snood wrote:Phoenix32890 wrote:I think that the entire issue comes down to this:
To those who believe, it makes perfect sense. To those who don't, it does not. "You say to-ma-to, and I say to-mah-to". The only problem is when the to-ma-to people attempt to convince the world that the only way to pronounce the name of their vegetable is THEIR way, and their way connotes a much higher level of moral superiority.
Sounds simple enough. The way I look at it though, at least in the confines of this forum, the believers are usually not the ones who start presenting contentiously. The way I see it, the first shot across the bow usually comes from the non-believers. The comparisons and contentions from the believers are, in my opinion, most times from a defensive stance. There are exceptions of course (see "Atheists - your life is meaningless"), but if one objectively scans the threads, it looks to me as if the challenges to see things one particular way generally start with one of the non-believers challenging a believer to defend one aspect or another of their belief system (as the non-believer understands it).
One only has to look at the originator of most threads in the religious forums. Are they started by Christians? The vast majority are started by non-believers. This prompts the question as to why this is. Instigation? Insterest? Sincere question?
The next thing to look at is the first response to a post from a Christian in that particular thread. Attack, attack, attack. Then we read that the Christian is defending their faith. Then we read how stupid we are for doing that. Every effort is made to make us look less than Christian and to get our blood boiling so we will retaliate. Unfortunately, we do that sometimes. Even a placid dog will turn when it is kicked enough times.
We hear how the Christians are trying to push their Christian believes down everbody's throat. The fact that the non-believers are pushing even harder in the opposite direction garners nary a glance.
We read how Christians are running the governments and creating turmoil for the masses. This may be true in the U.S. I do not know. I know that it is not true in Canada where we enjoy our freedoms without riots and the like. Some posters seem to forget that the world does not revolve around the U.S. Some posters seem to forget that not everyone acts in the manner that some posters portray them.
There are those that will take the opposing view no matter what the topic may be. It does make me wonder why some of the topics are started if civil discourse is not wanted. It is also amazing that when you see posts that make sense and adequately dispute what may be written....it is ignored as if it was never written. After all, it is easier to attack the more vulnerable.
