Brian63
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2001
- Messages
- 1,639
- Location
- Michigan
- Gender
- Male
- Basic Beliefs
- Freethinker/atheist/humanist
Have you ever, or do you currently, post on any online fora that are mostly populated by theists, whether liberal or conservative in their theology (but especially the latter, and particularly the more fundamentalist ones)? Do you get into online discussions on other message boards about topics like whether or not a god exists, the meaning of life, if there is an afterlife or not, evolution/creationism, church/state separation issues, etc.?
Some years ago I posted a bit on the very conservative Ann Coulter forum as one of a very small number of atheists. Anyone who is familiar with Ann Coulter herself, her personality, and her political attitudes will probably guess that in general, the members of her forum who idolize her are probably just as mean and insulting as she is, and that would be correct. Still, I thought I did pretty well overall, but particularly in a few different threads:
Do Not Mock God
Does love imply obedience?
What does it mean for a text to be “divinely inspired?”
I wish I could reverse time and do some of those over again and differently, but for the most part I thought I represented atheism well and got a lot of people to think about some issues in ways they had not before. Privately I got some positive feedback as well. So overall I am pleased with how those turned out, even if not at all perfectly.
More currently, I have an account over at Rapture Ready (an extremely hyper-fundamentalist forum) but I do not post there, as I suspect they would ban me pretty quickly if I did, and I like to lurk over and read their forum still.
Do you post, or even just lurk, at any theist fora, and especially more conservative/fundamentalist ones? I used to post there partly to put my own atheism up to a test. Maybe I am biased, but it certainly looked like it passed, when compared to (or contrasted with) their bad arguments. Also, I just like to learn how they think, so I do not end up creating strawmen of my own whenever I try to argue against their views. Everybody on every side of every debate does enough of that already, and I want to at least try to avoid adding more to it.
Any theistic-populated fora you post on, or even just lurk on? Not just other fora where other people happen to be theists, but moreso where religion is a regular topic of discussion (aka debate) as well.
Brian
Some years ago I posted a bit on the very conservative Ann Coulter forum as one of a very small number of atheists. Anyone who is familiar with Ann Coulter herself, her personality, and her political attitudes will probably guess that in general, the members of her forum who idolize her are probably just as mean and insulting as she is, and that would be correct. Still, I thought I did pretty well overall, but particularly in a few different threads:
Do Not Mock God
Does love imply obedience?
What does it mean for a text to be “divinely inspired?”
I wish I could reverse time and do some of those over again and differently, but for the most part I thought I represented atheism well and got a lot of people to think about some issues in ways they had not before. Privately I got some positive feedback as well. So overall I am pleased with how those turned out, even if not at all perfectly.
More currently, I have an account over at Rapture Ready (an extremely hyper-fundamentalist forum) but I do not post there, as I suspect they would ban me pretty quickly if I did, and I like to lurk over and read their forum still.
Do you post, or even just lurk, at any theist fora, and especially more conservative/fundamentalist ones? I used to post there partly to put my own atheism up to a test. Maybe I am biased, but it certainly looked like it passed, when compared to (or contrasted with) their bad arguments. Also, I just like to learn how they think, so I do not end up creating strawmen of my own whenever I try to argue against their views. Everybody on every side of every debate does enough of that already, and I want to at least try to avoid adding more to it.
Any theistic-populated fora you post on, or even just lurk on? Not just other fora where other people happen to be theists, but moreso where religion is a regular topic of discussion (aka debate) as well.
Brian