Welcome mate.
If you intend to engage Muslims in discussions I would suggest the following. Stick solely to Islamic sources or reputable academic names when quoting infomation and problematic Ideas. The reason is that Muslims easily dismiss non-muslim sources as a Jewish conspiracy or the devils agenda against Islam. It can really derail a discussion. I suggest avoid dropping names/links like Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina etc. Their works may have some valid Info but make sure you can find the Infomation in traditional Islamic sources and just mention them.
Works that led me to find Islam faulty was learning Islamic History. The formation of the religion, the tradition accounts themselves are damning. Hadiths and Hadith compilations, reading the works of Four main Imams as well as Al Ghazali and Ibn Taymiyyah etc.
It's not so easy to just quote Quran and Hadith, They have invented devious ways to shift goal posts and present strawmen/red herrings.
The most popular is the need to undertand classical Arabic and Context. Or the Quran not negating reality.
An excellent resource I think are the following youtube channels.
The Jinn and Tonic Show
Therationalizer
Klingschor
CaptainDisguise and StopSpamming1
I also recommend reading works by popular Muslim apologists and research what they say, you'll realise that they talk out their asses and bring it up with Muslims you have discussions with.
I've watched alot of the atheist experience shows and the callers on their sound pretty much hold identical reasoning to what you will encounter with Muslims.
http://youtu.be/7gfl0pPPrdA In this, the caller I suspect is a muslim and be prepared to feel a similar level of frustration to Matt. His patience is admirable. I know first hand, you will at one point come down this tedious road.
Peace.
Hey man thanks for the tips, right now I'm in the process of learning not ready to debate anyone much except Christians haha. I generally won't bring up other faiths except to expose reasoning fallacies, i.e. I posted a discussion here where I was talking to a Christian and she said the Hebrews were justified in their wars and mass slaughter on other tribes because those tribes were sinful and I used Islam to put that idea under scrutiny, I said if you are going to say that you have to make the same accommodations for Muhammad as well to be consistent you can read the thing here
http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=22903.0. I mainly used it to show that there are other viewpoints outside of your own and you have to show how yours is correct and theirs are not.
I'm well aware that theists like to weave webs, Christians do it too they just do it differently. They mainly attack your interpretation or understanding of a verse, at its core the language card by Muslims is the same I think. I think knowing how to spin your own webs is good in debates, knowing what the doctrine is helps with that haha. If you can get them to admit something before you bring up a point or even after sometime i.e. The Quran is for all people, it introduces a logical fallacy with the Classical Arabic claim (4.2% of the population speaks contemporary arabic). When debating I think that the goal should be to make a good argument not necessarily to convince. The Japanese strategy game of Go kind of lays out the principles of what I just said. Go is a very easy game to learn, it just involves placing stones on a board and the rule is to capture territory thats it. But its very difficult to master, you have to know how to properly set your opponent up and trap them make moves that make seem insignificant at first but have large implications later on. Getting into the Go mindset in debates can be useful (I recommend everyone play Go by the way)
Anyways thanks for the tips I'll definitely look into the resources you mentioned and think about the dilemmas you stated
PS anyone interested in learning to play Go can download a client for free here and play against the computer
http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/glgo/download.htmlThere is a tutorial on how to play here
http://www.gokgs.com Strategy games often help the mind develop strategies in real world applications
Topic: Hello everyone :)