Do You Debate Christians?

[Emme]

Christians come here and we all talk to them and sometimes give them a hard time, but they are still tolerated and sometimes even liked.

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

[ogilvy]

Christians come here and we all talk to them and sometimes give them a hard time, but they are still tolerated and sometimes even liked.

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

i do, on a christian forum, forget what its called. there are all kinds of people there, and they are mostly polite and friendly. if you get into an argument some can become a bit sarcastic and insulting, like here, haha. they dont usually address the difficult issues, which gets very frustrating. they ramble on and on about something off track, and you can't get a straight answer.

[SWIM]

Christians come here and we all talk to them and sometimes give them a hard time, but they are still tolerated and sometimes even liked.

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

 

Nope. They try and censor you well above what an ordinary message board does. The minute you insult their delusion enough, out on your fanny you go...

[Robbobrob]

I have tried, but the discussions just go around and around.

 

I left a parenting site I was helping to mod because I was tired of being the "pet heathen" and not having my beliefs taken seriously..."Oh, that's just Rob." kind of attitude.

 

I hit a couple of sites and have been called a hater for daring to point things out. But just as you think you might have a breakthrough with the group there, a whole new cerw of lunkheads come on and start the process over at square one.

[florduh]

No. Reality and logic are no match for blind faith.

[Deva]

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

 

Yes you can register as a "seeker". I just threw out a question on there once just as an experiment and came back with a bunch of people quoting the Bible at me. A lot of alleged "prophecies" that were fulfilled supposedly to convince me of the Bible being the word of God. It was the typical xtian's peculiar and astoundingly ignorant way of reading the Bible-- in contrast with all of modern Biblical scholarship. It was just too stupid for me.

[hereticzero]

I've tried to debated xtians on their own websites and if I were to get people to see my point of view, my posts get deleted. At least on ex-christians, we have an open debate for both sides.

[Mike D]

I used to try and debate on forums every once in awhile, but I think moderators on most Christian forums consider themselves direct appointees by Jebus himself as "protectors of the flock" and will ban anyone they think isn't a Christian or isn't there to convert. Worse yet, the more delusional mods believe that atheists and other debaters are Satan's Minions ™, directly recruited by the devil himself for no other reason than to trick forum members into believing lies and "lead the sheep astray". So you'll be banned accordingly. It became clear to me pretty quickly that most Christian forums were not created for the purpose of intelligent rational discussion, they are there to "glorify gawd" there's nothing at all intelligent about that.

[upstarter]

I really try to avoid contact with xtians whenever possible. I certainly do not seek them out for debate. I have an aversion to whacking my own head on a brick wall.

 

And even in real life I don't try to debate. I'm too embarassed for them. I had a bit of a debate recently with a particularly defensive B'haia (sp?) but where I come from most believers are too embarassed to even admit to their belief let alone debate.

 

I would much rather learn from knowledgeable, rational thinkers than waste my time listening to christobabble.

 

Heather

[Neon Genesis]

No, I don't go seeking xtians forums to debate with them. I tried debating with xtians over youtube once and that was frustrating enough. So, I have no desire to actively seek out xtians to debate them as I find that it's a waste of time and all they do is just use circular "logic" while ignoring any questions that are too difficult for them to handle. And I'd rather not have to repeat myself constantly to get any sort of actual answer to my questions.

[par4dcourse]

My overall philosophy toward debating xtians:

 

"I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and

guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies." Arlo Guthrie

[HadouKen24]

I used to do so. Coming out of Christianity, I was still very interested in these issues, and somewhat curious to see if there were any Christians who could provide arguments I might have trouble with. It was sometimes a serious intellectual challenge; a close examination of many Christians' arguments shows that they're not as groundless as many ex-Christians believe. Ultimately, however, I believe they do fail--just not for the reasons most of the people on here present, quite frequently. (This applies only to the real intellectual powerhouses, of course. Most of the people one runs into present arguments that get knocked down by a stiff breeze.)

 

I found it was very useful to engage Christians about these questions. By figuring out what was wrong with the Christian answers, I was able to formulate my own in ways that would avoid the same pitfalls.

[Vigile]

a close examination of many Christians' arguments shows that they're not as groundless as many ex-Christians believe.

 

An example or two would be great. I've been looking for years for something that was at least a challenge only to be disappointed by vapid claims and specious reasoning.

[Eponymic]

I only debate Christians in their own territory if I have to go into their own territory for some reason. I never deliberately seek out going into their territory.

[Comanche]

I only debate Christians in their own territory if I have to go into their own territory for some reason. I never deliberately seek out going into their territory.

 

Agreed. I won't go into their discussions and try to debate them, as it usually won't do much good (or at least anything that they'll admit to). If something particularly irks me and/or I need to set something straight I may mention it and hope I'm talking to someone who's at least vaguely open to criticism. Mostly I just point and laugh from the sidelines.

