Why do you post on this forum if you dont believe in god?
Honest question.
Was clicking random threads here, and the very first response to one was along the lines of "but it wasnt god, it was people making it up". No attempt at answering the OP, even in the hypothetical.
So, why bother?
Are you hoping to change minds, enlighten, have your own mind changed, just plain stir shit up for your own amusement?
To be clear...
I believe in aliens, but if i didnt, while i might discuss the subject in RL if it came up, i cant think of a single reason that i'd deliberately go online and seek out a board (or a forum) populated by those who do, simply to repeatedly tell them they were wrong in thread after thread.
I believe the mainstream religions to be quite immoral as they are producing homophobic and misogynous people.
So I try to follow this good advice and correct poor theistic thinking.
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
I see this as me doing unto others and following the Golden rule.
I am not saying I am a good person. I am saying I am trying to be.
Regards
DL
The forum is for discussing religion, you don't need to necessary believe in it to discuss it because unfortunately religion still has a lot of power in this country.
With your alien example, if you didn't believe in aliens and went to a specific "we believe in aliens" forum to say it then yeah you are doing it just to troll. But this forum isn't actually about believing in a specific religion or religion in general. If you just went to a forum that was about aliens in general, I would expect discussion from both sides.
Also if we're being completely honest..sometimes religious people say crazy things and it is genuinely entertaining..lol. I honestly wouldn't even think I could change someone's mind if they genuinely believe in God, I'm not sure what I could say to them. I honestly wouldn't care as much about what people believed if these beliefs didn't hold so much sway over the entire world.
Let me put it another way. I don't care about Pokemon and I doubt you do either. I also don't care if people want to watch it or play the games or whatever they do with it. If people began to form pokemon cults all over the world and some were violent and some were not..well, then I'd probably find myself at least paying attention to it and even discussing it with people.
Originally posted by TethAdamTheRock
Me too, I honestly thought this forum was for religious people. 99% Of people here dont believe in god.
Why post hete simply to tell people they're wrong for believing in god over and over?
Say what you want but there are people that do just that and only that here.
They wont answer questions even on a hypothetical level. They simply post to say everyone is wrong.
Seems like a crap thing to do.
So, i'd like to know why.
I mean, if these people are so brutally honest, i just want to see if they can be honest about themselves.
Surtur answered well. It really shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp, nor unreasonable to justify. Religion is a force equal to or greater than politics in the world. It behooves anyone who is interested to engage in it, in any form. Riv, can you really not see a reason for it, or understand why Surtur's answer is one of many that would easily explain it?
Shakya's answer too. Religion is a larger concept than the yes/no question of God.
If "posting hate" is what you're talking about, that's different. But then the thread should be called "Why do you post on this forum if you're only going to be a d*ck?" Being needlessly antagonistic is different than approaching a topic from the opposite viewpoint. Bashing goes nowhere. Feel free to rant against such a-holes. But if someone is in disagreement with you, I'd welcome it.
Here's a personal answer that may help:
Religion has affected every stage of my life, and continues to. I am an atheist, but am surrounded by religion. It can and has had an impact on my friendships, romantic relationships, familial relationships, and worldview. Some has been positive, some negative. But it's always there.
At one point, I wandered into this forum here on KMC (this was, hell, probably 2006/2007). I was experiencing a transition in my beliefs, and it occurred over a period of years. I'm very methodical, so it included a lot of research, as well as a lot of discussion and debate. And KMC was great for that. Sometimes I agreed with people. Sometimes I disagreed. Sometimes I thought I was legit talking to someone with a mental illness. Other times I discovered new ideas or new ways to look at things. It was cool. KMC isn't a hotbed of all religious thought, certainly, but it was a diverse cross-section at one point, and was supplemented by research from numerous other sources.
This discussion and debate helped me refine my own thoughts on religion. And for discovering how people would react to my opinions. It was amazingly helpful in that respect. So, even as an atheist, some of the most interesting and useful threads to me were Christian ones, because that's the prevailing culture I continue to be surrounded by. And because part of my process was exposing myself to a variety of dissenting opinions, because I didn't want to shelter myself from opinions and ideas that differed from my own.
Any time I hop in now is a vestige of that time. I don't actively engage in many debates these days. Debate religion for a decade and you start to see a lot of the same arguments. But occasionally you get the itch, and it's fun to engage someone, even someone you vehemently disagree with.
