You know, you’re right. Xians are just terrific people. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Am I on the right track now?
Big difference between showing basic respect and being a brown-noser. You can still disagree with theists, you can point out the many flaws that exist in their beliefs, and if you do it nicely you’ve got a better chance of convincing someone than if you badmouth someone. As often in life, it’s the middle range you want to aim for.
No, but I’ll guide you through the process of reading for comprehension if you’d like.
First step is to identify how the other person’s argument is constructed. How are the ideas grouped and separated? Are they new presentations, or are they responses to something offered previously? How are the ideas linked? Does one idea set up the propositions on which the next idea is based, or is there no necessary progression?
Try deconstructing post # 8 and write a sentence which either paraphrases or responds to each idea. Be complete, but also be concise. Don’t worry; once you gain familiarity with this step, the rest of the process gets easier.
It’s interesting to me how people counseling me in avoiding rudeness and condescension (BECAUSE IT’S BAD FOR ME!) find it so hard to avoid themselves.
C’mon man. Post #2. Where is the harm?
(Where is the love?)
You’ve got this precisely ass backwards. All I need do is be tireless and correct. It’s the Xians who say that being nice to people is so important. Of course, they have a freakishly hard time displaying niceness or patience or pretty much any of the so-called Xian virtues, but what they mean I think is that it’s important for all non-Xians to be nice and patient with them. Somehow, I dont think they’ve read their Bible properly, but what do I know about the counseling of Christ?
I’ve only pissed in their Cheerios a couple of dozen times here on the SD–that gives me what? four hundred-odd more times to go before they can attack me? Does the counter start over again if they jump on me before I hit 490?
Actually, that would be zero reasons. But nice try! You almost came close to a real reason on some of those points.
Incidentally, are you still trying to pass yourself off as a college professor? How’s that working for you?
And if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.
Again, excluded middle. The composition of homilies is not an injury to you or to society, as it is not an either/or proposition which prevents clerics from serving directly.
That’s easy, practically self-explanatory. It eats away at my time, having to argue with Xians all day long. You don’t think I could be accomplishing something useful with my energy here? I’m the middle of a chapter where I’ve just thought of a line of dialogue that needs to be inserted into a speech, but can’t figure out where. So I started this thread to clear my mind, but Jesus it’s time-consuming.
Hey, here’s a quick and simple solution to your problem:
Shut the fuck up.
See? No more time wasted!
I’m still wondering what Christians are ignorant of, exactly. Except I’m afraid you’re going to say something that amounts to “ignorant of the fact that they’re wrong!!”
See post # 10.
They’re the ones putting out this bullshit document, about events that supposedly happened a couple of thousand years ago, and claiming that it’s all perfectly true (except whenever science proves that belief insustainable, in which case it’s only symbolically true, but true nonetheless) but they can’t actually back up any of those claims of truth to the satisfaction of anyone who’s already not a believing Xian, and you’re asking ME wherein lies their ignorance?
Like I said, Go prove a shred of the Bible, then we can start talking. The burden is on you, and until you bear your burden, kindly STFU.
It pains me to say this as an atheist but
From here. I would love to see this study disproven, but from what I’ve read it is pretty solid.
How many people have you converted to your way of thinking on these boards?
Let me guess - “If they were reasonable people, they’d see I was making sense!”
It is? I seem to be saying that.
What do you care if they’re rude? If anything, it’s a good thing, because rudeness means no converts. If they’re casting aspersions left and right, and you’re sitting in the middle calmly ignoring the insults and pointing out fallacies, it’s you who’ll look good.
I honestly don’t know what you mean here. Apologies.
The author was interviewed on NPR last week. I caught about 20 minutes of the program, and it was pretty good. I bet it’s archived on their site if you’re interested.
Revenant Threshold
PRR was referring to the Biblical passage in which Jesus urges his followers to forgive their enemies not seven times, but seventy times seven.
Nope. Not on me. I don’t make any claims about the Bible. I don’t give a shit if the Bible’s right or not. The only claims I make are about my experience. And your demand for scientific proof of my experience betrays a profound ignorance of both science and proof. You could test my claims scientifically if you lived my life. That would be replicating the experiment. But since you’re trying to drive a nail with a hacksaw, your demands don’t make any sense. Asking for scientific evidence of Christ in my life is like asking Pat Robinson to confirm the laws of Newton with scripture.
I wasn’t questioning that Christians say people should be nice. I’m questioning his assertation that it’s just Christians who say people should be nice. I’m an athiest, and I say it too.
Merry Christmas, pseudotriton!
May I suggest you familiarize yourself with a few more religions and their practices? Not all religions have paid clergy and not all religions divide the world into “We {fill in the blank}ians are good and everyone else is bad.” For that matter, not all religions have a, shall we say, overabundance of rules compared to others.