by Perry 74 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Isn't it perfectly natural to debate an issue that someone continually throws in your face?? If Xians would just stop trying to convert people or religion was to disappear tomorrow, then I guess atheism would cease to exist as well. These issues only exist because one side or the other wont STFU.
DD
When a thread starts with the premise of telling other people what they believe, "Why Do Atheists Struggle So Much Against God", rather than asking if it's even true, it is bound to go off the rails rather quickly.
Then posting an hour-long video where responders are expected to carry all the water if a discussion is to take place, rather than the OP taking time to pick a few well-chosen points from said video to make his argument, and the deafening silence from the theist side of things when questions are asked, well... what could possibly go wrong?
And for good measure, add to the mix the all-too-predictable posts which accuse atheists of being outraged, intolerant and 'ganging up' on the OP for no other reason than the atheists are showing more interest in the topic than the nowhere-to-be-found, invisible OP does.
Ditto, Dog and Shirley,
Perry is a narcissist who thrives on attention. He chose the title of his OP, I'm certain, to annoy atheists and get the response he craves. I try to avoid Perry; most of the time he is harmless and similar to an annoying gnat that won't go away and get out of your face no matter how many times you swat at it.
The premise of the OP is bullshit, as usual. No matter how many times we atheists explain to Perry or some of the other thesits that our atheism was a very long, methodical, non-emotional rational journey they post such nonsense. It seems Perry spends his spare time looking for the most reasonably sounding confirmationally biased tripe he can find. He has to know it will be nuked and fail to sway anyone, but he persists nonetheless. He gets high marks for tenacity.
Perry and some of the hard core theists simply cannot wrap their brains around the fact that atheists do not need god to behave and do not struggle in our non-beliefs. I struggled to be a theist. Being an atheist has freed me from any struggle. Perry, there is a lot of data that suggests the more rational one's personality the more llikely they are to be atheist. That's 180 degrees opposite from your premise it would seem.
Devout religionists like Perry start threads like this one from and out of their personal struggle within their beliefs.
The premise being presented here states that all atheists know god existences which in itself is malignly untrue.
It's like people who don't eat a balanced diet and then complain that they can't poop.
Rub a Dub
have you all repented.....
Threads that claim to know what other posters really believe deep down inside continue an auspicious Watchtower tradition of "knowing" what non-JWs really believe deep down inside. It is a tradition some ex-JWs themselves find hard to shake-off.
A well developed pattern of these threads is the hit and run OP in which the poster makes a deliberately provocative proclamation and then virtually bows out whilst "provoked" posters argue the point among themselves. Perry has mastered this art and has few rivals here.
Whilst it is good to see so many respond to Perry's latest example of JW-styled hit and run thread, it would be wishful thinking for any poster who has responded - including me - to assume Perry is actually interested enough to engage with the actual specifics of posters' responses.
In my view, what Terry said on page 2 of this thread was paramount.
Many thanks James for succinctly reminding us of Terry's very humanly kind consideration of the way posters are treated from time to time on this forum. I acknowledge I am one who reacts at times with impatient "reasoning" and I need to remember that it is crucial to welcome and make room for many views - especially those that may remind me of how I was treated when I was struggling in the organization.
It can be personally terribly hard for me to show kindness and understanding to those who purport to tell me what I really believe deep down - something Perry does on the latest thread as it has disturbing shades of how the witnesses respond when other witnesses struggle with doubt. Thanks again.
I agree with your sentiments, Steve, and Terry's observations.
I think the real reason theists get the response they do here (at least from my personal perspective), is that:
1) they tell atheists what they think, feel and believe (like Perry did on this thread) which immediately says they've made assumptions, and most likely conclusions, about other people before the discussion even begins,
2) they judge atheists as being unintelligent, angry, immoral, having no sense of spirituality, basically, atheists are worthless human debris,
3) they then quite often say or imply that we will be/already are condmned by god for using our brain and following our conscience because we honestly arrived at a different conclusion than the theist did,
4) no matter how much information we give a theist explaining our position, or worse, completely debunking their claims, they act as if they never heard it and then continue on with their 'you must believe in god becaue I do' mantra. It really betrays a complete lack of interest in having an open, learning discussion where a sharing of views is acceptable without having to settle on a 'one side is right/the other is wrong' mentality.
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The worst part is when a theist initiates the discussion, then either exits the topic altogether or actually gets angry when he/she is met with anything but 100% agreement on whatever topic they are addressing, showing complete lack of interest in hearing any opinion that disagrees with their own.
Finally, I have a very low patience threshold when it comes to the Perry-types, simply bacause they do a lot of wolfing about being morally superior to everyone else (especially atheists) because they believe in god, and are equally as critical of their fellow Christians who also believe in god but see things differently (if only by minor deghrees), while they simultaneously endorse the most despicable actions performed by that same god as described in the Bible (killing of infants/children, genocide, blatant injustice, pettiness, cruelty, etc). And, the theist can come up with the most convoluted, illogical, nauseatingly repugnant explanations to justify those actions, actions which anyone with even miniscule amounts of humanity in them find offensive at best.
