Counter-Evangelism: Home > Debate forums



Online places to debate with hardcore Christians

by Diane Vera


Copyright © 2003 by Diane Vera. All rights reserved.



Below are forums intended for debate between Christians and non-Christians, or for debate among people of different religions generally. Some are obviously run by Christians. Others are obviously run by non-Christians, predominantly atheists. Still others are run by people who are very good at appearing neutral, at least at first glance.

  1. Online forums run by non-Christians
  2. Online forums run by Christians
  3. Other inter-religion debate forums, not yet classified
  4. Other lists of links to inter-religion debate forums

If you're a non-Christian, it's probably best to get your initial practice in the forums that are obviously run by non-Christians, where you will be freer to speak your mind than in forums run by Christians. When debating in Christian-run forums, you will, in most cases, be constrained by the need to be ultra-polite in order to avoid being kicked out. (Of course, a reasonable degree of politeness is desirable even in the non-Christian-run forums, if you want the Christians there to listen to you at all.)

If you choose to debate with Christians, either online or in person, please share with us both your triumphs and your frustations in my counter-evangelism email group -- which is, itself, NOT a place to debate with Christians but rather a place to talk about counter-evangelism strategies.


  1. Online forums run by non-Christians

    Unless otherwise noted, the owners appear to be atheists.

    A. Yahoo email groups:

    B. Other kinds of online forums:


  2. Online forums run by Christians

    A. Yahoo email groups:

    • apologia -· apologetics list. Calvinist-dominated.
    • AdultChristianDebate - run by a Calvinist, but participants include a variety of Christians. (AdultChristianDebate is the "companion discussion group" to ChristianDebate, a restricted-membership forum which, I suspect, probably does not allow non-Christians to post.)
    • religious-discussion, "a place where people can come to discuss different religious beliefs." Run by a Christian, though this fact is not announced in the group description. Most of the posts are by Muslims.
    • Christian_Sword - run by an independent Baptist.  Most posts are devoted to religious right wing political views rather than religion per se.
    • cwback42 · Christianity and the search for truth. Small, intellectual, Calvinist-dominated.
    • satansdeception - Christians preaching, primarily to Satanists. (Listed under the "Satanism" category on Yahoo.) Not very intellectual, to say the least. Largely abandoned these days.
    • Catholic Questions - Discussion on the Catholic Church - for "Catholics and non-Catholics." Big group, but I'm not yet sure whether and to what extent it welcomes debate with non-Christians, or just with non-Catholic Christians.

    B. Other kinds of online forums:


  3. Other inter-religion debate forums, not yet classified

    In the following forums, the religion/worldview of the owner is not immediately apparent from the forum description (and I haven't yet investigated the forum enough to find out). If/when I find out the religion/worldview of the owner of any of these forums, I'll move it to the appropriate category above.

    A. Yahoo email groups:

    B. Other kinds of online forums:


  4. Other lists of links to inter-religion debate forums