of view. Most of them do it because they feel threatened that someone doesn't follow the same things they do, and others do it because they want to "save you." Fun fact: some of them would rarely attack people of other faiths. They feel like they're disrespectful if they do.
Things you need before having debates:
Read as much as you can of at least the three major religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism): When debating someone, is better to know as much as you can of that person. If you don't you may have times that you won't be able to answer a question, because you haven't read anything about that religion. Even though, no one knows everything.
Watch debates: Sometime you can learn facts, arguments, or claims that could be used against a theist/atheist. You may even learn things while watching debates. I'd recommend watching debates of: Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Neil D. Tyson, or Christopher Hitchens. There's more atheists that are actually pretty good doing debates. I just gave my favorites.
Tips:
Be tolerant: Sometimes when I'm debating, I tend to get a little stressed, because people say things that are ridiculous and don't make no sense at all. Even though, I try to calm myself when I'm debating so I don't say something that I may have to apologize later.
Burden of proof: Always remember that if you're going to give a claim, you must have proof of that claim. Obviously, the burden of proof when it comes to the existence of god(s), doesn't fall on you. Falls on the believer.
Different fallacies:
God of the gaps: Is a very common fallacy used by believers. In this fallacy, believers say "God did it" when they don't know something. Example: a teacher is talking about evolution. Evolution only explains how life on Earth has evolved over time. Then, this kid is curious to know how the first living things were created. The teacher doesn't know the answer, and the kid says: "God created the first living things/God created all of us. We didn't evolve."
Appeal to authority fallacy: Sometimes people say: "X guy said that Z is real. Therefore, Z is real." But, if X doesn't have proof to support his claim, no one will believe what X said. Not because someone said so, it means that's the truth.
Pascal's wager: This one is quite popular. It states that it's better to be a theist, because if there's a God, you will go to heaven. If there isn't, you will just die. But, if you're an atheist and there's a God, you will go to hell. This is erroneous, because there's more than 3000 gods being worshipped right now. If we add the gods that were possibly worshipped ages ago, we may have more than that. So, being an atheist, or being a believer will have the same amount of probabilities of going to hell.
Intelligent design: A.K.A creationism with a cheap tuxedo. It may be the most common one that you will hear about. Intelligent design says that because the universe, and everything in it is so complex, that it all must have a designer. This is mostly used by Creationists, and young Earth creationists. The biggest fallacy with this one is: the designer's paradox. If the universe is so complex and needed a designer, that designer must be more complex than it's creation. So, who's the designer of the designer? Who's the designer of the designer of the designer? and so on.
Anecdotal fallacy: Some people like using anecdotes as evidence of existence of their god(s). When giving evidence, anecdotes don't count as evidence that much. In this case, anecdotes could be made up, and are a type of evidence that could be used by anyone. Saying anecdotes are real evidence for the proof of a god(s), could mean that all gods are real.
There's obviously a lot of fallacies. I just mentioned the most common. This will be digital, so any of you can just click the link/copy them.
List of most common logical fallacies: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/eng207-td/Logic%20and%20Analysis/most_common_logical_fallacies.htm
LIst of most common religious fallacies: http://www.examiner.com/article/classic-religious-fallacies
List of fallacies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
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An Atheist Perspective: Life, Death, & Everything in Between
Non-FictionIn this book, I would try to give advices to any new atheists. Even though, it's directed to new atheists, anyone is welcomed to read it.
