On "Scholarly Consensus"

[MindForgedManacle]

I think its important to note here that Minimalist has the highest kudos and reps of anyone on this site and probably always will. Why? because he says outright what even the most polite of us are thinking. He may be rude and crude but most of the time he's right.

It's trivial and irrelevant that one's belief is true if you don't have justification for it. And the problem with saying things outright - meaning usually before you can actuall assess such - is that you're just going to keep theists away, the very people that many here would like to see dwindle in numbers, which is rendered out of reach by constant use of that approach.

It's very much akin to why vehement street preachers in the US, who go up to people shouting "YOU ARE SINFUL TRASH!!11", never get converts: he's on overbearing, angry dick.