OK. I think in the future it might be helpful to send such responses to both posters, not just one. The appearance of favoritism may be a matter of interpretation, but not an outrageous one.
This is based on the principle that two wrongs do not make a right.
It seems that pointing out one poster's errors in detail, and not another's at least equally extreme ones, is a wrong on top of the one being pointed out--that makes two.
Much like liberals can be trolls on the News/Activism Forum, atheists can be trolls on the Religion Forum.
Sure. I would expect to be asked to leave if I were trolling. I don't think an honest person can say my posts here were any such thing--particularly since I was the one posting to support the point of view of the initial posting, and the other poster is attacking it. Yet *I'm* the one given the warning?
Atheists are welcome to participate in theological debate provided their posts have a theological, historical or philosophical context. When the atheist has nothing to bring but ad hominems, I instruct him to leave.
I think it's clear to any honest reader who isn't looking to play the victim and thus retroactively label the "offending" poster a troll that I posted here in support of religious freedom, and subsequently asked why the religion the thread is about is considered threatening when it did the same things the dominant religion in the land does. I was then called an anti-Christian militant, and you know the rest.
I see these threads are not about folks like myself who are curious about religion even though I am not a believer. Over the years I've gotten very pleasant private FReepmails from believers who prayed for my conversion and so on. These are some of the messages that mean the most to me in my time here. Who knows where my spiritual quest will take me?
But since as an atheist I'm assumed to be bashing Christianity because I ask questions, I won't post on religion threads anymore. The responses I've gotten on this one have ranged from polite from those in support of the actual thread subject, to hostility and, sorry, dishonesty and avoidance of the most basic questions of religion...on a religious thread.
OK, I'm gone, you've got your religion thread back for those who all agree with each other--kind of a weird way to run a thread on a debate site, but it ain't my thread. Thanks for posting these for those who are interested; I've learned a lot from them in the past (and recommended them in a recent thread where I praised my favorite threads here on FR). Can't say I'm not disappointed in the attitude, but whatever.
Have a good one.
What cheese would you prefer with your whine? ... I’m guessing ‘limpburger’, or perhaps a niced ‘stiltson’?