I entered this forum mostly out of curiosity. Debate is not really where I am at right now...it requires way too much energy! (And, I am on this website because of health issues which require all the energy that I have.) I must say that I was quite disappointed after reading the posts at the "tone" that was perpetrated here by both Christians and non-Christians alike. It appeared that no one could stay "on-topic" about a particular issue without resorting to frontal attacks!! There seems to be a hidden agenda (venting hostility) instead of debating religious issues. In the end...I would like to be able to say - I respect you and your opinion even if we disagree, but it is hard when you feel so personally attacked!!

I would say that in general the forum has been used for debating. just in a different way. people are debating by posting articles, the downside to this is that you don't hear peoples personal opinions as often, you hear opinions of somebody off the internet (any one of us could google it if thats all we wanted) the upside of this I feel is very obvious, every time people start talking and trying to actually debate it has always degenerated to where there is no productive religious debate, so debating by posting articles can be good.

although it is very hard to debate on a religious subject, its not easy when somebody else is attacking your beliefs! So how could you ever get around this? I don't know that there really is a way. when you get people of different religions, its inevitable that somebodies toes will be stepped on. I guess its what we make of it from there. or.. perhaps the route we should take is not posting here merely for the purpose of converting other people. I would guess that 75% of the material posted on this forum is devoted purely to convince somebody that their religion is wrong, or purely to try to convert them.

I think your question is an excellent one. If everybodies purpose here is to convert rather than discuss, then what is anybody hoping to accomplish?

I was under the impression, people would be open minded and accept the word and proof " from the horses mouth" instead what I found out was, that some people go on attack mode when the system they think is the truth is not followed by others. Instead of thinking interms as what we have in common, the tendancy is to focus on the opposite. Although one may think its even insane (others beliefs) I would think its best and somehow expected others to instead of adding lies and attacking, they would just state what they beleived ( and didn't abuse anothers belief system)

Abusing is not the same as saying what they think is the truth.

Abusing is causing a heated debate and going after each other as rabid dogs foaming at the mouth, and taking others scripture and either not telling the true history, adding lies, deleting history, showing hatred towards, showing it in a bad light, taking out of context, accusing, & acting as if they were ready to kill!

God forbid-

I think it "should be" to present and defend your beliefs in an intelligent, concise, respectful manner. This has a three-fold purpose...people can then understand what and why you believe what you believe; it requires you to study and be informed about your own belief system; it presents an argument that a 3rd party can look at and make some conclusions...other than - gee...the people on the forum are sarcastic, cynical and hostile!

to debate is to exchange points of view... it requires an open mind to be able to weigh the pros' and cons' of a particular topic/subject... a person with a closed mind is a person that has been given the right answer... regardless of where it came from... it is the right answer... no doubt about it... no question about it... therefore you might say a closed minded person is "brainwashed" and has no ideas/opinions of their own... their thinking is very limited/controlled... they are always the first to defend their points of view... to attack anything or anyone that goes contrary to the way they were taught to believe...

my take on debating is that i give you my best ideas... my best truths as i know the truth to be... if you agree... fine... if you don't... fine... by the same token i try to listen and learn... i weigh what you have to say and if i agree/or if i find what you have to say enlightening i make it a part of my repertoire... i think this is as it should be... we should seek to learn from each other... it is as if each of us has a piece of giant puzzle and until we learn to share our pieces of this puzzle we will never be able to put it together... but... the people that think they have the entire puzzle put together are the ones that seem unable to share... which means to me they must have the wrong puzzle to begin with... puzzling aint it...???

lol...
;-)


try to be aware of who is open-minded and who isn't...
and see how pointless it is to debate with the "brainwashed"...