Thread: thoughts of why people hate Christians

Originally Posted by Grod

This forum was solely designed for debate? Hardly. Debate is only the progression of discussion. If only r/s' primary focus was discussion, it might actually evolve from it's eternal existence as a cesspit of cringing contention. Debate hardly works, even outside of the internet. A debate on religion is so unlikely to change anyone's mind it's laughable. And the success rate of a religious debate, on the internet? Well, I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Discussion of religion is far more constructive, enjoyable, and dare I say- informative -than drudging up the same old arguments we've all seen on here year after year after year. I don't understand how the r/s regulars can find the energy to do it. I can't help but think of Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the hill in Hades. Maybe this time is the charm, right?

Perhaps you missed the description of R/S.

This forum is for any and all religious discussions and debates. We recommend you avoid this forum if you dislike your views, beliefs and opinions being challenged.

Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

Perhaps you missed the description of R/S.

This forum is for any and all religious discussions and debates. We recommend you avoid this forum if you dislike your views, beliefs and opinions being challenged.

Perhaps you missed the entire point of my post. Perhaps you should read it again. Perhaps I'm asking WHY you bother trying to debate religion in r/s. Perhaps you should accept your views in this forum being challenged rather than trying to avoid the issue.

And - I found something interesting:

Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

Par for the course in a section of the forum designed for, you know, debate.

I don't see you mentioning "discussion" a couple days ago, what happened? Perhaps you missed the description of R/S.

>This forum is for any and all religious discussions and debates. We recommend you avoid this forum if you dislike your views, beliefs and opinions being challenged.

Originally Posted by Grod

Perhaps you missed the entire point of my post. Perhaps you should read it again. Perhaps I'm asking WHY you bother trying to debate religion in r/s. Perhaps you should accept your views in this forum being challenged rather than trying to avoid the issue.

...

I don't see you mentioning "discussion" a couple days ago, what happened? Perhaps you missed the description of R/S.

Why do people debate anything? To exchange ideas, to prove someone wrong (or right), to boost their ego, who knows? In my mind, a debate can be a discussion. There are two sides (usually) with opposing ideas (usually), and they talk it out, civilized or uncivilized. What you want are civilized debates. Admirable, but there is no polite way to tell somebody they're wrong or have wasted their life.[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

Why do people debate anything? To exchange ideas, to prove someone wrong (or right), to boost their ego, who knows? In my mind, a debate can be a discussion. There are two sides (usually) with opposing ideas (usually), and they talk it out, civilized or uncivilized. What you want are civilized debates. Admirable, but there is no polite way to tell somebody they're wrong or have wasted their life.

Looks like we disagree fundamentally here. I don't think a debate can ever be a discussion. To me, a debate is two people trying to prove their respective viewpoint, and disprove their opponents. In most cases, there is no room for understanding on either side. On the internet and in real life, they are often as much fueled by ego as they are by the subject. That's not to say debates don't have any value; a concise, "controlled" (ie a moderator) debate can work. And no, I don't want "civilized debates", those never work. They are very forced and stilted, and either devolve into your classic shouting match, or don't really go anywhere and fizzle out. Plus, they are unbelievably awkward. You want them to just fight or fuck already, and get it over with.

What I want is simply honest discussion about religion, nothing more and nothing less. I'm getting the feeling you don't know what I mean by 'discussion', when pertaining to religion. For example, I had special lecture sessions in religion courses I took in university. The professor brought a few other religious scholars or other religions professors in to the hall. The topic was already prepared, and they would talk with each other about the prevailing scholarly interpretation of the passage, competing scholarly interpretations on the passage, the cultural significance of the passage, etc, etc. There was no arguing, no debating, it was a learning experience for everyone involved. There was no goal or objective in mind. I can't explain how much I enjoyed these special lectures I had. If I wasn't so busy with finishing up college now I would love to take another course with those discussion forums. Unless you've experienced something similar in person, a non "objective oriented" discussion might be completely foreign to you, which is understandable. There's little to nothing like that on the internet, certainly.


While I'm of course not expecting a collegiate level of discourse here, I somehow still hope I'll see a thread about exploring a certain topic or concept that isn't stipulated around proving everyone else wrong....or in absence of an antagonistic stipulation, the thread disintegrates into....well....every r/s thread anyway.

I think I should lower my expectations.