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Do you post on any theistic discussion fora?

Brian63

Brian63

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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
 
I browsed through one once. It was basically my worst nightmare. (it was Rapture Ready, I think)

Where I'm from the religious are a minority, and not uncommonly looked at as foolish. Being surrounded by them is scary for us.
 
I have been a posting member of a couple of universalist forums. One or two that I posted to went out of business after I had been there a while. This has also happened to me on atheists sites...I miss EvilBible.
 
I sometimes post on CARM. I've lurked at quite a few Christian forums like Rapture Ready and I just don't have the energy to counter their BS.
 
I used to. Now, perhaps I've been Mr. Grumpy atheist for too long, but I find I have little patience for the continual dodging, shifting of goal posts, and outright lies or cognitive dissonance that comes with debating such people. I have several "atheist" podcasts I listen to, and when a theist comes on I find myself hitting fast forward more and more as I get frustrated with the mental techniques these people that are "keeping an open mind" use to hold together what they wish was true. I try to hear them out, as perhaps I'll hear something new, and I want to be wary of having a mental bias from only hearing one side of an issue, but I haven't heard a new theistic argument in a long, long time.

In person it's different. It's just me and the another person. I can avoid certain pitfalls, try to avoid getting them defensive, and attack their epistemology instead of their god. It works out much better, not that these conversations are common.
 
I used to be an active poster at Christian Forums when Erwin Loh still ran the place. After he sold it, it went drastically downhill. I still have contact with some friends I made there. Now, I can't be arsed to post in theist or conservative forums. I just get too angry now.
 
I used to post on TheologyOnline for some reason but the people there were so disturbing that I had to leave.
 
Interestingly, given my occasional lack of decorum, I have never been evicted from a theist site. This is probably not unexpected given the more liberal theology of the sites I have been a member of.

I do know there is an interesting...dynamic between the Tentmaker folks and the CARM folks. The term extreme dislike is probably a little tame for it.

In general, mainline xtians have a major antipathy towards anything that runs counter to their belief in eternal consious torment.
 
I believe that Prof, who was active here a year or so ago, went off to comment on the Edward Feser blog. I don't know if he lingered there very long. The combination of abject fawning and turgid woo in most of the comments would require a very strong stomach to put up with.
 
I post on Debatingchristianity.com. They are tolerant of multiple viewpoints, but the one pretty inflexible rule is that you have to be civil. No attacking other people, and use civil language. Ironically, more theists get banned for bad behavior than atheists. The owner of the site is a YEC, but very tolerant of other view points (as long as you are polite about it). There are more regular atheists there than bible thumpers.. mainly because they can keep to the rules better I suspect.
 
I used to post frequently on Islamicboard.com for about a decade. I was Pygoscelis there. I stopped posting about six months ago. I simply gave up on them.
 
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