Disappearing Christians?

[Zzyzx]

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Disappearing Christians?

During my sixteen months as a member of this forum I have observed significant changes. The “balance has tipped� decidedly in favor of Non-Theists AND the forum has become much more civil. Most of the strong non-religious members who were present a year ago are still present and strong new members have joined.

In contrast, many of the stalwart "defenders of the faith" have dropped out or post very infrequently. Some of the "has-beens" include Rusty, Biker, and Easyrider who were all very vocal a year ago but who are no longer posting or doing so very infrequently and in half-hearted fashion. Even Achilles has been absent for a couple months – which seems unlike him (others may be aware of reasons for his absence).

New fundamentalist and literalist members encounter well presented opposition from many directions and don’t tend to last long. Many tired arguments are presented as though they had just been discovered. An example is Pascal’s Wager (presented as though it was a new and compelling argument for Christianity). I sympathize with those who attempt to defend those positions; however, I see no reason to “dumb down� challenges to the promotion or defense of worship of invisible super beings or their supposed “miracles�.

In order to promote more balanced debate I have considered attempting to recruit strong theistic members – possibly by posting in other forums with the objective of enticing (or challenging) Theists to engage in DC&R debates. Can this be tastefully and ethically done? Has it?

Are there other observations, disagreements or suggestions?

[Vanguard]

.Disappearing Christians?

During my sixteen months as a member of this forum I have observed significant changes. The “balance has tipped� decidedly in favor of Non-Theists AND the forum has become much more civil. Most of the strong non-religious members who were present a year ago are still present and strong new members have joined.

In contrast, many of the stalwart "defenders of the faith" have dropped out or post very infrequently. Some of the "has-beens" include Rusty, Biker, and Easyrider who were all very vocal a year ago but who are no longer posting or doing so very infrequently and in half-hearted fashion. Even Achilles has been absent for a couple months – which seems unlike him (others may be aware of reasons for his absence).

New fundamentalist and literalist members encounter well presented opposition from many directions and don’t tend to last long. Many tired arguments are presented as though they had just been discovered. An example is Pascal’s Wager (presented as though it was a new and compelling argument for Christianity). I sympathize with those who attempt to defend those positions; however, I see no reason to “dumb down� challenges to the promotion or defense of worship of invisible super beings or their supposed “miracles�.

In order to promote more balanced debate I have considered attempting to recruit strong theistic members – possibly by posting in other forums with the objective of enticing (or challenging) Theists to engage in DC&R debates. Can this be tastefully and ethically done? Has it?

Are there other observations, disagreements or suggestions?

I agree. There seems to be a preponderance of atheists (or variations on that theme). Though I would not necessarily signal this as an improvement I do recognize the reality.

Viable options for this may include -

1.) These strong theistic members are coincidentally overwhelmed with other responsibilities all at the same time.

2.) These same members have been bested by the atheist camp.

3.) They are finding themselves drowned out by more "fundamentalist" view points.

4.) They are underwhelmed by the nature of recent atheist challenges hence my belief the nature of atheist-driven debate has not necessarily improved. Should #4 be the correct answer I suspect recruiting new strong theists will produce the same outcome as we currently experience.

[Loffler]

Christians aren't disappearing, they're retreating. It's happening all over the internet.

Christians are increasingly hard to come by in forums. Sometimes it seems as though every atheist in the world is online at the same time.

It's increasingly difficult to find venues where people with opposing viewpoints will openly argue with each other. More and more, people with similar views are choosing to be among each other instead.

[Zzyzx]

.

Christians aren't disappearing, they're retreating. It's happening all over the internet.

Christians are increasingly hard to come by in forums. Sometimes it seems as though every atheist in the world is online at the same time.

It's increasingly difficult to find venues where people with opposing viewpoints will openly argue with each other. More and more, people with similar views are choosing to be among each other instead.

Interesting information. Thank you. I will investigate further along those lines.

[Loffler]

.

Christians aren't disappearing, they're retreating. It's happening all over the internet.

Christians are increasingly hard to come by in forums. Sometimes it seems as though every atheist in the world is online at the same time.

It's increasingly difficult to find venues where people with opposing viewpoints will openly argue with each other. More and more, people with similar views are choosing to be among each other instead.

Interesting information. Thank you. I will investigate further along those lines.

It's happening on a broader scale than I indicated. Here are two great articles on the implications to politics: http://www.statesman.com/specialreports ... ivide.html
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displ ... d=11581447

[Zzyzx]

.

Christians aren't disappearing, they're retreating. It's happening all over the internet.

Christians are increasingly hard to come by in forums. Sometimes it seems as though every atheist in the world is online at the same time.

It's increasingly difficult to find venues where people with opposing viewpoints will openly argue with each other. More and more, people with similar views are choosing to be among each other instead.

Interesting information. Thank you. I will investigate further along those lines.

It's happening on a broader scale than I indicated. Here are two great articles on the implications to politics: http://www.statesman.com/specialreports ... ivide.html
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displ ... d=11581447

From the latter:

There is a danger in this. Studies suggest that when a group is ideologically homogeneous, its members tend to grow more extreme. Even clever, fair-minded people are not immune. Cass Sunstein and David Schkade, two academics, found that Republican-appointed judges vote more conservatively when sitting on a panel with other Republicans than when sitting with Democrats. Democratic judges become more liberal when on the bench with fellow Democrats.

[OnceConvinced]

Coincedentally I've been thinking about this lately. I too noticed a lot of the regular theists have faded into oblivion. Two things in particular ran through my mind.

1) The board has become rather hostile towards theists. As soon as a theist comes in and starts debating (admittedly it often turns into preaching), the sceptics are on him straight away without mercy. Sometimes this is qute justified, especially if the theist appears to be arrogant and self righteous or they are using majorly flawed logic and tired old arguments. However I did cringe last week when Allie came in, attempting to be very polite and respectful and was automatically beaten down by the sceptics, some rather harsly too. I think those sort of welcomes can scare people off. (Even though I am a little critical at the way she was treated by non-theists, I was also disappointed in the Christians, most of whom made no effort to support her). EDIT: I see now that at least some Christians stepped up to the plate in the second thread!

2) There appears to be more unity amongst the non-theists than the theists. I often see the odd Christian debating it out against a group of unbelievers with no support from other Christians. There could be numerous reasons eg, they don't feel qualified to debate, they don't want to take the sceptics on, or they just simply disagree with the Chrisitan debater's POV. I think the latter is a huge one. Christians often disagree with each other's interpretation of the bible... which when you think about it, is rather bizarre, considering they supposedly have the Holy spirit guiding them. One would also think that God would give them the strength and the words needed to take on the sceptics, no matter how hostile they might seem. Perhaps the Holy Spirit isn't all it's cracked up to be? One thing's for sure the unity is definitely missing, which when you think about it, it shouldn't be.