Now my question is why would a Christian want to visit an atheist website, blog, or forum at all? When I first accepted the fact that I was an atheist and had completely rejected my former faith as false and delusional I expended a lot of energy going online attacking Christians. I was a bitter atheist in those days and I hated the fact that I had wasted so much time and energy and had given so much of myself to the so called work of the Lord. I went to church on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays (twice), and on Saturday and Sunday during the day I was outside with my ministry partner at one of two local shopping districts with my mic in hand preaching and ministering to the masses. When I wasn't doing that I was visiting the sick at the hospitals or in their homes or preaching at some local church. I lived and breathed Jesus twenty four hours a day literally!
I have matured greatly since then and no longer harbor feelings of resentment or hatred towards Christians nor the faith. I feel that everyone is entitled to believe as they please as long as they are not hurting anyone or trying to force those beliefs on others either directly or indirectly by influencing politicians and legislation. I have not been on a Christian website in years and I try to avoid reading Christian books on apologetics because I can spot a logical fallacy a mile away and their arguments for their god have not changed in quite some time. I basically have the "I don't bother them they don't bother me" attitude about the whole matter. I could only think of several reasons why a theist would go to an atheist website, blog, or forum. The first is that they are commanded to proselytize the world and to preach the gospel to all nations.
The great commission!
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Matthew 16:15
This order according to the anonymous author of Mark, came from Jesus himself! And so based on this information it is the duty of all Christians to make known their faith to all those that they come in contact with and are willing to listen. Of course there are those that wont accept their message but Jesus was made to provide instructions for this situation as well by the biblical authors.
And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." Mark 6:11
Basically what Jesus was saying here was that if their message was not received then just leave them alone. They have been warned and so they will have to deal with the consequences of their own decision in the future. But that is not what theists do today. They harangue and nag you to death and like a good sales representative can't seem to take no for an answer. It's almost as if they find it hard to believe that not everyone is going to buy into the product that they are selling.
I agree with all options but four please don't ask again.
I can understand if you are a Christian apologists and just want to see what arguments are being made against your beliefs. Or maybe you feel that you are competent enough to hold your own in a rational debate in defense of your faith. But even this violates those very scriptures you swear to uphold in your lives as the word of God.
15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.
Verse 15 deals with defending the gospel from other false gospels and beliefs. Christ demonstrated this in the New Testament on various occassions when confronted by the scribes and Pharisees. The second verse deals with not getting caught up in godless discussions which is exactly what you are doing if you are arguing the existence of God with an atheist! Your job my dear Christian is to present the gospel to the world and leave the converting to the individual. Remember your beliefs are not based on facts but faith.
Faith is not a fact!
The last reason I can think of for a theist to visit an atheist website, blog, or forum is to simply be a constant distraction and annoyance to the regulars of the website. They come to condemn those who don't believe as they do. They come to belittle those how cannot accept their claims on faith alone without first requiring evidence of their claims. They come to disrupt the flow of the conversation or disturb the activity of the other users. This is what is known on the internet as a troll.
A Christian troll in action!
a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Note: All biblical citations are taken from the New International Version of the scriptures.
The definition for internet troll was taken from Wikipedia here.
Funny thing is most theist sites either ban Atheists completely or for nearly anything. Remember that one older British guy from Secularity who talked about one called theologyweb where they banned Atheists for saying religion is bullshit but let theists get away with making death threats to Atheists (and theists from other religions)?
ReplyDeleteMost theists sites don't want to hear why they may be wrong. They don't want their beliefs to be challenged.
DeleteI actually wish more Christians would visit atheist sites. I think an open dialogue is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I totally agree. But usually when they come to atheist sites it's to try and proselytize and not to hold a rational discussion about their beliefs.
DeleteI agree with Canadian atheist, and I must say the irrational discussion does not bother me either. As the comments usually remain there and if someone bothers to read them they quickly realize how ridiculous theistic arguments are. So they are making my job easier :)
DeleteI had a post a while back explaining theistic arguments that are not rational. The one comment was a theist doing all the things I had explained so it was humorous.
Yeah, they do have a habit of inserting foot in mouth quite often.
DeleteI am a Christian yet I don’t feel the need to preach the Gospel. Possibly that is because you already know it!
DeleteI don’t find it hard to believe that many cannot buy into the bible at all; it took me five years to get past the first few lines of Genesis.
I hope you or nobody else would view me as a troll just because I happen to have opposing views. Sometimes that can be a good thing rather than everyone just agreeing with each other wholesale. I certainly have no intention of upsetting anyone and anyway I doubt if I could.
The reason I visit this site is not to ‘convert’ anyone (maybe I’m not a brilliant Christian) and I would also be concerned if I found myself saying things deliberately inciting.
I am here for one simple reason; I like the site (perhaps I am a little mad).
Far from wanting to be aggressive, when I have looked at other atheist websites, mainly out of curiosity, it is the atheists who are antagonistic. However the worst that has been said to me here is that I am talking bullshit, which is fine because I might be for all I know.
I would rather hear a different view than hear a Christian agree with me for the sake of it. Well, sometimes.
terence I appreciate honesty and to this point have nothing derogatory to say about you. You have shown yourself to be a gentleman and are quite open and honest about your beliefs. Like yourself I have had some bad experiences with both atheists and theists. It's good to remind yourself from time to time that this is more about individuals and what they believe.
DeleteEvery group or organization has its bad apples it's one of those things that is unavoidable. I don't mind theists visitin my blog or discussing religious matters with me on Google+ and I have no problem with agreeing to disagree.
I don't seek to convert people to atheism since there is nothing to convert to. But I have noticed lately that there are little groups forming that claim to be atheists groups. The problem is that they attack all sorts of social issues that in truth have nothing to do with atheism. Theists see this and misinterpret this as being atheism forgetting that all atheism states is that they don't believe in gods of any kind. Anything beyond that is irrelevant to atheism.
Thanks for coming and I hope that you stick around awhile Terence. I too have dealt with antagonistic people claiming to be Christians and find it quite annoying.
Is it okay to become a member then, even though I am a Christian?
DeleteOf course! I don't mind at all.
DeleteI used to spend most of my time trying to get Christians to visit atheist sites (specifically mine.) Actually, some probably thought I was trolling them. I did this because I wanted to not write to people who already agreed with me. Turns out that wasn't a problem, a bunch of atheists don't agree with me either.
ReplyDeleteI don't reach out to religious folk like I used to, but I'm still happy when they find me providing they listen to my point of view at least half as well as they distribute their own.