Atheists on religious forums

[Bob Kelso]

What can I say, some of us are gluttons for punishment.

[RobertE]

I still fail to see the point of joining a religious forum. I'm not into trolling and I'm not in the missionary business either. Given that most of the so called christian forums bath in their ignorance of the real world and science, it woud be a pointless endeavor anyway.

Being an administrator of a football forum that is based in the United Kingdom, it is pretty easy to find a troll. One of the things I started was a question and answer forum with regards to opposition fans and the upcoming match. The risky forums for me as a Manchester United supporter, are those of Liverpool, Manchester City, Leeds United and Arsenal. We have rivalries between these teams that have been going on for decades.

Now, in saying that, I have gone onto opposition boards, created an avatar of my own team and so, it was blatantly obvious that I was an opposition supporter. In my opening statement, I made it clear that I wasn't there to troll, but there to ask questions and to get some feedback, whether it was negative or positive. In fact, it is a pretty good way of getting opposition supporters to join your own forum too, since netiquette is so important and if you use the correct attitude, then you can go far.

So, if you have been banned or what have you, then it must have been for a reason of sorts. Remember, I am still a member of many other forums, where I could have been a troll, but decided in the interests of netiquette, decided not to become argumentative and to see the way others think about my particular football team.

[abaris]

So, if you have been banned or what have you, then it must have been for a reason of sorts. Remember, I am still a member of many other forums, where I could have been a troll, but decided in the interests of netiquette, decided not to become argumentative and to see the way others think about my particular football team.

What gives you the impression I have been banned? If I didn't join in the first place, it's rather difficult to get thrown out.

[The Reality Salesman01]

I joined several theist forums with the intent to engage in honest discussions. I am honestly interested in what people believe and why they believe it.

I never cussed (Christians have the ability to ignore evidence and logical argument if any profanity is used) and never insulted. All I did was ask honest questions, respond to their questions honestly, and point out fallacies and inaccuracies.

The longest I ever lasted was probably about 10 posts. Banned every time.

I have a great plan in mind. I might join a catholic one and an Islamic one, and just post honestly and join in debates. I will not let on as to who I am or what my beliefs (or a lack of) are and if all is good and everything moves swimmingly, I will feed them some false information, just to make things interesting i.e. things that both Catholics and Muslims hate. Then we will see which forum would ban me first.

I tried that but for me, it got to be too weird. They don't approach the subjects the same way we do in here. In their domain, everyone has already drank the Kool-Aide and so there's no reason to speak with the anticipation of receiving any critical review in return. The moment something intelligent gets mentioned that contradicts something that is blatantly absurd, an eerie feeling sweeps through and they begin hunting for the outsider. On their forums, they have no shame in their beliefs, they freely and openly discuss all the crazy shit they believe. Unlike here, even the theists know that some of their beliefs are better left private...I found it hard to hold my tongue and no matter how respectful, I was eventually banned.

[Whateverist]

Yeah I was invited to post at William Craig's website by a new poster here a while back. I looked for common ground and opportunities to slip in what I think in the least offensive way possible. Always there are the vocal few who will take offense regardless and act like asses. After a while it just became oppressive to sift through all the defensiveness and hostility. I wasn't banned but I did get bored. After a short time there I decided they had gotten enough pearls from me.

[Thumpalumpacus]

"Defensiveness" -- good way to put it.

[JuliaL]

I would be grateful if anyone who has done some serious lurking/trolling/being
banned on theist forums would provide links to their favorites.

I'm interested in lurking for the purposes of shadenfreude and to find out
"what ARE they thinking!" Watching religious zombie brainworms
(analogous to earworms) eating minds is deliciously creepy to watch. I
wouldn't want to own one.

If there are any long threads of 'apologists say the stupidest things,' distilling
the process of making bad logical arguments, I'd be interested in that too
(sorry if I've missed obvious existence here.) Specially any meta-analyses
showing prevalence of classes of stupid. I'm pretty clear on the
standard refuted arguments for theism. Why anyone would find them
compelling is what I find interesting. I see the theist
mental processes as about the same as those that Pinky uses when asked,
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

[The Reality Salesman01]

If you want to see some terrible apologetic pseudo-arguments, watch any debate with William Lane Craig.

[Spooky]

If any of you are going to join a christer site, I would recommend this one.

WTF.

I know the christians aren't much for logic...but wow.

[Bob Kelso]

Not a forum, but if you're looking for a few good laughs and a chance to see some Grade A insanity then the PERSECUTED page on Facebook is just rife with opportunity.