Many, if not most of the people in this forum have gotten under my skin recently. Let me explain why: You debate/argue/discuss/share (whichever word you want to use) like children.

1) Adults do not ignore the facts or dismiss them as irrelavant. When any topic is discussed, you cannot simply dismiss the facts in favor of your own opinion. For instance: Nobody at Nicea questioned Jesus' divinity. That's clearly recorded by history, but yet members of this forum will dismiss the historical record and demand that a conspriacy theory with no basis in fact should be taken as fact.

2) Adults do not change the subject. When someone makes a good point, which disproves your own point, it is rude and childish to change the subject. If someone were to show using the Bible and historical records that early Christians considered Jesus God, a response of "But that doesn't prove Jesus is god!" is stupid. That's changing the scope of the discussion. If the discussion is "Did early Christians believe that Jesus was God?", any topical response will only address that issue. The question of if Jesus is God is a completely different subject.

3) Adults do not offer backhanded insults. When someone makes a comment like "The god of Abraham is evil and cruel, if someone can fool themself into believing otherwise, that's their problem. But I am honest with myself". In that sentence, you have accused everyone, who believes in the God of the Abraham, of being delusional. That's not discussing your beliefs, it's a backhand insult to those who believe differently than you do.

4) Adults are not offended by the beliefs of others. Adults are forced to live in a world where everyone has their own beliefs. As a consequence, adults believe in the plurality of ideas. That means this: I may not like your beliefs, I may not respect your beliefs, but I will allow you to believe the way you do without being offended by your beliefs. Those who cry foul that Christians claim that anyone who doesn't believe Jesus is God will go to hell are petulant children. An adult is not bothered by talk of an (to him/her) imaginary god sending (him/her) to an imaginary place. An adult can sit in a room while various members of various religions make statements affirming their beliefs to be totally correct and all others wrong without being offended. Please note, that some of the children here believe that backhanded insults are their beliefs and they are not, it's simply the childs way of striking out impotently at those with whom the child disagrees.

5) Adults use logic and knowlege in discussions. Logic and reason are required to understand just about any subject. Knowlege of the subject is require to speak with any authority on a subject. An adult will always try to use logic to understand a subject and educate him/her self about the subject before speaking. Many of the people here, who think and act as children do, will simply speak without understanding the subject in the least. This is especially true in regards to the Bible. A single verse will be taken out of context and when the mistake is explained to the person, he/she will ignore the facts and continue making the same illogical, uneducated assertions.

6) Adults do not make gratuitous assertions. A gratuitous assertion is a statement of fact without any supporting data. So someone might say "The persecution of Christians wasn't as bad as everyone says it was", but then refuse to offer any evidence to support their statement. This is a childish tactic, which can be gratuitously denied. The proper response to the example gratuitous assertion is "Nuh Uh!" They are both equally valid in a polite adult conversation, which is to say they are equally invalid.

7) Adults do not lend support to childish behavior. This one is self explainitory. Bad behavior from children or other adults is not approved of or given support. If someone breaks rule 3, no adult involved in a polite conversaion will send support or approval of the rule breakers action.

8) Adults do not deny obvious truths. When logic and facts support one side of the arguemnt and not the other, an adult will admit his/her error and not continue to repeat their disproved statements.

9) An adult will not twist the words of another. Anyone can misinterpret the words of another, but to knowingly change the meaning of another's statement is not acceptable. This also applies to written documents. If someone took the statement by Jesus of "Before Abraham was, I AM" to mean that Jesus was a pantheist, that's an obvious misinterpretation. That's an attempt not to discuss reasonably, but to influence and confuse those who are following the discussion. It's like an octopus squiriting ink, it does nothing but hide the truth so that the octopus can get away without loosing face.

10) Adults do not question the meaning of words, when the meaning is clear. If someone says "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is", that person has used a childish tactic. If an adult can't win a debate with the words defined correctly, then the adult would admit that fact instead of trying to continue the discussion by changing the defintions.

11) Adults take responsiblity for their actions. If an adult slips up and breaks one of the above rules, said adult will apologize for the mistake.

12) Adults realize that arguments are facts put together into a logical structure. Sarcasm, condescension, one line jokes and other verbal retorts are not arguements and should not be considered rebuttals.

What does this have to do with religion? This: Christians take discussions of their beliefs seriously, non-Christians don't. They make jokes, insult and demean and then feign innocence. It's this childishness that has driven many Christians from here and this childishness that makes many Christians reluctant to post. This sort of behavior is a choice by the members of these forums. Many here choose to behave in a way that would be firmly rejected anywhere outside of the internet. It's time to come in out of the mud, clean yourselves up and start acting like the adults which time has made of you.

In the words of the Human Torch: Flame On! Remember Rabbit, Funches and Abra, any comments you make will be completely ignored by me. The three of you break each of the rules I have posted regularly.

NO WAY am I reading all that!

O_o....the point is?

Ditto LOL

I think he called us all poo poo heads.

I'm taking my toys and going home.

so what do i need to fill out an application just to talk to you?

who makes rules for conversations anyway

LOL... My Toys...

Im going to his house.... This kid is a meanie

wow I read it and I got a headache

That is one less guy making friends here

after actually readin all of it that is probably the most wasted space on the internet. if you don't like where a conversation is going or who's in it then leave that simple.

Now, now...no pouting Jace...

I did.

I am keeping a copy of this. It is well thought out and politely delivered.
T

No, but someone who can't communicate like an adult will quickly find that I am not interested in talking to him/her. I find that the older I get, the more precious my time is to me. I don't want to waste it trying to talk to an adult who lacks the maturity to interact with me on an adult level. These forums are supposedly for discussions, but the behavior of and arguements made by many of the forum members would shame a High School freshman. I suppose some will see me as a bad guy for asking the members of these forums to act with dignity and honesty in their posting, but those who see me as a bad guy for this thread would have seen me as a bad guy anyways.

what they said

LOL!!! You are too funny!!

I like you poo poo head!!

This is the funniest thread I have read in a long time. I really did get a good laugh though.

(Not at the original post, it was not funny at all.)

It was the funny responses to it. You people are so funny.

Spider, you are so serious, and grown up. But to have an adult conversation with you might take hours of serious research and that's just too much work, so I am just going to have to pass, cause I wanna go play with the kids.

I do respect all your knowledge though.

JB

alcohol works wonders...

Wasn't this thread already deleted once today?

Nope, this is the first time I've posted it. Besides, this one has 12 points, the earlier one only had 11.