(April 22, 2019 at 10:30 am)tackattack Wrote: Because words that are the most offensive or insulting really spur rational discussion? Because they can de-escalate the emotionalism from an argument so that people actually listen to each other? No because they sate some juvenile need because your EQ is somewhere stuck near your IQ and equitable to that of a butt-hurt 4 year old (pun intended). I wonder why Christians generally assume most atheists are reactionary and puerile or conflate atheists with anti-theists regularly?
But it doesn't always work that way.
I have joined several Christian forums, and have been banned for doing nothing more than asking legitimate questions. I never cussed, never insulted anyone on these forums.
Yet, within just a few posts, I was banned.
I then continued to visit these forums for a while to see the comments against me after I was gone. Not only was I insulted and misrepresented, but these 'loving Christians' seemed happy that I was destined to eternal torture in Hell, for finite thought crimes.
And this behavior was not isolated. It replayed itself one almost every theist forum I joined.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
