(December 31, 2017 at 7:31 pm)Whateverist Wrote: I tried joining the forums at William Craig's website but it was really awful.  You could be openly atheist at least but people were really petty and resentful as well as stupid and uninteresting.

Hadn't even thought about WLC. At least he claims to be rational/respects logic. But if (as you warned) worthwhile discussion is hard to find there, that doesn't bode well for elsewhere (where people don't even pretend to respect logic and reason).

Whateverist Wrote:My reason for joining was my interest in ecumenicism, but beyond xtianity.  It sure looks like the world we do and will be living is going to remain diverse in its religious practices.  So i'm interested in seeing how much tolerance and mutual respect might be possible.  

"Ecumenicism, but beyond xtianity" is an interesting idea, and yes, I am "of that bent" so to speak. It's disheartening to hear that few expressed interest in such a thing, but hardly surprising. Some theistic thinkers have really resonated with me, and my intention is to try to use them as a starting point for common ground. It is quite astute of you to guess my secondary motivation.

But primarily, I love being stumped. It shows me that I haven't thought things through as well as I could have. I love having my worldview challenged--to be shaken out of my comfort zone. It's happened a number of times in my philosophical studies (Nietzsche did it the most), and it always ended up making me a better intellectual. If anyone can show me where my arguments/line of reasoning are weak, they will have done me a favor.

Whateverist Wrote:You can find a handful of religious people who are up for this...

And that's really all I expect to find. A handful is sufficient for a discussion. If it's not worth my while, I always have CL and Neo to call me on bad arguments here.  

(December 31, 2017 at 7:02 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: Because exposing one's own arguments to criticism is a good thing. That's one of my motivations anyway.

I've joined a couple of Christian forums, but found the counter-arguments pedestrian. I've not been banned from them, because I don't and won't proselytize my own views, but it was very much a shooting-spitballs-at-tanks experience.

You'll get the same sort of pushback here from the theists which come to evangelize, I think. Their arguments are the same boilerplate, mostly, and you won't be banned for talking back to them.

I tend to avoid christian forums . If i wanna know what christians think i'll read a book.

Just don't make it a "Good Book."  That will tell you nothing.

Used to post at WLC's forum (Reasonable Faith), then got permabanned without warning or clear explanation. Apparently, I was banned for spam (huh?) and using expletive language (I still don't know which post they were referring to). They also had me banned as a guest from even viewing their forums. Tried contacting them for clarification. No response at all. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Yup reasonable faith is a bullshit site . I know plenty of people who were kicked for no reason . but it's not as bad as Strange notions . Hell a whole other forum was created because they kicked so many people off that site. Then there is the worst one Carm . It's run like gulag .The rules are essentially your forbidden from questioning Matt Slick and must at all times praise him . Or he will ban you like the giant manchild he is .

WLC's forum (reasonablefaith.org) recently changed their forum software, and now it's damn near unusable. Trying to have a discussion there now is futile.

(December 31, 2017 at 5:43 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The Thinking Atheist is pretty good.  Much cross-pollination between here and there.

No. Don't go there! It's awful!

But at least the moderators are incredibly good looking.

(January 1, 2018 at 2:10 am)Grandizer Wrote: Used to post at WLC's forum (Reasonable Faith), then got permabanned without warning or clear explanation. Apparently, I was banned for spam (huh?) and using expletive language (I still don't know which post they were referring to). They also had me banned as a guest from even viewing their forums. Tried contacting them for clarification. No response at all. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.

They're a bit like conservapedia over there. They'll ban you over nothing, especially if you don't immediately convert on the use of their knock down argument "goddidit".

Actually the reasons cited for your banning suggest to me that you said something the mods there couldn't handle (i.e. a problem with christianity) and they used the ban to blacken you.

I don't have the right kind of penis for christian circle jerks.