My take on Life

[Fromper]

If people were just challenging his statements and correcting his scientific misconceptions, I wouldn't be complaining about rude behavior. Look at my own post. I politely recommended a book that will help him understand the Big Bang Theory, since his first post showed an obvious lack of understanding.

Now look at the first page of this thread. The first two responses were of the "So if you don't want us to try and convince you, then why are you here?" variety, which I'll agree seems like a perfectly reasonable response to the opening post. The OP responded with something of a generic non-answer, but at least he seemed relatively polite about it. The next three responses all literally swore at him and called him names, without bothering to contribute anything of use to the conversation. Is it any wonder that theists tend to assume that all atheists are just angry and rude?

Uhm... I think I was pretty polite, not that he deserved the politeness. The OP signed up for an account, wrote a wall of text, and had no point at the end. He didn't write an intro and he had no interest in engaging the community. He came here to proselytize. It's really simple.

Yes, by this thread's standards, you were polite. Compared to the "fucktard", "christard", and "head up your ass" comments in posts 5-7, your "mental masturbation" line in post #9 was tame. But even that was ruder than I would have been.

He did post some things that I clearly disagree with, and said that he doesn't want us to try and convince him. Politely asking why he's here is an appropriate response. So is correcting his misconceptions and pointing him towards additional reading material, even if he said that he wasn't going to listen. If he persists in refusing to listen to what we have to tell him, then telling him to go away because we don't want him coming here and preaching at us is also appropriate. But again, say it politely.

I'm a "lead by example" type of guy. I know that the theist world tends to look down at atheists, so I try to be extra polite, just to make sure I don't add fuel to the fire. I treat people with respect until they prove they don't deserve it. This guy didn't swear at us, so I wouldn't swear at him. Heck, even if he did swear at us, I wouldn't swear at him.

I'm a big believer in the "kill them with kindness" method. If you're extremely polite, then even if the person being an ass to you doesn't realize he's being the jerk, all the third party observers will. All the rude responses here seem to be acting like the only Christian you're talking to is the original poster, which isn't true. This is the internet. Some skeptical Christian is going to read this thread in 5 years, and the rude and arrogant atheists are going to make them reject their skepticism, because they'll think all atheists are assholes, and they don't want to turn into that.

It's like Bill Nye vs Ken Ham in that debate. Do you think Nye honestly thought Ham could be convinced?