I'm getting a little sick of the few posters that turn this forum into a bitch session and contribute nothing but insults. I am fine with the playful jab here and there (in fact I encourage it), but people who don't contribute anything positive to the forum and spend all of their time trying to stir **** up and just be ignorant, should not be welcomed by anyone here.

Then just make the forum "Christians Only" and be done with it.

I have a feeling that in your view, starting a thread asking whether it seems to everyone else that only Christians are charitable is a 'contribution'. Slamming such a thread and giving examples of other religion's charity is not a contribution. Asking after 2 months whether you've had time to consider points raised which had potential to shake your religious views was not a contribution. Locking that thread and making no attempt to follow up after breaking off discussion is a contribution. Continuing to invoke false dichotomies such as "god vs. chance" or "live as if god exists or live as if god doesn't exist" is a contribution. Pointing out the absurdities of such claims, and the shiftiness of those making them, is not a contribution. Posting bloggish musings about dragons and dinosaurs is a contribution, as are any follow-up linktarding posts. Ridiculing such posts and showing their vacuousness is not a contribution. About right?

Sharad and Hardball47 would be welcome too so that name would not work. Well maybe if you put a little tiny asterik next to it and down at the bottom put "Sharad and Harball47 are okay".....in really tiny hard to read letters....I guess that would okay.

And under that in even tinier letters _{GTFO ganstaman}

You forgot Bunny.

How about this:

CHRISTIANS ONLY _{& Sharad and Hardball47 GTFO ganstamanBunny too even though he's really an kinda an atheist who believes in God}

Wow, I did not know you could multi-step subscripts. _{Something new every day} .

Like many intelligent people who discover the power of their rational minds, I went through a militant materialist-atheist phase, where I felt a need to stamp out non-materialist beliefs like some kind of evangelist. But as I’ve matured, I’ve come to reject this dogmatic world view along with all others.

I will say this about the OP’s quote: it’s quite conceivable that this period of extreme materialism that began with the Enlightenment is a brief historical aberration, and that science itself will discover the limitations of the materialist worldview. How ironic if scientists lead us back to “God”!

I certainly get the sense that materialism is in crisis, that the attempt to replace religion with rational materialism has failed, and that people are looking in a million directions for alternatives to dogmatic materialism and dogmatic religion alike. I don’t think most modern “enlightened” people realize just how strange our age is, how lacking in a spiritual orientation it is compared to all previous human cultures going all the way back to the animists on the African plain. Materialists are denying something fundamental in the human psyche, and despite the most horrific holocausts in the name of materialism (think Stalin, Mao, and everyone’s favorite Sartrean atheist, Pol Pot), they will never stamp it out. All you have to do is turn on the TV to see what a debased, money-worshipping culture materialism produces. It’s clearly time for a vast spiritual reawakening in the modern world, and I think it’s already well underway.

Liked the conflation of philosophical materialism with its colloquial application, but loved the claim of materialism as a motive for mass murder. Sick post, wra and probably posting it on Facebook imo.

A thought provoking post.

Thankyou

Wouldn't you prefer this?

CHRISTIANS ONLY _{& Sharad and Hardball47 GTFO ganstamanBunny too even though he's really an kinda an atheist who believes in Godand everyone else, since you're all closet theists}

I have been trying to refrain from calling people closet theists on account it offends them so much.

However I think something about lever pullers would be acceptable.

News Flash: That's the definition of trolling. I was going to ask you how bumping that thread was "trying to insult" you, but I realized it's just a waste of time. Instead, we can just discuss it in ATF tomorrow when I get home and can make a proper thread on my laptop.

And I am sure that it will go over just as well as the last ATF thread that you made complaining about me. have fun.

See what's great is your opinions about what makes a "conrtibution' don't matter one bit. There are some rules posters must follow to avoid loosing their right to post. Outside of that, it's not your concern what they post about. Plus, you're stuck in the past a bit, at least for me. I recognized since posting on my phone I was putting out too many short, sarcastic replies. I have cut down tremendously on the amount of those posts. (not that it matters one way or another as i was never breaking any site rules) Something you should think about: if bunny bumped that thread would you have locked it?

I don't recall making a thread in ATF about you, could you link me to that thread?

First, keeping the forum at a respectable level is what I am here for. So my opinion does matter. I rarely see posts of yours that are actually attempting to engage in conversation, rather you just taking a shot at someone. Maybe I am wrong. But the fact is, for the most part I leave you alone. When was the last time I deleted one of your posts? Or restricted you in any way? Whether I like you posts or not, you are one of the consistent regs, and I see that as very important.

Would I have locked the thread if Bunny bumped it? Probably not. Why? Because he would not have used it as an opportunity to take a shot at me. And then Rize probably would not have joined in, then SixT4.

If you and Rize and other want to hate me, fine. But let's not clutter the forum with your hate. This forum has taken a real negative turn lately and I am tired of it. People can have drastically different views and still be civil. When OH was posting a lot back in the day he would start threads constantly about things I said and how wrong he thought I was. But he always did it in a civil manner and out of respect. Him and I still talk quite a bit on the phone arguing over various things. ILP is another example. When he was posting he love railing on me and taking shots at me. And yet it was never spiteful or hateful. And we got along great.

I don't have a problem with bumping my threads to try and get me to respond because maybe you think I'm dodging (I believe this is a hobby of Subfallen) or you just are curious. But doing it to be a dick won't be tolerated.

So if you want to complain about me in ATF because I locked my own thread that hadn't been posted in for months or because I locked one of Rize's many thread about how he doesn't like what I do (without bothering to PM me first), go right ahead. But I don't think that it will end up the way you think it will end up.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/55...ed-not-798051/

I dont expect an atf thread to do anything...but i have seen threads opened as a result of taking it there so wth might as well. I still don't know what you're talking about with this whole "bump a thread to take a shot at me" idea...if a post was infraction point worthy, or worth a ban, do that. But to just snap-lock the thread because you don't like the posters who bumped it? That's ridiculous. Hell, all you had to say was, "nope, nothing more to add and it'll take potentially years to go through all this stuff." Then if you're insulted/"trolled" do what you gotta do. You should probably step away for a few minutes before using your mod powerz against people you generally don't care for. You know it clouds your judgment.

Ah, yes, thank you. Forgot about that. Another great example of your inability to control your bias.

Nice post and I agree that's where the tension seeking resolution lies. Honestly, I think a good deal of the angst atheists hold towards religion has less to do with some sort of deity causing it all and more with the certainty the religious espouse their worldview.

Amen, brother. Amen.

.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

Seriously; do you ever know anything about the topics you argue about on here?

Which it's absurd to imply is the case with Jib.

I said it before and I'll say it again: trolls troll, regulars kid around. Hard to get more regular than, y'know, being the mod. Can't help feeling a good bit of the outrage is just people butthurt at getting suckered.

As I said I don't agree with the locking, but it's Jib's call and that's how it goes.