Deciphering gibberish?

[brewer]

Or should i be treating some of these conversations as actually dulisional? (Of course in a nicer manner)

How about dilutional? Just a watering down of any reasonable content. Consider it rational lite.

[SlowCalculations]

Is ignorance forever?  If ignorance means lack of knowledge then it need not be.  However if people reject increasing knowledge in favour of superstition then that's not ignorance - it's stupidity.

We are on the same page with ignorance when I say ignorance I am saying lack of knowledge. I can tell you why I don't use the word stupidity, although I don't disagree entirely. I came up with a better way of explaining why I have these debates to you it just took me a bit of time. 

Within religion there are people who hold views that aren't harmful, they believe in equality and human rights and they respect others' opinions. 
But there are people within religion who have ideas that are not about human rights or equality and use it in a way to hurt others without even realizing they're doing anything wrong.
They've been raised to believe it's okay. Those are the people I target with debates those are the people I'm trying to help comprehend why their thoughts are leading them down the wrong path. Yes, people are ignorant, and some people will never change. That being said I know for a fact some people do change if you give them a chance. I've helped many people in my life I enjoy doing it I thrive in that environment. The key is I have the energy for that and I understand where my boundaries and limits are. I do not think everyone has the energy or wants to put the effort into these things and that's okay maybe it's not for them. But as my old teacher once said I'm very much a philosopher.

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Or should i be treating some of these conversations as actually dulisional? (Of course in a nicer manner)

It varies greatly by the individual, the topic, and the phase of the moon.

 - A very few may actually be mentally ill and literally delusional. These are rare but don't argue with one if you spot it. They literally need professional help. Happily, they're few and far between.

 - Many arguments are so spammy, trolly, or simply ill-conceived as to be indistinguishable from gibberish. These are the product of laziness and stupidity rather than a psychiatric condition. You should ignore these as being too dumb to waste your time with. A title like "Atheism and the existence of peanut butter" is a red flag that debating the topic is going to kill brain cells.

 - Many of the remainder are simply coming from such a different world view that it can be very difficult to understand them if you have trouble seeing the other person's point of view. That's a two-way street, and we get to see how badly theists misunderstand atheists every time they start telling us what we think or believe. It's usually utter bollox. If your autism lends itself to a high degree of analytical thinking or narrow but intense focus then you may have a hard time shoe-horning your brain into these very different head spaces. On the plus side, you'll drive evangelicals mad because they'll have an easier time converting a brick wall than getting through to you if that's the case.

I agree with you about the mentally ill, or the slight possibility of this and how to address that if it was to happen. When I said should I be treating people in some of these conversations like they're delusional I don't think I worded that great, I also think I was having a bit of internal "frustration" while writing that sentence.

[Simon Moon]

I occasionally, shift back into having debates I understand debating is basically: Two people doing this to each other   

Actually, I disagree pretty strongly with the above.

I wonder how many former theists on this site alone, were convinced that their former theistic beliefs were not logically justified, or supported by good evidence, through debates?

I know for a fact, that I have helped a former fundamentalist relative, become much less so over the years, through friendly debate.

The YouTube show, The Atheist Experience, has 1000's of letters from former theists, who have become atheists by listening to debates on the show and elsewhere.

[SlowCalculations]

I occasionally, shift back into having debates I understand debating is basically: Two people doing this to each other   

Actually, I disagree pretty strongly with the above.

I wonder how many former theists on this site alone, were convinced that their former theistic beliefs were not logically justified, or supported by good evidence, through debates?

I know for a fact, that I have helped a former fundamentalist relative, become much less so over the years, through friendly debate.

The YouTube show, The Atheist Experience, has 1000's of letters from former theists, who have become atheists by listening to debates on the show and elsewhere.

I'm not telling you that theists can't be convinced by debates. I'm saying that I understand debating is beating each other with sticks "most of the time at least regarding FB. But to be fair I didn't add that so fair assumption. I think there is a certain way to also have a debate I'm not fond of yelling and screaming types. I stopped witching the Athiest experience though for other reasons but for a while it was okay, and on occasion, I don't mind tuning in depending on who it is talking.  I prefer people like Seth, but that's because when i started diving out of supersituous beliefs seth was the person who helped me understand all atheists weren't dicks from listening to his podcasts. At that time I wasn't far from it myself though I just needed a bit of a push. I won't go into why or why not too much here but To find people interested in debates in a manner in which both sides are being educated is actually quite hard to find online today, but it can be done and I do still have them when I got the energy and time on my hands. I'm weird, i don't know if i am making sense but I'm in a "Middle ground" when it comes to debate the way it's is key to me. But if others do it other ways and it helps them good on them do i get it? not really, but that's not my place and it doesn't matter if i understand or not.