MERGED: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Part 1) & (Part 2)

[Esquilax]

To be fair, I think his point about bias is apt, just as apt as when I signed up on a Christian forum and received similar treatment.

I don't think it's a mark against the forum or its members, for the simple reason that bias can be grounded solidly or it can be irrational. I am biased against companies which disseminate cancer-causing agents, not out of emotional spite, but out of rational views. In a similar vein, I am biased against Christianity, because I have examined its premises, and found the god hypothesis entirely unsatisfactory in explanatory power; it raises more questions than it answers.

I agree that bias as you've described it exists in the forum, but that's not the definition of bias Brucer is using when he says that we're just biased against christianity and that is the reason our conclusions don't match his and should be discarded. When he says that- which he did- he's using bias to mean that we don't have open minds and are simply adhering to a presupposition that impedes a fair evaluation of the claims of his religion, and that's what I object to.

The fact that he later backtracked and pretended he was using your definition of the word, Parkers, doesn't alter the fact that the argument he used wouldn't make sense unless he was using the term negatively.

Your attitude and dishonesty encourages me to not trust a single word you say.

You're the one equivocating on definitions and, I think, misinterpreting what I'm actually saying, for whatever reason. I may have an attitude, but you were the one who stoked it by dictating to others what they believe and why. As to dishonesty, there you go yet again; perhaps I actually believe what I'm saying, and aren't simply lying to get you, did you ever even consider that? Don't flatter yourself by thinking you're worthy of some vendetta; if you hadn't started accusing people of bias I would never have stepped in.

If you ever want to earn the trust of any theists on this forum you are going to have to buck up, look in the mirror, look at the attitude of this forum against theists and carefully consider your position.

There are theists on this forum that I get along with quite well. It's only the needlessly combative ones who feel they can tell the staff how to do their jobs that I butt heads with; I wonder why that is?

As to "my position," if you're still telling me you think my position is that there isn't any animosity against christianity here, then you really need to go back and read my prior posts here, because you'd be dead wrong.

You see me with attitude right now? That attitude is directly related to how I have been treated, and you wonder why theists get banned so much on this forum?

How you've been treated is directly related to how you've conducted yourself in this thread, you're no innocent victim here.

When moderators such as yourself involve themselves into assisting the ridicule of theists, what do you think that says to theists about the leadership on this forum?

I may be a moderator, but I'm also a poster here, and the common understanding is that I and the rest of the team conduct ourselves as both; we indicate when we're speaking in an official context, and the rest of the time, we aren't. We induct theists onto the mod- and even the admin!- teams too, and every decision made behind the scenes requires multiple votes from numerous members of staff, not just one of us, to eliminate any possibility of misconduct. We even recuse ourselves from voting on these issues if they relate to us personally.

If you think the fact that I engage in the forum as anything other than an impartial adjudicator robot "says" anything about the leadership here, the only reason you could think that is due to immense ignorance regarding the nature of the staff, the running of this forum, and the procedures therein. Now for you, this doesn't surprise me; you've only been here a few days, and already you've proven yourself quite incapable of withholding judgement on issues and people you know little about.

Do you want theists on this forum? Do you think a theist can trust you? Seriously?

If you don't want any theists here, just keep doing what you are doing.

The theists can trust me to do my job as a moderator impartially, as can the atheist contingent. That doesn't mean I stop being a person, nor the user I was in the months leading up to my recruitment to the staff. I'd suggest that you stop running your mouth about this, since you have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, nor the lengths we go to to keep impartiality. Just as an example, to show how truly ridiculous this accusation of yours is, just yesterday I, personally, defended you when somebody brought up the possibility that you might be a sock account. If we truly were as terrible at our jobs as you claim, if I actually had something against you, that would have been a perfect opportunity for me to whip up a vote to get you banned, but the evidence just wasn't there and so I counseled against it, and nothing came of it.

So please, tell me again how the theists here can't trust me and the rest of the staff to be impartial when running the forum.