What is your Motivation to Discuss/Debate Things Online?

[Rescued One]

There is always hope ... all one can do is try. Being silent certainly isn't going to change anything.

God changes people when HE saves them.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Discussion is an interesting exchange among fellow humans. Debate is pointless.

 

[Chesterton]

I've been online "discussing" things with people for many, many years in various platforms.
Not one person in those years has ever said in any of those discussions that I've been in or witnessed.....oh, ok, I get it, thank you all for sharing that. It's caused me to change my mind on that. I appreciate you all sharing the truth and showing me I was wrong.....or something to that leaning.

Just about 24 hours ago I admitted I was wrong about a fact I'd posted.

So what is your motivation to discuss/debate things online?

Offline is more difficult. For example, when I'm in the mood to discuss some fine point of Calvin's theology, and I ask strangers at the bus stop about it, I get responses like "Who's Calvin? The bus driver?"

 

[Bob Crowley]

I suppose I sometimes think I might have something worthwhile to say. And sometimes I learn from others.

What I'm not prepared to do is to go on long winded debates in which both sides end up endlessly repeating their original POV.

If someone has a different opinion, I certainly won't change their mind and they won't change mine.

But after some reflection they might change their mind and / or I might change mine. In other words we all change our own minds, not other people.

They might provide cogent arguments, but WE are the ones who change our minds.

 

[rebornfree]

To have Christisn fellowship at any time of the day or night and to meet people from around the world. Also you have time to consider what to say and you can choose which topics to engage with and which to avoid.

 

[Pepperdoodle]

Just about 24 hours ago I admitted I was wrong about a fact I'd posted.

I said "change my mind".
Not referring to saying a fact was wrong on something, but I'm referring to things like:
I'm prochoice, but then they changed their mind/heart and I'm now prolife or.....yes I believe trans is real, but then they changed their mind/heart and now admit it's not.
Big things, life decisions on topics, staunch adherence/loyalty to a wrong thing, an ungodly thing, etc.
Those are the type of things I'm referring to.....not, oh, I got that fact wrong on something.

 

[PloverWing]

I said "change my mind".
Not referring to saying a fact was wrong on something, but I'm referring to things like:
I'm prochoice, but then they changed their mind/heart and I'm now prolife or.....yes I believe trans is real, but then they changed their mind/heart and now admit it's not.
Big things, life decisions on topics, staunch adherence/loyalty to a wrong thing, an ungodly thing, etc.
Those are the type of things I'm referring to.....not, oh, I got that fact wrong on something.

How about broadening one's perspective? Here's one of the examples I had in mind in my earlier post -- a religious example, not a political one. I grew up in a tradition that strongly emphasizes the individual. It's the individual person, alone, who makes a decision to follow Jesus. The individual is responsible for their own spiritual growth, through private prayer and solitary Bible reading. The individual person chooses to be baptized, after making a personal commitment to Jesus. The church is, well, a collection of individuals who happen to all be walking in the same direction.

My current church tradition practices infant baptism. I don't object to that, but sometimes it still feels to me like we're pretending the baby has made a decision. So I brought up the question in the STR (Anglican) forum. One of the Anglican priests in that forum ( @Paidiske ) encouraged me to think of baptism as a rite of entrance into the Christian community. And I really hadn't thought of baptism as a communal action before, because of the individualistic emphasis in my childhood church. Infant baptism makes much more sense if it's about a community instead of just an individual.

So, broadening of perspective. I don't see my earlier thinking as wrong, just incomplete. Now, when I think about baptism, I bring in new ideas that I wasn't thinking about before.

At this stage of my life, I don't expect that I'm going to change 180-degrees on anything as fundamental as Christian commitment or human rights. But there are always new things to learn, new sides of complicated questions that I haven't considered before. Sometimes a discussion forum like CF contributes to that learning.