(March 8, 2015 at 2:23 pm)Drew_2013 Wrote: Actually you never do...if it were obvious and you made a case to support the obvious you'd persuade folks.
I doubt that. Losing one's faith is not something a person wants to do, and it was a pretty fearful experience. Given that, I could easily see how a believer would cling even more tightly to his beliefs.
That, of course, assumes that the atheist is trying to change the reader's mind ... and faith. I don't post here arguing with theists in order to change their minds. I already know that they are incapable of apostasy. They have gone out of their way to avoid educating themselves about the issues at hand, and often I've seen outright dishonesty from them; both those facts, and they are facts, indicate a refusal to subject their beliefs to any challenge.
I post here thinking that any lurkers should get another perspective. Insofar as I'm rude, I try to avoid that, but I don't shy away from it when I see some uneducated twat talking down to me, or making insinuations about my character based on his own misapprehensions of my atheism -- and his refusal to entertain clarification. If you treat me like a stereotype, you are being rude, and I'm no Christian -- I do not believe in turning the other cheek.
And because I'm not worried about expanding the roster of atheists, I'm fine making change in the coin tendered.