(February 3, 2016 at 11:17 am)robvalue Wrote: My biggest wonder is what some theists are actually doing here, at all. I have great respect and fondness for the ones that genuinely join the community. But for the rest, I can only conclude they are here to reassure themselves. They can't seriously be expecting to convince anyone of anything. If they are, they're taking entirely the wrong approach. By (mostly) making no effort at all to understand what logic is, and why it's important, they are ensuring that everything they say will have zero persuasive power to any sceptic. So what's the point? Are they hoping for easily manipulated or weak minded people to convert?
"Respect" that is a topic for another thread. I hate that word, it is so loaded, and mostly never used as the user asking for it intends. Most of the time it is merely used to stop a conversation and really means "Don't bruise my ego" or "Know your place in your social order".
I say "value" instead. I value human empathy, but equal to that is the ability to demonstrate what you claim is true beyond your own personal bias. I will always value human rights, even the right to make claims I find absurd. But I also value my right to respond to those claims.
