Miss tery, Slydevl, and VOR -- what are your intentions in this forum?

from dictionary.com...

gad·fly n.

1) A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance.

2) One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad.

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Definition #1 is not welcome in this forum. That's what R & R is for.

Definition #2 is welcome in this forum, provided the 'provocation' is to meaningful and/or insightful discussion. If not, take it to R & R.

The choice is yours.

 

I know you've tried. But when you have people on either side basically keeping score, and you're leaning toward one side, the other side will complain. That's natural. I personally don't want to be chided and asked irrelevant questions that are going to be attempted to be used against me. But that's all I've seen. That and an attempt to recruit so that a viewpoint won't be "outnumbered". Which I personally find distasteful as hell.

agree, and in basic theory that's fine. It's the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" type thing. But I don't think that people in general just want to sit there and defend their Christian, non-Christian, or other views all day, either. And that's the environment I'm seeing somewhat.

And you know what it reminds me of, to a point? NOTD. I don't want it to be where this place gets censored by its own people because they're afraid to say what they think because of retribution.

>>That sentiment flows from an assumption based on past behavior, which is precisely why I included the "clean slate" rule in this forum's policy. R & R is the place to re-hash old wounds, not here.

Agreed. I've just not seen anything to suggest otherwise, yet. I would like to see growth there.


And just for the record I'd had gadfly in my profile for a couple weeks now.

 

Just a note that currently, 10 out ot the top 20 topics listed on this board involve atheism directly or indirectly and several of those are jokes. Not one of those topics was started by anyone who has identified themselves as a non-believer. Yep, I would certainly say the balance is a bit off in this forum at the moment.

 

But each of these was started in direct response to derogatory statements or threads by someone claiming to be an atheist. It's not like they started in a vacuum.

 

You are correct and I do understand that fully. I also believe that some good discussion has come out of those threads. However, I do think the redundant nature of the "point making" is a detriment to the forum. Hey, I'm probably in the minority on that idea, too.

 

I actually agree with that. I don't like it when there's someone attempting to teach a lesson to everyone else, i.e. imposing that person's will on everyone else. We've dealt with that more this year in R&R than ever, obviously.
So I can't really be down with the action it's caused. It's very reactive. But my arguments support the ideals behind it, all the same.

Allowing a strong amount of atheistic attack that's largely just someone's entertainment for a person or two, that's detrimental to those that want to honestly exchange ideas. That causes such reactive threads.

 

I agree with you on both counts.

 

Thessalonians 5:15

 

Actually, it's 1 Thessalonians 5:15, and you can add Matthew 5:11 to that, too.

 

'Irrelevant' is in the eye of the beholder, IMO. And so what if the questions are irrelevant? Does that hurt anyone? If anyone feels a question isn't worth answering, don't answer it. If said question is 'used against' someone, that's when I'll step in.

Why? This isn't a Christian board, or even a Christian forum. Why shouldn't there be a better representation of all beliefs here?

Not exactly. It's a matter of stepping outside a situation to get a different perspective.

I stand by my belief that an exchange of different ideas is a good mechanism to get people to examine both their own beliefs and keep their minds open to other possibilities. No one is being forced to respond.

I don't either, and that's precisely what I'm trying to keep from happening. The success of this forum is based on a high comfort level across the board.