I am going to explain a little about why I like to go into religion debate rooms or forums. Even though these rooms are all voluntary participation, people enter them at their own choice. Lately people seem to go out of their way to tell me what a waste of time they are when in fact I never ask them to join me in them in the first place. First off they can be entertaining or fun. I heard many a demon fighting story and those and similar are lulztastic. I have met many interesting people in them, in fact, if you are reading this...I probably met you in one of those rooms. Because of social stigma you, atheism is often not a subject you can speak freely of, online you can. Its not that bad for me but if you are in a small town in the Bible Belt, it can be a problem. Sometimes the sense of comradery itself is enjoyable. I love to talk politics and these rooms offer two things in that regard, in the USA especially religion and politics are joined at the hip for many people. I get to exchange positions with people that are definitely not aligned with my positions. The other very important added benefit is these rooms have an underlying understanding that claims need to be supported by evidence. This aspect is missing in purely political rooms and help tremendously in these conversations even though they are technically off topic in a religion debate setting. Speaking of which, simple catharsis. Its frustrating to see the American Taliban encroach into the public sphere, I get to exorcise my demons to use a good cliche for the situation. I learn. Not only about religion, but of evolution and cosmology because those are just topics that go hand in hand with religious debates. And as a final note I want to make something very clear, I know of not a single topic of discussion that cannot be criticized with a degree of validity that they are a waste of time. If you know of one please let me know. Otherwise what exactly is the difference between my preference for spending my time and any other preference that other people enjoy.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 10:04:09 +0000