RE: Local theists, how do you feel about atheists?
October 3, 2014 at 11:53 am
(This post was last modified: October 3, 2014 at 11:53 am by Neo-Scholastic.)
Whateverist, I feel reluctant to generalize my AF experiences. Those I find belligerent or willfully ignorant are on my ignore list. That technical feature improves my experience greatly. Personally, I think the civility of discourse depends on which forum/thread I participate.
The philosophy forums seem to generate the most thoughtful and serious discussions. That said I think, the regulars tend to talk past each other. They have already spent considerable time studying and reflecting on their own beliefs and the alternatives. Sometimes the philosophically inclined, like myself, tend to push their debate partners into familiar categories and thereby miss novel ideas and subtleties. To some extent that is unavoidable since serious study demands that the student focus on a particular area, in my own case ancient and Medieval philosophy. Others focus on modern philosophy and much of the nomenclature between the two is different.
Other forums are more confrontational, particularly the one for Christianity, threads titled “Christians explain…”, those that attempt to disprove God’s present some kind of apparent contradiction or mocking a literal interpretation of Scripture. For some reason, atheists that should know better, ignore doctrinal differences and think every Christian must be a fundamentalist evangelical.
Personally, I find many common phrases directed at Christians and their beliefs to be particularly obnoxious. I’m not really offended, I’m a big-boy now, but I do think that anyone that uses terms like “sky daddy” or “zombie Jesus” to describe my Lord and Savior both immature and stupid. They are immature because they think they’re being clever when in fact they are just acting like jerks. And I think they are stupid because their juvenile caricatures of spiritual concepts stand between them and their personal growth.
But we all have our days and even the best of us act like asses some time, except for me. I'm always a pompous ass =-)
All that said, I know that many consider some of my firm (and oft repeated) beliefs about atheism ignorant and provocative. For example, I still think nihilism is the logical extreme of atheism, even though many atheists believe that they are not themselves nihilists. Personally I don’t think they have thought it through all the way for whatever reason, but haven’t pressed the issue recently except on threads devoted explicitly to meaning and significance.
The philosophy forums seem to generate the most thoughtful and serious discussions. That said I think, the regulars tend to talk past each other. They have already spent considerable time studying and reflecting on their own beliefs and the alternatives. Sometimes the philosophically inclined, like myself, tend to push their debate partners into familiar categories and thereby miss novel ideas and subtleties. To some extent that is unavoidable since serious study demands that the student focus on a particular area, in my own case ancient and Medieval philosophy. Others focus on modern philosophy and much of the nomenclature between the two is different.
Other forums are more confrontational, particularly the one for Christianity, threads titled “Christians explain…”, those that attempt to disprove God’s present some kind of apparent contradiction or mocking a literal interpretation of Scripture. For some reason, atheists that should know better, ignore doctrinal differences and think every Christian must be a fundamentalist evangelical.
Personally, I find many common phrases directed at Christians and their beliefs to be particularly obnoxious. I’m not really offended, I’m a big-boy now, but I do think that anyone that uses terms like “sky daddy” or “zombie Jesus” to describe my Lord and Savior both immature and stupid. They are immature because they think they’re being clever when in fact they are just acting like jerks. And I think they are stupid because their juvenile caricatures of spiritual concepts stand between them and their personal growth.
But we all have our days and even the best of us act like asses some time, except for me. I'm always a pompous ass =-)
All that said, I know that many consider some of my firm (and oft repeated) beliefs about atheism ignorant and provocative. For example, I still think nihilism is the logical extreme of atheism, even though many atheists believe that they are not themselves nihilists. Personally I don’t think they have thought it through all the way for whatever reason, but haven’t pressed the issue recently except on threads devoted explicitly to meaning and significance.
