ex-xian

Ok, the subject line was to try to get the xians to peek in, obviously. But I have been frustrated of late trying to carry on discussions with a number of christians.

A user who calls him(her?)self mnkbdky started a thread in the philosophy section, Materialists are (possibly) Irrational, where he argued that, well, materialists are irrational. He went a few rounds with everyone, and, eventually, I made what I think are some excellent points that argue against his central assumption. I also posted very simple logical argument against the existence of soul. After saying that he couldn't remember my last post and asking me to post it again, he said that he would deal with the logical construct against souls soon. Well, he's nowhere to be found. I admit, he may be too busy to respond, but he was regularly posted for good bit.

We all know and love Magus55. In the Garden of Eden now a wasteland? thread, Magus misquotes Genesis in a most glaring way. I called him on it and posted the passage corrected, which, by the way, showed him to be totally wrong about his point. I also asked him a quite relevent, IMHO, about the nature of god. He's also ignored me!

Finally, I started the thread The futiliy of prayer. Amie immediately posted a response singing the praises of prayer--how wonderful it is, how it works so well, etc. Me (and everyone else) responed quickly with the most obvious responses. In particular, I asked to respond to the argument against prayer that I presented, rather than relate anecdotes. So far, I've heard nada from her.

Is this type of behavior consistent with most xians here? I haven't tended to debate the xians until recently (mainly because I was one!) and I find it very frustrating. Of course, everyone of these people could post a respone in the next five minutes that blows anything I could say out of the water; I would welcome the opportunity to dialogue some more.

If any xians (including xian, whom I haven't "met" yet) read this, I would love to hear your reasons.

Cheers

{Title changed by request - Wizardry}

Gooch's dad

Well, I'll play...umm..."Christians advocate" here, and give a thumbs-up for both Vinnie and seebs. Both of them are extremely well-read, and make thoughtful and reasoned posts. I have to admired their tenacity in sticking around here as long as they have.

-Kelly

Witty

I've noticed that kind of behavior, too. I once had a random Christian try and convert me over Instant Messenger. She would start telling me about Christianity like I'd never heard of it before, and simply ignored all of my comments. To my well thought out arguments, she would respond with "But Jesus Loves you! He died for your sins. Isn't that neat?"

I tried to take the discussion to e-mail since that is a much better debate forum than Instant Messenger, sent her a page of basic arguments against religion, and never heard from her again.

So, yes, it has been my experience, too, that many Christians run and hide when they realize that they don't have a foot to stand on.

livius drusus

Even though the title is perhaps a tad indelicate for an upper forum, I believe this thread is better suited to GRD. Besides, more of the weinies hang out there than down here.

Smilin

yes.. all Christian weinies were outcasted from Christian Forums..
and we're all eagerly awaiting to meet you in my thread!

Goliath

ex-xian,

I know exactly how you feel. My responses to xians are usually very short, to the point posts that completely destroy any argument they're trying to make. And then they ignore me! *sigh*

Sincerely,

Goliath

ManM

Err, shouldn't this be ~~Elsewhere~~?

Demigawd

Normally, I'd say yes, but this is too important an observation to consign to the oblivion of Elsewhere. I'd love to hear why the typical Christian who comes here can only offer platitudes in response to direct, honest questioning concerning her or his beliefs.

ex-xian

I assume you said this b/c of the triteness of the title. Well, I originally posted this in Misc.; it wasn't intended for the upper forums. One of the mods, livuis drusus, saw fit to move it to GRD, and I agree that he made the right decision. If I had had enough foresight, I would have posted it here in the first place with a more appropriate title. Alas, I am powerless to do anything about it now.

i would probably put something like the title of this post as the title of the thread if i could do it over again

seebs

For what it's worth, it goes both ways, and applies on every BBS I've ever been on. A more correct generalization is "When people lose interest in a debate, or don't have the time to respond, or just aren't that good at debate, it's much more obvious when they don't agree with me".

True, and very good to know, but not very satisfying.