Wow. 
You don’t know what I believe, and you don’t know why I believe it. And you can’t really argue with it, so you throw a temper tantrum.
Where your personal vitriol is coming from I neither know nor care. I’ve never before on the Boards seen someone’s substantive response reduced to “You shut up!”, but I can only reply as I used to when I was a kid and another kid told me to shut up: Make me, Mr. Poopy Pants! 
I appreciate your sentiments but sometimes polite conversation just gets ignored. Sometimes my more aggressive style gets ignored too, but with the combination of styles (kind of good cop/bad cop) things get drawn into the open adequately. Besides, the world loves a villain.
While I am sure that is often true, I read a psych book that stated that if a person argues a point, and is left with the feeling he did so successfully, he becomes even surer that his point is correct. This is why I argue to win. I like to make it such that my opponent knows they did not argue successfully.
I’ve converted 6 that I know about. One of my friends, who makes use of my arguments in college said he just had 3 people come up to him and say because of what he said they were now atheists. I said “Rock on.” So while I can’t say that my method is the best, I think it has some merit.
Respectfully, I hope he doesn’t. Der Trihs is one of the few to call a spade a spade. Christianity is in our estimation is not only wrong but morally bankrupt and it is very hard to point that out politely.
Oh for crissakes. It’s fucking obvious that he enjoys posting the most provocative, deliberately inflammatory arguments he can make, purely to get a rise out of others. He’s constantly gloating about how he “got you!” as if there’s somehow a competition. The use of his sig to mock Polycarp for some stupid reason and the way he followed Poly around was pathetic. And being told NOT to post his sig again by a mod, he did so deliberately.
He’s not interested in honest debate-he only wants to stir shit up and somehow “prove” that he’s right and everyone else is wrong. And his ignorance of the history of Christianity is painfully obvious.
Look, I don’t give a shit if you’re an atheist, a Christian, or whatever. But don’t act like a jackass.
We also have PLENTY of atheist posters who don’t get Pitted for this sort of thing, so can the bullshit about how he’s being persecuted for his beliefs.
:rolleyes:
The Golden Rule is in the OT? I did not know that.
I could be wrong, but my guess is that badchad is not hoping to convince those he debates with so much as hoping to demolish them in front of others so as to lead the others to conclude “badchad was right, 'cuz he won the debate”.
My personal opinion is that we should not brand him “troll” and evict him from our midst, but that when someone goes up against him in a thread, those who care about the issue(s) should post their own responses to the perspectives being put forth — not try to pile on in an overall sense pro or anti badchad but, since he appears to want to make these things adversarial and winning-centric, to score the debates (“Poster has a good point there” / “**I dunno, Poster isn’t really addressing the question that badchad asked” / badchad is restating what he said on page 3 and Poster already addressed that).
In other words, if we’re going to do cage matches, let’s have some referees. It shouldn’t have to be like being a guest on O’Reilly or Coulter, where the only way to avoid being shouted down is to adopt the same tactics . Maybe even convene a panel with people of varying theological persuasions and have a formal debate or something.
I don’t care for the whole “I’m here to win” thing but I think badchad has some good challenging material questions that would be fun to address, and to address each other’s responses & whatnot.
Since you don’t know what I believe, how would you know that it’s irrational or hateful? You can only reach this conclusion after YOU decide what I have to believe and after YOU tell me what the text or passage has to mean. You’re not interested in what I actually believe, and you’re completely incapable of beiing minimally civil in discussing what I believe. You have your comfy little straw man of “this is what Christianity is [because I say so] and this is what Christians believe [because I say so], and so the whole system is evil,” and you amuse yourself setting it up and knocking it down, and you give yourself a naughtly little boner by being as outrageous as you possibly can and trolling around after POLYCARP. You’re a one-trick pony, and it’s a boring trick.
You can inform me to your heart’s content that what I believe is irrational and hateful and that actually in reality I’m in favor of human sacrafice after which we sit around and nibble on the heart while singing Christmas carols. Your reality is not my reality, and your reality – at least as demonstrated on the Boards – is boring, man. You’ve made your position clear. I disagree with it, to say the least. I’m not entertained or outraged enough to refute your position, and I can’t get worked up enough to try without a payment of entertainment or outrage, because I don’t respect you. We could talk about something else, except that you don’t talk about anything else, ever. (I assume your boner subsides.) Yet I’m the one who gets told to shut up. It’s through the looking glass, IMO.
