Two to One

[JohnR7]

I have a suggestion for any christian who wants to post on the boards that invite nonbelievers to participate. Often we are told in getting a degree that you are to spend at least two hours outside of the class room, for every hour you spend inside of the classroom. Sometimes people come to the board prepared, they have done their homework.

So in light of this, you may want to consider to spend two hours in prayer, for every hour you spend posting. In this way you could at least be as prepared as some of them are at times.

 

[Nathan Poe]

I have a suggestion for any christian who wants to post on the boards that invite nonbelievers to participate. Often we are told in getting a degree that you are to spend at least two hours outside of the class room, for every hour you spend inside of the classroom. Sometimes people come to the board prepared, they have done their homework.

So in light of this, you may want to consider to spend two hours in prayer, for every hour you spend posting. In this way you could at least be as prepared as some of them are at times.

If a Christian comes on the open boards, posts something, and gets refuted, corrected, and branded as ignorant by the nonbelievers, do you really think it's becasue they didn't pray enough?

Well, that's your belief, and time will tell if your idea works. I know how Christians are supposed to hate compromise, but how about spending one hour in prayer, and one hour "doing homework" for every hour you spend posting. That way you can have the answers from heaven and Earth, and have all your bases covered.

 

[JohnR7]

I know how Christians are supposed to hate compromise, but how about spending one hour in prayer, and one hour "doing homework" for every hour you spend posting. That way you can have the answers from heaven and Earth, and have all your bases covered.

So you think we should spend one hour to seek God to see what He has to say about it and then one hour to study man's opinions?

Still your formula may work if our objective is to learn what man has to say about science and all the various branches of science. It would be nice if by the time a student graduated from High School they had a brief overview of all the various areas that people specialize in. That is to say if they knew a little bit of something about every area you can earn a Phd in.

 

[Nathan Poe]

So you think we should spend one hour to seek God to see what He has to say about it and then one hour to study man's opinions?

As a Christian and a student of science, how could you not?

How can anyone even think to enter into a debate without some idea of what the other side really believes?

Still your formula may work if our objective is to learn what man has to say about science and all the various branches of science.

Again, if you're going to debate science, it would help to know what it's about.

How many times have Christians (yourself included) started a thread on these boards that began with a complete and total misunderstanding of what they were trying to debate? How many "Post #1"s have began with an Evolution=Atheism strawman, or asking about evolution and the Big Bang?

How long does it take for the more scientifically minded on these boards to try (and rarely succeed) to correct the poster, who won't have any of it, because they believe in their heart that everything they know comes directly from God, so they can't be wrong?

What happens next? Endless whining about "Christian persecution" and how the evolutionists "are ganging up on the Christians."

The truth is: it gets frustrating very quickly to be preached at by someone who thinks they know our field better than we do, and is convinced of their own infallabilty.

A little education combined with an ounce of humility would work wonders.

It would be nice if by the time a student graduated from High School they had a brief overview of all the various areas that people specialize in. That is to say if they knew a little bit of something about every area you can earn a Phd in.

No argument here. But as a high school teacher, I don't want to get started on a tirade of what's wrong with education in America. I'd never stop.

But back to the point of the thread: Absolutely you should know both sides of what you're debating; it's just common sense. I've had to do a lot of Bible study to debate on here; probably more than I did in school. I'm still a skeptic and a scoffer, but you should be happy: at least I'm reading my Bible, right?

 

[ikester7579]

Yes I agree. Not to know about your foe, but to try to debate them, is like trying to drive with a blind fold on. You will crash. And it will be ugly. So pray and make sure you do your homework. I myself have learned a lot. But I do have one question. What does (sic) mean? I see it put in some people's post next to a word like you see here. Also while I'm asking questions, what does TOE stand for?

 

[Arikay]

Theory of Evolution (yeah the O really shouldnt be there, but most people put it there anyway.)

 

[Freodin]

(sic) is a sign that is used to show a mistake in a quote. It is there to make clear that the mistake is in the original text, and not a mistake of the quoter.

I think it is rather useless in copy&paste times, but some people are used to it.

 

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

I have a suggestion for any christian who wants to post on the boards that invite nonbelievers to participate. Often we are told in getting a degree that you are to spend at least two hours outside of the class room, for every hour you spend inside of the classroom. Sometimes people come to the board prepared, they have done their homework.

So in light of this, you may want to consider to spend two hours in prayer, for every hour you spend posting. In this way you could at least be as prepared as some of them are at times.

What we see again here is the implication that Christians are creationists. There are many Christians who post on debate boards who understand both side of the debate very well but most of them are theistic evolutionists and not creationists. There are even a few of those Christians who are also creationists who have spent at least some time to try understand the issues though they must necessarily reject much of what they learn.

Unfortunately, what we often see are creationists who have done no more than attend a Hovind seminar or read a bit of young earth literature who come to boards expecting to overwhelm everyone with what they have learned without realizing that it is just the same nonsense we have been seeing and easily refuting over and over for years.

The Frumious Bandersnatch