No we're not talking about oddly androgynous male anime characters in female clothing or lines by certain fish faced admirals...
But 'trap' questions you see religious apologists attempt to use. They try to get you to answer some seemingly innocuous question or series of them where they then try to 'trap' you by saying you've 'admitted' to something.
An example I've seen recently is when pointing out that even if the existence of Jesus is suspect from a historical perspective in that what very little record exists outside the Bible some of it is suspected to be faked and some of it is obviously not historians attesting to the existence of Jesus but rather talking about Jesus as they understand him from Christian sources which is why they are 10-20 years late.
So rather than prove Jesus for us they will say "well how do you know (historical figure) is real?"
If you answer due to the abundant historical and archaeological evidence they will try to turn that into 'witnesses' which they then of course try to turn into 'hundreds of witnesses saw Jesus xyz... Therefore you admit Jesus must be who he said!'
Yes, according to the Bible. Of course. That's how it works right?
Do you answer these trap questions? I generally don't. I instead point out that I've seen these trap questions before, I know what they're going to do, and I'm not going to fall for it and instead just turn it back around on them to actually prove whatever point they are trying to prove without trying to set some ridiculous 'trap' first.
But this of course leads to them crying 'you didn't answer the question!'
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We live in a world where a billion+ people will tell you that their religion is correct and that another religion followed by a billion+ people is absurd, and of course those of the other religion do the same. Despite this, the two religions would be essentially indistinguishable to an alien. They both use exactly the same set of arguments to claim to have reached the conclusion that they represent the absolute truth, which only shows that their "conclusion" is in fact an assumption that they attempt to rationalize through their own prejudices.
My phrase is regarding the Jesus character is" There is not one shred of contemporary evidence for the existence of the biblical Jesus, not one."
The ignorantly knowledgeable then riposte with "Josephus, Tacitus and the faintly erudite with Suetonius...all of which are either fakes,or, do not reference a "Jesus" none of which were contemporary.
Sadly most theists are ignorant about the origins, texts and history of their own religion.
Ray Comfort and Eric Hovind are the masters. Especially the man on the street videos.
rmfr
And what did Redd say in that prison movie?
"Ain't that the God Damn Truth."
rmfr
In almost all cases as described by the OP, somewhere in the conversation they attempt to derail or change the subject. If you stay alert for such tactics, you can put the onus back on them to stay on topic.
Put their feet to the fire, and do not let go.
My aunt's husband thinks like this :
Quran is distorted , we don't have access to real Quran(which is needless to say the true word of God).
The hell will be almost full and the heaven will be almost empty , most of people in the world are sinful.
Scientists like Stephen Hawking and Einstein won't go to hell since they didn't get familiar with the real Islam.
When our savior advents , the Moses of our time , people will convert by watching his miracles!!
-------
I asked him whether there will be AI bots in future which we can call them exactly humans.
He answered we may have soul and it's maybe possible by physics to describe those fractions of time when our soul is being separated from the body , BUT , we may have not soul and maybe technology is a testament of Dajal(an Apocalyptic monster warned in the Quran that will infiltrate to our brains and make us Evil)!!!!!!!
OMG , my poor cousins have to hear horror-genre stories all the time... :((( I have even worse stories to tell -_-
Semi-science TRAP!
My aunt's husband thinks like this :
"Quran is distorted , we don't have access to real Quran(which is needless to say the true word of God)."
Ask him how anyone can rationally assert something they admit they can knowing nothing about, because they have no access to it, is 'true'?
"The hell will be almost full and the heaven will be almost empty , most of people in the world are sinful."
*Then tell him this is demonstrably not a system a perfectly merciful deity would design, only a barbarically cruel and sadistic being would design such a system.
"Scientists like Stephen Hawking and Einstein won't go to hell since they didn't get familiar with the real Islam."
Ask him what the penalty is for apostasy in Islam?
"When our savior advents , the Moses of our time , people will convert by watching his miracles!!"
Just state plainly no they won't, the explain that any claim made without even a pretence of evidence can be dismissed in the same fashion.
"maybe technology is a testament of Dajal(an Apocalyptic monster warned in the Quran that will infiltrate to our brains and make us Evil)"
Well ask him again what evidence he can demonstrate to support this claim? Why should anyone give it any credence at all.
I had that kind of conversation with him when i was in a crisis of faith.
Actually He is the most secular and the most educated in my whole fundamentalist family -_- . I don't know what might be the consequences of planting seeds of doubt in his mind while others remain superstitious and ignorant.
One of my cousins became an obvious apostate years ago and was excluded from the family.We shall be thankful to God Almighty he is still alive(I think so? , haven't seen him for a long time!).
blinknight,
"So rather than prove Jesus for us they will say "well how do you know (historical figure) is real?""
There was no one named "Jesus" 2,000 years ago. The name "Jesus" didn't exist until 1632 =https://www.quora.com/If-the-letter-J-wasnt-invented-until-1600-how-did-.... So if you ever see any reference by a supposedly historian that mentions "Jesus" you know that he's full of crap.
Re: The OP
Thankfully, I am fairly adept at spotting when somebody is trying to lead breadcrumbs into such a "trap". Hmmm.... Come to think of it, that may be because I am usually the one "directing" the conversations and leading my own trail of breadcrumbs for the other party to follow. (Whether it is a religious conversation or otherwise.).... *snicker-snicker*... *halo over head*.... Even so, whenever I might get involved in a conversation where the other person thinks he/she is being slick and trying to "set me up", I sometimes like to allow him/her to go on for a bit before breaking the bad news to the poor soul that he/she is out of luck. It ain't workin'. And depending on the situation, I may even give them a huge grin, a friendly pat on the shoulder, and a sympathetic, "There there.... You'll be okay," before turning to walk away while laughing quietly to myself and shaking my head in amusement.
I was in town today and guess what I ran into? A guy with a mic and another carrying a vidcam.
And I guarantee you will never, ever, guess what question he asked me?
I tried dodging the fucker, but they tag-teamed me.
His first question: "I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?"
I am not going to print my answer here because it was full of all kinds of filthy and foul language because I saw the jesus fishy thing sticker on the vidcam.
Needless to say, he then let me go. And left me alone when I came out the store.
rmfr
I Googled "it's a trap" and found this...
https://youtu.be/Dl0O9e1oS_k