'Twas the Troll before Christmess

Why do Christians hang out on atheist blogs? This is a rhetorical question and definitely not an invitation for comments from Christians.

A friend suggested that they are probably there to bait atheists. I cannot imagine that they hope to convert atheists to Christianity.

Whenever I wish to read an opinion that I trust or to discuss a rational viewpoint, then I am delighted that scienceblogs exists and that fellow atheists belong to Mojoey's blogroll. These make it easier to find bloggers with a rational, humanist worldview.

I definitely am not interested in telling my de-conversion story, because I was so young when I decided that God was an invention that I did not suffer any emotional pangs over de-mything. If I wish to understand the emotional reasons for faith, or for pain at loss of faith, I need only read websites and blogs.

I don't lurk on Christian blogs, attempting to proselytize in the name of rationality. I don't go looking for an opportunity to debate Christians so as to prove the strength of my intellectual dedication to atheism, science, or morality. I did recently and inadvertantly stumble into just such a discussion on an atheist site. I came away less impressed than ever by the fallacious arguments so typical of Christian efforts at apologetics.

Perhaps because most believers entertain some secret doubts because there is no evidence to support their faith, theists seem to have great difficulty accepting that atheists do not suffer agonies of doubt over the rationality of logically following the evidence. How dare atheists feel certainty about their reasoned beliefs when theists struggle with doubt?!

Perhaps because so many Christians are fear-motivated, they have difficulty accepting that atheism is not fear-driven. This probably explains why so many theists suspect that atheists are merely trying to deny their fears – when, in fact, atheists suffer no fear about their nonbelief. I do admit that those nonbelievers who are in the process of escaping delusion probably do experience some lingering remnants of fear due to their early indoctrination.

Perhaps because so many theists struggle with self-control, they think that only fear of God and of eternal punishment could make people behave morally. Fundamentalist bigotry and the so-frequent report of religionist lapses from decent behavior certainly leave me suspicious that authoritarian upbringings more frequently precipitate than prevent moral turpitude.

Perhaps this explains why Christians go to such lengths protesting that Christians really are good people and that so much good is done in the name of religion. Jerry Falwell used some of the conscience money that poured into his televangelical ministry to set up charities to help the "fallen". This may have fooled Christians into believing that Jerry was a good man, but it did not fool Christopher Hitchens, and it certainly did not fool me.

I have almost invariably observed that many discussions between Christians and atheists quite quickly devolve into the Christians' directing personal insults at the atheists – not comments on atheistic actions, or the validity of beliefs, but comments on atheistic personhood. I guess that they cannot help themselves, but as soon as Christians start to fling ad hominems, then one knows that they have reached the bottom of their meager supply of logic.

Here's a hilarious example of a barrel-scraping attempt to retreat from a Godwin's Law faux pas:

"Not tu quoque I provided an amplification of YOUR point, that all people create religions."

Actually, no. The point that I had made was that "religions have been created by people."

This theist's "logic" would be equivalent to converting.

......."All children have teeth."

..........................into

......."All teeth have children."

Baby teeth, perhaps?

I'm not confident that he saw the difference even when it had been pointed out, but perhaps my doubt merely stems from my lack of faith in the cognitive capacity that ensures that people remain trapped by inculcated delusions.

Arcanum sums it up: "Most theists whom I have encountered on the Internet could not reason their way out of a wet paper bag."

Those who point out that they know some very intelligent Christians miss the point that in any nation where the majority have been indoctrinated, they are bound to meet some very intelligent Christians. Statistically, atheists are more likely to be intelligent than are Christians.

I too am sick of the polite refusal to acknowledge this statistic. I notice that this politeness concerning theistic intelligence is more often displayed on sites where Christians lurk. Perhaps I simply have not yet read sufficient Christian posts on these sites to be impressed. Having been bombarded with theistic message since I was a kid, I have heard quite enough and don't plan to waste my time reading their comments.