Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 1:53 PM BSTIf you were to bring this line of argument to an atheist discussion forum, people would assume you were trolling.
Assume away, I can not say more than the truth, I instinctively believe in God, it is a matter of faith, faith is beyond reason I'm afraid, it is instinctive.
Then we are at an impasse.
Aaron, I command thee to appear and lock this thread. Amen.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 1:57 PM BSTThen we are at an impasse.
Aaron, I command thee to appear and lock this thread. Amen.
Double Amen to that 
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 1:42 PM BSTOne of the things I often ask religious folks about is what they expect in the afterlife.
Pretty much uniformly they expect to see their loved ones again. Which is nice. But their theories tend to fall apart a bit when you press them on the details.
For example, what age are you in "heaven"?
Which loved ones do you get to meet?
If Fred West loved his kids, do they have to spend eternity in his company, even if they hated him?
What if I spend 20 years married to one woman, she dies, then I spend another 20 years married to another. Do I get to live with both of them when I die? What if they didn't get on?
What if my parents had a kid that died before me and my sister were born? Do I have to spend eternity as the middle child with some kid I never even met? Is the dead kid doomed to knock about heaven as a two-year old forever?
Read ''Testimony of Light"
An eye witness account!
Without organised religion a lot of priests wouldn't get laid. End of.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 1:53 PM BSTIf you were to bring this line of argument to an atheist discussion forum, people would assume you were trolling.
Is 'trolling' just to disagree with what someone else thinks then?
You don't really hear it anywhere else. If you chat in a pub and one person disagrees with the rest people don't shout 'pub troll' at them. It seems like the last, desperate, act of a defeated mind to 'shout' it on internet forums. I find it a bit ridiculous, to be honest.
Quote: Sinon @ April 24 2013, 2:24 PM BSTIs 'trolling' just to disagree with what someone else thinks then?
You don't really hear it anywhere else. If you chat in a pub and one person disagrees with the rest people don't shout 'pub troll' at them. It seems like the last, desperate, act of a defeated mind to 'shout' it on internet forums. I find it a bit ridiculous, to be honest.
A key difference is that people online find it far harder to ignore someone, and the troll exploits this fact to disrupt the whole forum.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 1:57 PM BSTThen we are at an impasse.
Aaron, I command thee to appear and lock this thread. Amen.
This thread won't get locked unless there is a real need.
Don't get nasty, keep to the topic at hand and appreciate everyone has an opinion.
Quote: Sinon @ April 24 2013, 2:24 PM BSTYou don't really hear it anywhere else. If you chat in a pub and one person disagrees with the rest people don't shout 'pub troll' at them.
Would be pretty funny though - like shouting "bus wanker" at someone.
Quote: L.E. @ April 24 2013, 2:34 PM BSTThis thread won't get locked unless there is a real need.
Don't get nasty, keep to the topic at hand and appreciate everyone has an opinion.
Typical, I try to summon Aaron from the depths of R'lyeh and he sends one of his jobsworth lackeys instead.
Quote: Nogget @ April 24 2013, 2:31 PM BSTA key difference is that people online find it far harder to ignore someone, and the troll exploits this fact to disrupt the whole forum.
Why do they though? that's the interesting bit, to me.
I don't get why people (seemingly) take things written on internet forums much more personally than they would in 'real life'. You would think, logically, it would be the other way round.
Quote: Sinon @ April 24 2013, 2:24 PM BSTIs 'trolling' just to disagree with what someone else thinks then?
You don't really hear it anywhere else. If you chat in a pub and one person disagrees with the rest people don't shout 'pub troll' at them. It seems like the last, desperate, act of a defeated mind to 'shout' it on internet forums. I find it a bit ridiculous, to be honest.
You have to remember that trolling was invented by Americans, who don't really have the concept of "taking the piss".
Quote: L.E. @ April 24 2013, 2:34 PM BSTWould be pretty funny though - like shouting "bus wanker" at someone.
...Supermarket c**t!
Quote: Pingl @ April 24 2013, 1:47 PM BSTAs for the rest it is a mystery and will be revealed one way or the other when we die
Well, only if there actually is an afterlife, if not you'll never know as there will be nothing of you to know anything.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ April 24 2013, 6:20 AM BSTEDIT: Oh, and zooo is a virgin.
Well, I never!
Quote: Sinon @ April 24 2013, 2:37 PM BSTWhy do they though? that's the interesting bit, to me.
You can't see them, and you can't* physically attack each other, so while you might move quietly away from a nutter on a bus for fear of what might happen, online you can't see that they haven't washed in a year and are drinking cheap cider, because their words 'look' and smell identical to everyone else's; so you feel you have to answer their insults, and what's more, it's absolutely safe to do so.
*actually people have met up for fights in real life.