(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.
