What is your Motivation to Discuss/Debate Things Online?

eleos1954 said:

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

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God changes people when HE saves them.

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

Pepperdoodle said:

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.

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

Pepperdoodle said:

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

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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?"

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.

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 said:

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.

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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.

If I post something in the Christian Discussion/Debate forum, it's to see if others have had the same experience as me, or try to get answers.

I don't really like to argue with anyone anymore. Sometimes there's just no point to it and you have to walk away.

Rescued One said:

Unmotivated due to incessant pop-ups!

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Yes, the pop-ups on this forum are out of control and interfere with constructive and thoughtful discussions. I raised this concern in a ticket and the response I got tells me a lot about how much the people in charge care about it. I was basically told that the pop-ups we're their fault; they come from the owner. So things are designed such that suggestions and complaints are routed to people who can't do anything about them.

On a computer
Open Chrome and click the three dots (More) in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings.
Click Privacy and security, then Site Settings.
Click Pop-ups and redirects.
You can choose your default setting or find specific sites to block or allow.
To block a site, find it in the "Allowed" list and click More > Block.
To allow a site, click Add next to "Allowed to send pop-ups and use redirects" and enter the site's URL.
On an Android device
Open the Chrome app.
Tap More in the top-right corner of the address bar.
Go to Settings.
Tap Permissions, then Pop-ups and redirects.
Toggle the setting to turn the feature on or off.
Additional pop-up management tips
Manage site notifications: If you are still getting pop-ups, you may have subscribed to notifications from a site. You can manage these in the same "Site Settings" menu by going to Notifications.
Check for malware: Persistent pop-ups, especially if they are appearing after a pop-up blocker is enabled, could be a sign of malware on your computer or phone.
Consider third-party extensions: If you want more advanced features, you can add a pop-up blocker extension from the Chrome Web Store,...

Am I the only one here who doesn't believe in debating? I kind of think it divides people.

I actually came here 20 years ago for serious debate. I guess back then people were not as opinionated and closed minded as they are now, though. And, personally, I converted from an unorthodox church to a Nicene-compliant position because of the discussions.

To answer the original question, though, even though it seems that we rehash the same arguments with the same people, never getting anywhere, it is true that a lot of people lurk. Long ago, on the old BB bulletin board you could see all the people who were on each board. It listed all the member names and then listed how many unregistered people were there reading. This version of CF doesn’t do that, but you can look at the number of people total on the site then look at the member’s list and see there are lots of people lurking. That is who I talk to.

I've thought about this thread occasionally since it was posted. The OP has some good points.

Pepperdoodle said:

I find those who's opinions truth disagrees with, that they live in another universe, one of their own making and can't be reasoned with in any way. They think point blank that their reality/opinions are not optional regardless of the truth that opposes it. They bulldoze truth and don't adhere to it or respect it.

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Yes, there is an unfortunately very vocal contingent of people who don't care about the truth who frankly have no business participating in theological discussions because they ignore arguments when they have nothing to say, contradict actual evidence but never provide any of their own, or take such unserious positions on epistemology that you can't even have a discussion with them. If I come to the conclusion that someone is doing this, I just set him to "ignore" and move on. You can't spend significant amounts of time pulling quotes and making your contribution to the discussion logically sound when it's just going to be met with "nuh uh."

Pepperdoodle said:

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.

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I've had it happen on rare occasions, but not on CF. Even so, arguing theology or politics on the internet is still probably one of the biggest wastes of time a lot of us engage in. I'm trying to shift away from the debates unless it seems like someone participating in good faith might be helped.

I don't desire debate although i used to. Im searching for like-mindedness. Im trying to fill a void in my heart i think. I find that in Jesus. Its good to talk about the good Lord and his ways.