journal.novachild.com: Onward Forum Soldiers

Onward Forum Soldiers
4/22/2005

I browse Christian forums occasionally, not entirely for self-abuse but also for enlightenment. And I love a good theological argument. It gets me all excited to see believers and non-believers duking it out like a couple of fightin' roosters. (Hey, I know it might be sad and pathetic, but most people like to watch a bunch of dumb-ass football players slapping each other on the ass for hours for the same kind of kicks. Ask yourself: which is worse?)

Many 'non-believers' post in Christian forums, and occasionally their posts are absolutely brilliant. Not offensive, not aggressive and rude, but beautifully written and well-established, sincere perspectives of why they just don't buy the creed. Like this one. And at that point, it is the believer's job to tear their perspectives to shreds while struggling with the 'face value' of the role they have adopted. In other words, they not only reject the thesis, but also they reject any notion that the 'non-believer' can justifiably feel the way he does, based on a scriptural text that the nonbeliever doesn't even consider valid. It's really an impossible gesture on both sides; one guy believes the scripture to be the only source of truth, and the other guy believes that the scripture is simply hearsay handed down from hundreds of years of verbal tradition. This makes the debate occasionally interesting, but usually it's just a fun 'duke-em nuke-em' for the whole family. The controversial argument of two distinctly oppossite perspectives creates a sort of paradox, and paradox has a way of turning normal everyday people into raving madmen. Anyone read Pratchett, lately?

Here is a line that I see every time a 'non-believer' posts his reasons as to why he/she doesn't believe in the existence of Jesus, and uses a non-gospel historical document to justify his thesis:
You can't base anything on non-gospel accounts.

And then further in the discussion, the 'Believer' asks the 'non-believer' to quote all of his sources for all of the reasons why he doesn't believe Jesus exists. The 'Believer' has already expressed the opinion that they aren't valid. So why does he/she suddenly need sources? Only to debunk them, one by one, which points the way toward their true intent NOT to discuss or explore, but to continue to twist words in such a way to support their perspective. This is antithetical to the logical process.

Some docemented proof, please.

Then the 'Believer' nearly always gets snarky and bullheaded. The non-believer, who came for intelligent discussion, is now offended by the snarkiness and the self-righteousness of the 'Believer/s' and either gets heated and stupid or just walks away, feeling somehow cheated or slighted and probably even more disgusted with Christianity as a whole.

So I'm not a Christian. But I can give advice. If you see these guys in your forums, you can either masturbate to a number of biblical passages and tear their ideas to shreds, or you can be a little more human about it and be OK with them having their perspective. Put away your agenda and just talk, person to person. That's what any good-natured 'non-believer' would do.

And while I think many non-believers are well-intentioned in their sharing of viewpoints, I also think it is a futile gesture. Especially in a public Christian forum. Kind of like this journal entry.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, April 22, 2005,

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