We need more theistic activity

[Edwardo Piet]

I agree with the sentiment of this thread, and both Khem and CL make good points. "Quality over quantity."-- "Don't scare them off."

I think that we have some "quality" theists who join the forums and start a thread with an honest (but perhaps logically problematic) post and everyone is like: "WTF!? Burden of proof!-Sky Fairy!-Ignorant!-Fuck off!" And it's overwhelming for some people who otherwise might eventually understand where we are coming from and go on to become a quality contributor.

I think that theists who aren't obv-trolls need to be given the benefit of the doubt, especially if they display openness and willingness to listen.

The best result, IMO, is a theist coming here and learning about atheism, a subject about which he or she might have been poorly informed. I'm not saying we shouldn't put the hard questions to them eventually, but if a person shows a propensity toward logic and reason, perhaps we should be more cordial... approach them at their level at first and show them why we think atheism is reasonable.

We should reserve our savage wit for the trolls, holy rollers, and bigots. Reasonable theists ought to be identified as such and met half way.

PS: Don't forget that many of us were once convinced theists who had questions about atheism.

I agree that if we need more theists to join then we need them to be quality theists and we also need the atheists to stop being rude assholes to them.

I just don't agree that we need more theists to join

When they do join I hope they're both nice and not scared away!