There's this website I came across, http://www.edialogue.org, and they gave me an "invitation to live better". So naturally, I was interested. Who doesn't want to live "live better"? I got a recording of my time in the chat room if anyone is interested, but I've ultimately decided not to share it because it's incredibly boring.
They assured me that I would be talking to "authorized specialists", who are on hand twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in their chat room and who speak a myriad of languages. So I thought to myself: "Excellent! I have lots of questions that need answering, and it would be good to talk to the Ulama (Hafiz/Imams/Muftis/Sheikhs) about my concerns regrading Islam."
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[url=http://quranx.com/2.42]Quran 2:42 says "And cover not Truth with falsehood, nor conceal the Truth when ye know (what it is).", so I had great confidence that I would be talking to someone very knowledgeable. (I.e. a specialist of some kind, maybe in the science of the Hadith or the Sharia).
Here is a summary of what occurred in my chat:
When I got into the chat room, it didn't feel like dialogue at all, and I certainly didn't end up speaking to any scholars, as I was lead to believe I would be. I spoke to two different people. I managed to take control of the first conversation, in which the person was polite to a, I would say, creepy degree.
Shortly after the first person conceded that he had no specialization of any kind (and that he was merely a "propagator"), he told me that he had to leave and I was transferred to a new person. This first person did not know what I meant when I said "I am an Atheist because I don't think that any claims made about deities have met their burden of proof" so I had to explain what phrase "burden of proof" meant.
The second person I talked to kept avoiding my question asking what kind specialist he was and refused to tell me whether I was talking to an actual scholar (like I was promised I would be). I wanted assurances that I was actually speaking to a specialist, as the website claimed I would be, before going any further, but instead he started copying from a script. In fact, he directly copied from the Wikipedia article of Cat Steven, which I was then linked to and told to read.
For those who haven't visited his Wikipedia article: It's long. Very long. I was not directing to any sections in particular, so I assumed I had to read all of it; which would have taken several hours. But I don't care about the life of Cat Stevens! Why am I being told to read about Cat Stevens?
Immediately after I asked about why I was being told to read about Cat Stevens, I was directed to miraclesofthequran.com, a badly designed website with viruses lurking on it. After that, I was directed to a talk by Zakir Naik, which was over an hour long. I quickly informed the person that Zakir Naik is a shyster and a nincompoop and offered my evidences, which surprised him. By that point, I had been in the chat for over an hour and had had enough so I decided to leave.
And that's the highlights. I quoted a few relevant Quran verses when needed, but each time I was told they were out of context. But each time, I was not told what the context actually was. Sad.
They assured me that I would be talking to "authorized specialists", who are on hand twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in their chat room and who speak a myriad of languages. So I thought to myself: "Excellent! I have lots of questions that need answering, and it would be good to talk to the Ulama (Hafiz/Imams/Muftis/Sheikhs) about my concerns regrading Islam."
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[url=http://quranx.com/2.42]Quran 2:42 says "And cover not Truth with falsehood, nor conceal the Truth when ye know (what it is).", so I had great confidence that I would be talking to someone very knowledgeable. (I.e. a specialist of some kind, maybe in the science of the Hadith or the Sharia).
Here is a summary of what occurred in my chat:
When I got into the chat room, it didn't feel like dialogue at all, and I certainly didn't end up speaking to any scholars, as I was lead to believe I would be. I spoke to two different people. I managed to take control of the first conversation, in which the person was polite to a, I would say, creepy degree.
Shortly after the first person conceded that he had no specialization of any kind (and that he was merely a "propagator"), he told me that he had to leave and I was transferred to a new person. This first person did not know what I meant when I said "I am an Atheist because I don't think that any claims made about deities have met their burden of proof" so I had to explain what phrase "burden of proof" meant.
The second person I talked to kept avoiding my question asking what kind specialist he was and refused to tell me whether I was talking to an actual scholar (like I was promised I would be). I wanted assurances that I was actually speaking to a specialist, as the website claimed I would be, before going any further, but instead he started copying from a script. In fact, he directly copied from the Wikipedia article of Cat Steven, which I was then linked to and told to read.
For those who haven't visited his Wikipedia article: It's long. Very long. I was not directing to any sections in particular, so I assumed I had to read all of it; which would have taken several hours. But I don't care about the life of Cat Stevens! Why am I being told to read about Cat Stevens?
Immediately after I asked about why I was being told to read about Cat Stevens, I was directed to miraclesofthequran.com, a badly designed website with viruses lurking on it. After that, I was directed to a talk by Zakir Naik, which was over an hour long. I quickly informed the person that Zakir Naik is a shyster and a nincompoop and offered my evidences, which surprised him. By that point, I had been in the chat for over an hour and had had enough so I decided to leave.
And that's the highlights. I quoted a few relevant Quran verses when needed, but each time I was told they were out of context. But each time, I was not told what the context actually was. Sad.