So that's why. For me, at least. With possible rare exceptions for the truly onerous that I've encountered here, it's never been about shouting someone down about how they're wrong. But it has, on numerous occasions, been about explaining my position and how it disagrees with very fundamental assertions made by others, which some people take as a personal affront. It's often a tricky line to walk - where does an attack on an idea end and an attack on a person begin? To the deeply religious, it's often the same thing, so it's hard to disagree without eliciting a nasty reaction. But I always at least tried to stay on the side of intellectual - not emotional - debate. And, on the whole, it's been a stimulating experience.
Hopefully that explains my perspective, and provides one possible answer to your question.
If "posting hate" is what you're talking about, that's different. But then the thread should be called "Why do you post on this forum if you're only going to be a d*ck?" Being needlessly antagonistic is different than approaching a topic from the opposite viewpoint. Bashing goes nowhere. Feel free to rant against such a-holes. But if someone is in disagreement with you, I'd welcome it.
I think what i'm asking is pretty straight forward.
I'm not asking why people post to be antagonistic. I'm aware that people with different religious views can get pretty heated towards each other.
I'm asking why, if you dont believe in god, you feel the need to post in a religous forum only to tell people they're wrong for believing in god.
OP question: why does god let wars happen?
Response: god doesnt exist. Wars happen because of people.OP question: where do you think the garden of eden was?
Response: the garden of eden is a myth. It never existed.OP question: how many types of angels are there in the bible?
Response: no such thing as an angel. The bible is a bunch of stories written by men.
The above is paraphrasing obviously, but you cant tell me we dont have posters like that here.
And i'd like to know why they're here.
Just curious.
Originally posted by riv6672
I think what i'm asking is pretty straight forward.I'm not asking why people post to be antagonistic. I'm aware that people with different religious views can get pretty heated towards each other.
I'm asking why, if you dont believe in god, you feel the need to post in a religous forum only to tell people they're wrong for believing in god.The above is paraphrasing obviously, but you cant tell me we dont have posters like that here.
And i'd like to know why they're here.Just curious.
You'd really have to be more specific then. I'm not on much anymore, I'm an atheist, and that's not at all why I've ever posted here. And I can say the same for most of the non-religious people I've seen on here during my time. I don't doubt that has happened. But if you have a specific person in mind, you'll probably have to ask them personally if you want an answer. All I can do is give you my reasons, which I did above.
Because you're right; it is straightforward, and you've gotten some straightforward explanations/answers from the few of us who have responded. Apparently we're not the non-religious people you're referring to, though.
srug
In a more broad sense, this is a fairly free forum. Anyone can post what they want, so long as it stays within the few threadbare rules KMC still enforces. If someone does that and you don't like it, you're unlikely to get a straight answer from them. But it's the internet. Just do your thing and move on.
Oh i am doing my thing. Asking questions.
Again, the examples i used above all have one thing in common.
No actual discussion.
This is a discussion forum.
Why come here just to talk AT people? You and a lot of atheists here have no problem discussing religious subjects. So my question(s) Really dont pertain to you.
As is usually the case when i point out something like this, the people my observations pertain to rarely pursue the matter, or double talk it, but good natured people like you take up their banner.
So, i guess in the end i got my answer anyway, as lack of response is in itself a response.
Well, thanks, but I'm not a saint, and haven't always been one on KMC. I've mellowed over the years, but even irl I used to be a lot more militant about atheism than I am now. I was fortunate enough to take a mostly intellectual path to non-religiosity. But for many, it's a decision based on bad experiences with religion. The so-called "angry atheist" rants you see on Youtube are largely due to this phenomenon. So even if it's not the most productive, they're lashing out against something that's been very destructive in their lives.
In other words, at some point there was probably a KMC poster who thought I was just following them around trolling their religion threads by disagreeing with the premise. We're all at a particular place in our lives, and sometimes those points intersect in weird, non-linear ways. Were this 2006, this thread likely wouldn't have gotten a very nice reaction from me. This thread as it exists also isn't phrased the best. You may not be referring to all atheists, but your title question certainly is, and could be construed as accusatory.
I honestly don't know to whom you're referring, so I'm not trying to project. This may not be their motivation at all. Or maybe it's just how they react to you. Or maybe it's just habit; we can all get into ruts in our online routines. But I'd guess there's a discussion to be had somewhere with that person/people. It's just a matter of how you approach it.