Now, would be a very good time for a statement of your faith Jodi. It will help ensure that you are no longer misunderstood.
The problem is, the more confrontational and insulting you are, the more likely your theist opponent will be left with the feeling he or she argued successfully. People often feel that when one side is insulting, that means that side’s argument is weak.
You are the one who labeled yourself a Christian, are you not? We can make at least a few assumptions based on that can’t we? If you’re being misunderstood about what you believe, I think it is only because you have been keeping your beliefs very private. From the outside it almost seems as if you wish to be misunderstood.
Again, how about a statement of your beliefs so as to end all this confusion?
Well, based on what you’ve told us here, I guess we *don’t * know what you believe. I can understand not buying into any of the stuff other people said, but I assume you believe what the bible says jesus said. Do you believe that the statements *attributed * to christ were actually uttered by christ?
So, what exactly compels you to read his exchanges? And if you don’t, why would it bother you that he acts as “heathen missionary”? After all, he’s doing it on a feakin’ messge board. Easy enough enough to ignore his posts and/or threads, not like he’s forcing anyone to respond.
The way I see it, he’s throwing well-backed/thought-out points of contention vis-a-vis Xtianity and taking on all comers. OTOH, AFAIK, he’s not banging on any doors or stopping people on the street in order to change their minds – come to think of what atheists would? Not like the US as a whole is very tolerant of secular views, thus what better place to vent/rant/debate all the absurdities of The Book than a place like this one?
He’s neither breaking board rules nor forcing all the “outraged” Xtians to listen/read/respond to him.
Hmmm…could it be that they are so frustrated because they simply can’t handle his arguements? Tough titty if that’s the case.
Or for people not even to take him seriously, or listen to him at all.
Another question, badchad, and this is serious, not meant to be confrontational, but:
Why do you ONLY post about religion here? Why don’t you ever contribute to other discussions?
In light of AHunter’s post I should also be clear that I have never advocated for banning badchad. He has as much right to post as anyone else, so long as he follows the rules. I do think the sort of intentional provoking he does is poor form, but on these Boards especially, we ought to be smart enough to see that for what it is and act accordingly, be that to take the bait or to ignore it. At some point, it does dance right up to the line of “being a jerk,” IMO, but the point at which he falls over it, if ever, is best left to TPTB.
I mean, my personal response to the outraged Christians who think he’s a big sucking asshole is “then why are you talking to him?”
You might be right. What did you think of the style of argument I used in the post most recently linked by RedFury?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2967937&postcount=193
(snipage)
Have you read the Mod warnings to him? 
I just ignore his rantings, but his *violations of the rules * are what make him “ban-worthy”. That last “Mod-baiting” went far over the line.
By which I assume you admit that you do not know what I believe? And you admit that you do not know that what I believe is hateful and irrational? And you admit that this statement: “We’re just saying that what you Jodi in particular believe is irrational, and sometimes hateful” is something you pulled out of your ass, correct?
On this message board it’s what interests me most. I did a lot of study to extract myself from religion, and in doing so I am very certain of my conclusions. I have what I would call a sunk cost in a somewhat specialized knowledge, and it’s kind of fun to swing it around every once and a while. I do think the world would be a better place if people gave up on the concept that faith (as I have previously defined it) has merit.
A combination of a lack of time for doing so, not having specialized knowledge in a given area, and/or other people saying what I would say as well or better than I could. I do read a lot of other topics here. FWIW, I’m against the war in Iraq; I think Bush is an idiot; I think drugs should be legalized; the two party system should be abolished; I like guns; and I hate taxes.
I generally do ignore him, just as I ignore telemarketers and street preachers. He’s about as valuable.
Oh yes…extremely over the line…even though the mod acknowleged the vague wording in the rule.
On top of the fact that he’s had that sig line for a long time.
Well actually I think I do know enough of what you believe. I just want to have you state your beliefs so as to end any confusion. Why do you want this confusion to continue?
Also you misquoted me.