Debates these days, especially the televised ones, seem to follow a similar structure to the common court system. You can: A. prove a point; or B. discredit the opposing point. To irrefutably win a debate, you need to successfully present your "A" and "B" in equal weight. Coming to the table with a whole lot of "B" does not say a whole for your "A", or vice versus. As far as the snippets of a debate shown on ABC's Nightline, I didn't see enough "A" and "B" from either side. This is not either side's fault however, it's simply because ABC only showed a few minutes from each side, when the debate was well over an hour long.
But why the anger? Anger has no place in a debate of theology, creation, evolution and the like. In debate, anger is ammo for discrediting a person. If you find yourself debating Christianity or Atheism, I would challenge anyone to do so without anger. The escalation of emotions changes the chemical makeup in our brains (science at its finest), which impacts decision making and logical judgment. Let calmer minds prevail.
For the Christian, I would suggest following the model of Jesus (how profound I know). How much time did Jesus spend in anger, relative to His time spent in peacefulness? Very little is the answer. Jesus became angry when he found people turning the church (Temple) into a place of commerce and money exchanging (selling cattle, sheep, and what not). He became angry because a group of people (with stubborn hearts) were trying to justify Him sinning by healing a crippled man on the Sabbath. Of course the Bible reports that He healed the man right in front of their face, which I would say is somewhat convincing of having "savior" like powers to those present. None the less, you can parse the Bible from cover to cover and you will be able to count the instances of Jesus' anger on one hand. Again, this is something the Christian should consider, as it won't carry any water with an Atheist.
For the Atheist (but also applicable to the Christian), control potential anger and deal with it later. To speak or act out of anger is a money-back guarantee to produce illogical actions (remember the brain chemicals). I would think any rational person would not want the strength of their case deflated because of angry, overly-emotional remarks. Think, then react. Resist name calling. Emotions are to be controlled and dealt with, not exploded or indefinitely suppressed. No one will convince one person to change their mind on the history and creation of man with an angry temperament.
One Way or the Other
Interestingly enough, an Atheist giving Christianity a shot really isn't that costly of a decision. Those that know me know that I am an extremely, almost overly logical thinker. The numbers must line up. Things have to make sense. The opportunity cost must be less than the value of the outcome for me to decide much of anything. Which coffee to drink? Which route to drive? How to respond to my wife? How to teach my child? All these are daily decisions which I process, perhaps even over-logically. So when I say that an Atheist giving Christianity a shot is not a costly decision, I ask the following:
What do you have to loose?
An Atheist has nothing to loose by "trying" God. The cost is zero. After all, there is no Heaven, Hell, or Eternity in that frame of mind. So what's the cost of the decision? Perhaps pride, but you can revert back to that at any time. Consider that a money back guarantee (or pride back guarantee).
How do you "try" God?
Well simply put, you pray. What is prayer to a person that doesn't believe in God? Consider it talking to yourself (silently or audibly) with understanding that if there is a God, He is listening and has the power to respond to the prayer. If you ask God: "God, (call Him by name, what do you have to lose), if you are real, please show yourself to me. Show yourself to me, and allow me to begin to understand that you are real, and care about me, 1 person out of 6.5 billion."
Now keep in mind that if you are going to "try" God, you have to be sincere about it. As a child you can't learn how to ride a bike without sincerely trying, or taking the attitude of determination. Not much happens in our life or our own personal development without sincerity and determination. So make sure you add that into the equation. And I don't personally recommend asking God to burn the nearest bush either. He's done that once in several thousand years. If sincerity is present, then let God be creative about how He reveals himself to you. You can't really ask, "God, show me your face." He did that for Moses; again, that is one instance out of several thousand years here. You might not "see" God. But we don't see wind and gravity either. We feel the wind and are subject to gravity, so we believe it's out there. I'm just guessing, but if God created you, me, wind and gravity, He is probably quite a bit more complex than those things that we can see, hear, touch, and wrap our heads around.
To be fair, I will attempt to turn the tables. What does a Christian have to lose if they were to "try" Atheism? Well, besides eternal damnation in Hell (described as a giant lake of fire where loneliness and the gnashing of teeth are ever present), and forever separation from God... not much. The fact is, it is a very costly decision for a Christian to make, because everything is at stake. Eternity is a long time to be wrong in the mind of a Christian. Besides that, loneliness isn't much fun for so much as 24 hours. If time on earth is a morsel of time against the backdrop of eternity, well that is potentially a very long time to be lonely.
For now, I am going to leave this post as is. But perhaps soon a dialogue might open up here about Carbon-14 dating, age of the earth, transformational species, historic documents (biblical and otherwise), dinosaurs, gap theories, Darwin, fulfilled prophecies, and fun stuff like that.