Shotgun Apologetics...

Depends the purpose of your participation. If it is merely to put a public spin on something you believe (make it look good) then you are right - having a lot of objections to answer makes the task almost impossible.

But IF you actually "cared" about the issues connected with a given topic - THEN all the related data becomes "helpful" and everybody wins by learning more about the subject.

Admittedly - there is a lot of participation along the lines of the first model. But now and then someone cares about the "details" in the entire topic.

In Christ,

Bob

 

BTW there is "another benefit". Write down the objections and study them one by one - offline. Build your own file of "facts" for the topic AND don't forget to INCLUDE your OWN RC sources (provided for you here) since that same quote will just come back the next time you see the subject surface.

Use this as an opportunity to understand the subject and build a file of "knowledge" rather than just "forgetting" everything you learned on a given round of exchanges.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Living Stone, I think one of the reasons why there are so many very lengthy, sometimes repetitive, posts is for propaganda purposes. They have a religious axe to grind to push a particular point of view.

 

Bang on JFox.

Frankly, I don't trouble to read most posts which iclude copies of who said what followed by the usual diatribe, which takes you nowhere and leaves you there.

Nice terse statements are adequate. Some of us have studied in the various areas, and some of us over many years.

I now read RC as Royal Cola.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Call me a dilettante, but what is RC?

 

RC stands for Roman Catholic.

 

As it turns out - everyone here has taken a doctrinal position on most topics. nothing new there. The "new thing" is wanting to know more about some given topic and being willing to "pay attention to details" even if they involve "inconvenient facts"

 

As it turns out - everyone here has taken a doctrinal position on most topics. nothing new there. The "new thing" is wanting to know more about some given topic and being willing to "pay attention to details" even if they involve "inconvenient facts" </font>[/QUOTE]I've been with this board since September, 2005, and have noticed that whether the posts have "inconvenient facts" or not, the content of many of these posts still amounts to propaganda.

 

I'm very new to the board, but so far I have to concur with JFox1.

 

Maybe some people think the "answers" they get to their objections will be just a new round of "Papal Bull" and so the things they post are geared more towards protecting the innocent on here so they are not deceived.

...in some cases, I mean.


Just an observation.

 

Or maybe its sometimes that they just want to try and counteract the propaganda they already see being posted on here.

Its really hard to tell what people's motives are, actually.


Claudia

 

Maybe this will help lighten things up a bit... here's some of my Pope Jokes I made up one night...


What does the Pope eat at the theater?

Pope Corn

What kind of Air Freshner does the Pope use?

Pope-ourri

What does the Pope drink?

Soda Pope

What does the Pope have for breakfast?

Pope Tarts


Where does the Pope go swimming?

In the Holy Sea


Where does the Pope go to the bathroom?

In the Vati-Can


What do you call a thousand pound Nun?

a Catholic Mass


...that was just when I had alot of extra time one night and nothing else to do.

 

I forgot one of them...

What does the Pope use to take a bath?


Pope Soap on a Rope

 

I think the best response to such posts is to ignore them, or to choose one or two points and address those. I usually don't real extremely long posts, especially if they have a lot of quotes. And I don't feel a need to respond to 20 points, either. I might pick one or two and ignore the other points.

I agree with what you said about this.

 

Its just different strokes for different folks.

I personally try and always put as many direct quotes in my posts as I can because that is precisely how I like to read others posts. I like to know what the 1st person said so I know the context of what the 2nd poster is responding to. Its just the better way to go, imo.

And I generally like long posts because christian teaching, theology, etc is worthy of long posts.

God bless,

Mike

 

Nothing wrong with long posts, what they're complaining about is when one person spams several very long posts in a row, often bringing up issues that haven't been discussed yet (although sometimes this is necessary!) Usually when I see these posts they contain a lot of copy-and-paste from another source.

It's typically counterproductive because it makes it impossible to have a discussion if suddenly one person brings up a dozen new topics. A forum is like a conversation among a group of people. If you monopolize the conversation and bring up so many new topics that none of them can be adequately addressed you're essentially shouting down the people you're debating with.

Long posts are great, but it's best when a person sticks to one point or to a chain of closely related points and keeps it to a length that can be reasonably responded to.

 

Claudia, you're one of the propagandists.

 

No, you are absolutely right on everyone of your points, which is why I'm going to try to not get sucked in to any more of these endless "arguments". It's not because I think truth is somehow, unimportant; it's because with family and work responsibilities (and other reading interests) I don't have endless time to adequately address the crucial subjects being debated. I'm convicted that right now God is calling me to be a better Christian in my daily life; not to win debates (of which the same ones are repeated ad nauseam) on the Baptistboard. Therefore I'll no longer be participating in any of these "discussions".

Thanks for succinctly expressing what I've been thinking the past couple of days.

 

I everyone stuck to the original op, the repeating of quotes would not be needed. My attention span is limited due to age and strokes, and frankly, I can't follow lengthy posts anyway.

Cheers,

Jim