what is the proportion of atheists on this website?

[brenan85]

To me it seems like atheists rule the internet.. From other places i've paticipated in online religious debates, the number of atheists far outweighs the theists, resulting in one sided debates as you have 10 minds against 2.

Is that the case on this website?

[Divine Insight]

To me it seems like atheists rule the internet.. From other places i've paticipated in online religious debates, the number of atheists far outweighs the theists, resulting in one sided debates as you have 10 minds against 2.

Is that the case on this website?

On this site you always have the option of inviting someone to have a head-to-head debate with you which reduces the debate to just being between you and your opponent.

So if you feel that you are being overwhelmed by the numbers, try calling someone out for a "head-to-head" debate on an individual basis.

Edited to add:

By they way, you don't even need to call out an atheist. Sometimes theists will debate their own opposing religious views with other theists.

Is there some specific issue or topic that you would like to discuss or debate?

And if so, who would you like to debate it with? Another theist? Or an atheist?

You can actually run a thread in "General Discussion" proposing what topic or issue you would like to debate head-to-head, and what type of opponent you would prefer to debate it with.

Then see if anyone offers to discuss/debate the topic with you.

You can always "feel them out" this way and decide whether or not you are interested in debating with prospective debate partners. Nothing's carved in stone. It requires mutual agreement to debate head-to-head.

[brenan85]

To me it seems like atheists rule the internet.. From other places i've paticipated in online religious debates, the number of atheists far outweighs the theists, resulting in one sided debates as you have 10 minds against 2.

Is that the case on this website?

On this site you always have the option of inviting someone to have a head-to-head debate with you which reduces the debate to just being between you and your opponent.

So if you feel that you are being overwhelmed by the numbers, try calling someone out for a "head-to-head" debate on an individual basis.

Edited to add:

By they way, you don't even need to call out an atheist. Sometimes theists will debate their own opposing religious views with other theists.

Is there some specific issue or topic that you would like to discuss or debate?

And if so, who would you like to debate it with? Another theist? Or an atheist?

You can actually run a thread in "General Discussion" proposing what topic or issue you would like to debate head-to-head, and what type of opponent you would prefer to debate it with.

Then see if anyone offers to discuss/debate the topic with you.

You can always "feel them out" this way and decide whether or not you are interested in debating with prospective debate partners. Nothing's carved in stone. It requires mutual agreement to debate head-to-head.

Thanks for that, the one on one would help that problem of uneven debates but would create another because i do like to hear the thoughts and opinions from different angles/people.
I still don't have a feel for what the proportions are like in general discussions.
The reason I ask is because as an atheist, i generally find the debates too easy to win when i have 10 other people at my back who are much smarter than i am ganging up on a single apologetic.

i might just have a read through 20 or so to get a feel for it.

[Divine Insight]

There are two innate problems with apologetic arguments.

1. Almost all of them have already been discussed to death and have shown to be flawed. We almost never see an original apologetic argument. Everything has already been over the coals a billion times.

2. Apologetic arguments are innately at a disadvantage.

The very fact that something needs to be apologized for, (or justified) implies that even the apologist can recognize that there is a problem. So apologetics is, in a very real way, a self-defeating approach.

Also, what is the purpose of apologetics?

To convince a non-believer to believe something they have already dismissed as being unreasonable? That's not likely to happen.

Or is it do "defend" the beliefs of a faith-based theist? That's not good either.

Why should a theist need to defend their faith-based beliefs to anyone? They either have faith in their beliefs or they don't. There's no need to convince anyone else, unless,.....

Unless, the goal is evangelism or the proselyting of the religion. But if that's the goal, then of course atheists are going to be jumping on those threads expressing precisely why they have already considered these things and have rejected them.

So figuring out what your specific goals are may help.

As to how many atheists versus theists are on these forums I can't say officially. But just from my own perspective it appears to be about 50/50 to me. But then again, I see both atheists and theists as often being argumentative to my ideas. So when you add up the 50% atheists, and 50% theists I actually see about 100% in opposition to my views.

[Darias]

There are plenty of Christian websites where atheists or moderate Christians are not welcome if they debate. This is not one of them.

While there may be a large number of Atheists online, that doesn't mean the same is true in our everyday lives. I only know one other Atheist, and he is my cousin. I live in the Bible belt and there are more Baptist churches here than Starbucks.

However as to your question about Atheists ruling the internet... I don't think that's necessarily so... however due to the fact that the internet is an information highway of ideas, that might not be so attractive to Christians who wish to reaffirm their beliefs amongst their own, rather than challenge them.

It has been said that “The Internet is where religion goes to die.� And this is because unlike books or television programs, where you subject yourself to the uninterrupted opinion of one person, you can always find material to challenge ideas on the internet. We can easily double check to verify if the claims that one person or group makes are correct... that goes for all of us, Atheists included. People who are interested in promoting an agenda or an absolute truth might not be interested in places where lots of alternative ideas exist.

[LiamOS]

The proportion of Theists to Atheists is a tough one to pin down, but here is some data for your consideration: (Taken from the Statistics link at the top of the page)

The Atheist usergroup accounts for 4% of the posts on the forum, but the Christian usergroup accounts for 2%.
At 414 and 398, Atheists marginally outnumber Christians, assuming the usergroup joining members are representative.
The Top posting users this month and this week are, at the time of writing, evenly split between Theist and Atheist members.


What is obvious from this is that Atheists and Theists are available in roughly equal numbers here, but that Atheists are in general more active, especially over longer periods of time. I would also imagine that the proportion of Christians in particular joining this site is actually higher than the Atheists, but they're less likely to stick around; I can't find any data on this, though.