**“I’m not sure why a request for response by a religious subset should be treated with scorn as other threads don’t generally result in such response.”
**
Every conservative thread started by a Conservative is heaped with scorn. What’s with the fear of hearing skeptical opinions? Don’t let your feelings get hurt by strangers on a message board; they are mostly pudgy blowhards sitting in their wives sewing rooms with a laptop, or perennial slackers and nerds who wrestle with guilt issues.
And to address the rest of your post, what would be wrong with an ex-dieter chiming in with advice on how she stopped dieting by learning a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t require intermittent crash diets? Or how about an ex-motor-head joining a discussion about mechanical issues, even though he’s now a global warming herald and full time bicyclist? Why do you want to limit interaction to members with identical opinions? How about a “Stepford Wives” thread?
Ding, ding, ding! I think you nailed it right there. There have been polite responses and inquiries made out of fellowship and with sincerity, it appears to me. But the lack of any response by the OP makes the above quote truly shine I think! Well done.
There’s also the fact that many of the outspoken nonbelievers here (and, heck, probably some of the believers too) have had bad experiences in their lives with people who claimed to be a Christian or a believer, or have been turned off by some of the dumb, mean things that people say and do in the name of their religion. So some of us are a little reluctant to go around saying “Hey, I’m a believer!” or “As a Christian…” because if that claim is the only thing people have to judge us by, many of the people here are going to judge us negatively.
Really? I was going to stay out of this thread out of respect for the OP’s wishes. But you really don’t understand the scorn? If I posted how convincing the Discovery Channel’s show on mermaids was last week, don’t you think I’d get a pretty heavy dose of scorn?
The assumption that everyone would automatically know what the OP meant by “believers” ticks me off slightly. There are an uncountable number of things people believe in, and to assume that the default definition would be a particular sect of a particular religion among all the other religions among all the other things people believe in is, at best, naïve.
Actually, my point was quite the contrary. I was saying that most people here are intelligent and non-believers, so as a believer I was starting to wonder if I should feel under par.
That is one frustrating thing about my belief in God and the bible. As a “this world” dweller, I personally support gays. So yeah, don’t know what to do with that. I figure I’ll just have to deal with it when I reach the pearly gates and see what God has to say in person.
Because, just to pick a few threads, as a non-expert in ballistics and a male, there is relatively little insight I could offer in a thread on ballistics or a thread on the utility of a particular kind of bra. But in a thread on the ratio of christians to non-christian, religious belief is not a relevant criteria.
haha. OP only goes on SDMB during work hours, but couldnt wait to log back in this morning! Thanks guys, I love how for the most part you are all respectful. You have indeed answered my questions and my inclinations. I had a feeling that as a believer, I simply need to stay away from any threads that would discuss otherwise, and just stay in the “light, fun” threads. So yup that’s what I’ll do.