[BlueGiant]

Only in real life on neutral ground (usually coffee houses). There is just something nice about actually being face to face.

 

Online, I figure they have their corner of the net just as we have ours. Of course, if they decide to be dumb in neutral territory, then I'm more than happy to engage them.

 

Oh, and if you want to really get them, refer to things as Christian Mythology. Tripped over that one by accident.

[Guest Aosoth]

Yes. I moderate on a Christian forum--and they know I am a Pagan.

 

They might be scared I'd hex them or something.lolz0rsauce.

[Piprus]

Actually, I've never tried it.

It isn't important to me, I don't feel like I have anything I need to prove, the unwashed-brainwashed probably wouldn't want to listen to me anyway, so I have better ways to spend my limited time.

 

But it's certainly a good question.

[R. S. Martin]

a close examination of many Christians' arguments shows that they're not as groundless as many ex-Christians believe.

 

An example or two would be great. I've been looking for years for something that was at least a challenge only to be disappointed by vapid claims and specious reasoning.

 

Like Vigile, I would be interested in seeing a few examples.

[R. S. Martin]

As to the original question: Do I ever debate Christians? I think it was part of my deconversion process, sort of doing a triple check or more, making sure I'd not missed anything. I think taking an oral exam at a seminary for a theology degree as an atheist must be one of the more grueling projects to which humans subject themselves. Well I did that yesterday. Glad it's over. Been ranting quite a bit about it. I think I saw the depth to which Christians will stoop to prove their god is right just because. When you get the world's brightest brains doing this you sort think you've seen it all and conclude that maybe it's time to go find something else to do.

[PandaPirate]

Nope. I don't have the patience.

[wonderer]

Christians come here and we all talk to them and sometimes give them a hard time, but they are still tolerated and sometimes even liked.

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

 

I've tried. I know the Christian bible very well, but what I learned was that a debate requires a certain amount of logic and grounding in reality. To illustrate:

 

I once went to a Rainbow gathering up on Mount Shasta in California. One night, two men were arguing by the campfire. Their voices got louder and louder, and I walked up to them to try to determine what they were arguing about. It turns out that they were both tripping on acid, and each of them was convinced he was Jesus Christ. I looked at them, and said, "Brothers! You can't both be Jesus Christ. At least one of you is lying. Now, which one is it?"

 

Then, guess what? They both started yelling at me to mind my own business.

 

That sums up my take on debating Christians. It will have about that much success.

 

 

Rob

[Thurisaz]

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

Are you allowed? How do they respond? I'm just curious.

 

First, one can't "debate" them (as you basically know of course). One can confront them with the bullshit that their claims are, but never will one get a meaningful reply to that.

 

That said, I do "debate" them on usenet, and I have very tentatively done it on morontheist forum sites too. Of course the latter doesn't last long because as soon as they find their bullcrap claims to be worthless (read: after about 5 minutes) they ban you so that they don't have to deal with this annoying logic and reality anymore.

 

Pathetic weaklings, all of them

[HadouKen24]

a close examination of many Christians' arguments shows that they're not as groundless as many ex-Christians believe.

 

An example or two would be great. I've been looking for years for something that was at least a challenge only to be disappointed by vapid claims and specious reasoning.

 

For one, an intelligent Christian can make short work of the problem of evil. It simply doesn't work as an argument against Christianity; there are too many possible responses. Now, each response may open up the Christian to various other objections, which the individual may or may not be able to respond to adequately. (I am referring, of course, to the problem of suffering on earth, and not to suffering in Hell; I don't believe Hell in any form except, perhaps, annihilationism or a form allowing for eventual release to be consistent with the supposed benevolence of God) Nonetheless, the problem of evil has many adequate responses.

 

A learned Christian can present the doctrine of the Trinity in a form that makes much more sense than the blather that most people in pews are subjected to. Simply put, the versions of the trinity we're given in some way usually involve mistranslations. It makes much more sense when you look at the original Greek formulations with commentary. I believe that it still makes no sense, but it's much harder to articulate how it doesn't make sense than most non-Christians appreciate.

 

Many scholarly Christians have managed to present alternative textually critical interpretations of the Bible that agree with and even support Christianity's claims. These are sometimes very difficult to argue with--to some extent because it's a matter of interpretation, but also because they find serious textual evidence.

 

There are others, but this post has waxed long enough for now.

[Guest Net Eng]

My question is: Do you ever debate christians on their own territory, like e.g. "Christian-forum.net" ?

 

Not on the Internet. I find people will be complete asshats online and says things that would never say to someone in person. I find it hard to find serious debates and discussion online on many topics (politics, religion etc...).

 

When the topic of the bible or xtianity comes up at work, however, I'll jump into the debate (but I have some very "tolerant" xtians there and none of them are my boss).

 

My 2 cents.