Oh Davo You were such a BRAVE boy!
Stef, excellent post. The way I deal with them is generally the way I deal here and it works for me. Itâs not in my nature (well not any more, it seems) to get aggressive, but I do the broken record routine and then (if theyâre on my blog) I let them know theyâre required to be civil and/or say something they havenât already said (unlike me! ) or Iâll delete their posts (if Iâve allowed their posts). If they keep up with the circular arguments I put a stop to that too. If there are no legitimate posters, I might even lock comments. If I donât think the comment stream is instructive or edifying or even interesting I might delete the whole thing. Itâs my blog, and thatâs not a free speech zone.
What I donât do is expect to influence them toward my pov because they hate that. I just tell them what I think and why (if Iâm in the mood to do that). Iâm interested in them or I wouldnât bother. Why do they feel the way they do? I suspect your two are very young, Lotharson, just based on their grammar and lack of reasoning skills. At least I HOPE theyâre very young. But then I made that mistake with one guy and found out he was older than me! He was a nice guy, though he wasnât very nice until I got to know him better and he figured out I didnât think God was going to roast him for all eternity (though I did point out that itâs a tough road ahead if you spend your life going backward). We had a lengthy correspondence that finally tapered off to nothing. An aging atheist like that â really all I could do is plant some hopeful thoughts. Maybe they will make it easier for him to find his way in his next âphase.â Who knows?
That said, Iâve met and known quite a number of former atheists, and I guess most of them would be ânewâ atheists. Kids pick up this stuff in their rebellious years and itâs part of that rebellious phase. They get over it. The hormones settle down and they grow up and begin to realize maybe they were being stupid. I notice on some boards though that the âChristiansâ are just as militant and, well, stupid, as the kid atheists. And most of THEM arenât kids. It does not help to harp on how theyâre going to roast in hell forever and ever (and we, being loving people, would like to save you from our monstrous god and his ugly designs for you). The kids might be stupid, but theyâre not dumb. Even they can see thatâs a crock. A hardened, adult new atheist is probably another thing. It will take some severe trauma to turn them around most of the time, I think. If you get a Dawkins on your site, Iâd just ban him if it were me. Thereâs no point. Let God take care of him. He is up to it. Nothing HE sets out to do can be denied to Him, and if He wants Dawkins today, He will get him. He got Paul, after all.
Dave posted a link that you might find helpful. outofthefog.net/CommonBehaviors/Top100Traits.html Sadly nothing there is new to me. I had just never seen it spelled out so cut & dried like.
Love, Cindy