Christians take on the more nihilistic atheists

[henryp]

You are obviously a philosophical nonsense lover who doesn't know shit about communication. The philosophical notion of destiny, predestination, and it's ilk are useless mental masturbations that have no practical value and the bulk of the human population eschews these dry mental morasses. Communication on the other hand is clear, you do your best to exchange ideas with the best fidelity as possible with the understanding of your audience's ability to decode. You've made several clearly stated claims but you contend that they have meanings way outside of the normal vernacular.

I do put quite a burden on others to try and understand what I'm saying based on context.  I actually prefer that way of communication, because even if I were precise with my language, which I'm very much not, there is still so much semantics (mental masturbation in which nobody cums) involved that we could spend days quibbling over the definition of just about everything (see half the threads in the forums).  That's why I try to use a lot of examples so people acting in good faith have a good shot at getting the gist of what I'm saying.  

And the ideas are far from mental masturbation with no practical value.  They shape how I vote, how I interact with others, my own happiness and behavior.  

In the bigger picture, we've seen the understanding that sexual preference/sexual identity as a non-choice completely change how the LGBT community is thought of.  We see similar changes in how people dealing with addictions/mental health issues are treated.  There is a definite shift away from the notion that people are wholly responsible for their actions, and I suspect both science and public opinion will continue down that road together for a little longer. I think science will end up going much much further than public opinion will be willing to, at least for now.

As for the bulk of the human population, I'm posting this on an Atheist forum with subforums like Religion, Philosophy, and Atheism for a reason.  I don't discuss this with people I know, as I can't imagine any of them having any interest in it.  This group I would expect to have more takers than the general population.