I received an email this morning regarding a man called Richard Morgan. It contains a link to a video of him speaking in a church in America. Just watched it. Some of you guys may find it interesting. Here is the video link. Just scroll down to the video:

http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/atheist-to-christian/

I found it interesting because he mentions his time spent on the first Richard Dawkin's web site. I fleetingly joined what was probably the new site (it was 2008 so not sure) so I missed all the controversy that happened to cause the orginal site to close. Maybe some of you were members of the site back then and remember this happening.

Richard discusses his appearance on Premier Radio, which I think was what you went on Adrian? I remember listening to you debating a Christian on a radio show.

I thought of you Lucent, as this guy's experience sounds very similar to what you shared with us.

An interesting video all round. It gets boring towards the end when they take questions.

If you want to know what really happened to the RDF forum, ask Sciwoman and Gawdzilla, this guy had nothing to do with it, and I think he is flattering himself to think he did. The RDF forum has had multiple schisms, the one which he mentions is the one that closed the forum had a very different reason than the one he mentioned.

I think Jerome has the best blog post to date on the whole mess. and links to posts by people of the RDF staff. http://jerome23.wordpress.com/2010/02/23...-to-close/

That's something I'd like to keep in the past. Crazy times they were.

(October 2, 2011 at 6:58 am)Ace Otana Wrote: That's something I'd like to keep in the past. Crazy times they were.

Me too, but since it was brought up I felt it needed some counterpoint.

I've never joined Ratskep following the closing of RDF, and I'm not missing it either.

Regardless of what actually lead to the forum being shut down, this guy is relating his experiences of being on the forum as an atheist, becoming a Christian whilst debating on the forum , and Dawkins having to come onto the forum as a result of the problems occuring as a result of David Robertson (author of 'The Dawkins Letters') debating on the forum. Richard Morgan who initially critiques Robertson has an experience which leads him to become a Christian. This 'change' doesn't go down well on the site. Maybe other things were going on as well that lead to the site closing. This story is interesting to me because around that time I had joined the Dawkins site, but felt like a lamb led to the slaughter so didn't go back. Around that time I read 'The Dawkins Letters' and found them very interesting. Richard's 'journey' on the forum, his atheism and then 'experience' are all very interesting too.

I have no idea if this guy had anything to do with the demise of RDF, but it was a single demise from my POV. Dawkins himself did suddenly decide that the vile and abuse that was 90% of the content wasn't what he'd originally intended for the site.

A reason I came and I've stayed here is because it was the closest to championing open and serious discussion. It's far from perfect, but IMO it's the best there is.

(October 2, 2011 at 7:20 am)CoxRox Wrote: Regardless of what actually lead to the forum being shut down, this guy is relating his experiences of being on the forum as an atheist, becoming a Christian whilst debating on the forum , and Dawkins having to come onto the forum as a result of the problems occuring as a result of David Robertson (author of 'The Dawkins Letters') debating on the forum.

Richard Dawkins discussed with people on the forums quite often, he didn't need to "come on to the forum" to do anything. I know that is what he claims happened but that doesn't make it true. It is however very misleading to claim that what happened is the reason the site was shut down, there was a lot more to it.

Quote: This story is interesting to me because around that time I had joined the Dawkins site, but felt like a lamb led to the slaughter so didn't go back.

RDF was not and is not for holding hands and pussyfooting around. It was very hardline, but then it needed to be. You want to discuss feelings or personal revelation, don't expect any sympathy but demands for evidence. If a creationist posted on that forum he could throw out 50 baseless assertions in a single post and just see what part of the shit would stick. This means that any of such posts needed to be debunked not only hard but as thorough as possible and no quarter given. If that made you feel uncomfortable that is just too bad but not their problem.

I disagree Leo. That site's rules were stiffling to open discussion. ...Or the interpretation of the rules was. I agree with Cox and Rochard Morgan, it was a flaming cesspit mostly. Lamb to the slaughter - absolutely.

I can't fathom Richard Morgan's stereotypical conversion story. How any rational mind can have just -one- personal experience and become a theist is beyond me.

The day I become a believer is when everyone in the world has a shared public experience with said supernatural force.

First time I heard of this "Richard Morgan" fellow. He had nothing to do with the fall of RDF as far as I'm aware. Never heard of him. I was there at RDF long before it fell and I was there when it did. The forums rules were too tight and I found some mods to be too trigger happy. So I left.
Too much censorship. The forum lost its way. So far I've seen this happen on a few sites. The moment a forum becomes corrupt and controlling, it starts to fall.

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(October 2, 2011 at 7:03 am)leo-rcc Wrote:

(October 2, 2011 at 6:58 am)Ace Otana Wrote: That's something I'd like to keep in the past. Crazy times they were.

Me too, but since it was brought up I felt it needed some counterpoint.

I've never joined Ratskep following the closing of RDF, and I'm not missing it either.

Yeah. I joined the Freethought forum when RDF collapsed. Things started off ok but over time it encountered problems, with OBC and all that. I eventually left it. I joined Rationalia and posted there for a while, but over time I felt uncomfortable. So I left that one too.
Stuck with this forum, the last and only forum I now visit. I joined when the old site was in use. When Adrian was known as 'Dr. poodle' I think. I left all the other forums. When I left the last forum (rationalia) I became far more active on this one.
I've always been ready to pack up and leave, all I need is a good reason to.