They've probably thought about your position much more than you have thought about theirs, so you can briefly explain your position and ask what they think is important for you to know or think about.
I would probably open with "Why are there so many theologians of false religions? Why do so many smart people get it so wrong, and how do we avoid making those same mistakes?" If the subject of my religion came up, I'd admit that I'm an atheist, but that I worry about falling for the same traps that Muslim or Hindu scholars do. After that it would depend on where the conversation went, but I'd like to find out their thoughts on a system where 4/5ths of the planet is sent to eternal torture because they made a mistake about which book to believe.
They've probably thought about your position much more than you have thought about theirs, so you can briefly explain your position and ask what they think is important for you to know or think about.
Good point!
I'd like to find out their thoughts on a system where 4/5ths of the planet is sent to eternal torture because they made a mistake about which book to believe.
Spoiler: None of them think that. I haven't asked them but I am certain of this.
I am about to graduate from one of the only universities in the world that has a high concentration of high-caliber analytic philosophers who are theists. (Specifically, the University of Notre Dame, IN) So as not to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I have sent out emails asking many of them if they would like to meet and discuss their theism with me. Several of them have responded already in the affirmative; fingers crossed for the rest. I'm really looking forward to this because these people are really smart, and have spent a lot of time thinking about this, so I expect them to have interesting and insightful things to say.
Do you have suggestions for questions I could ask them? My main question will of course be "Why do you believe in God?" and variants thereof, but it would be nice if I could say e.g. "How do you avoid the problem of X which is a major argument against theism?"
Questions I've already thought of:
1-Why do you believe in God?
2-What are the main arguments in favor of theism, in your opinion?
3-What about the problem of evil? What about objective morality: how do you make sense of it, and if you don't, then how do you justify God?
4-What about divine hiddenness? Why doesn't God make himself more easily known to us? For example, he could regularly send angels to deliver philosophical proofs on stone tablets to doubters.
5-How do you explain God's necessary existence? What about the "problem of many Gods," i.e. why can't people say the same thing about a slightly different version of God?
6-In what sense is God the fundamental entity, the uncaused cause, etc.? How do you square this with God's seeming complexity? (he is intelligent, after all) If minds are in fact simple, then how is that supposed to work?
I welcome more articulate reformulations of the above, as well as completely new ideas.