Why do Christians get evasive, defensive or angry when faced with difficult questions

[Colter]

What is that?

No, all you are reflecting back on are your preconceptions.
And you accused me of something, concretely, without being willing and/or able to back it up. You lied about me.


No, I am not assuming that. I was assuming, though, that you want to be taken seriously. But I may be have mistaken there.
And what the heck is "by Atheist"? That isn´t even English. Unless you are assuming some superiour God-like entity named "Atheist".

It's not a preconception about Atheist, I know several Atheist who are content with their Atheism. They live their lives, mind their own business and just want to be left alone by religious people. Activist Atheist have a will to join Christian forums and engage in argumentativeness for the express purpose of debunking faith. You can rationalize your motives all you want, I'm entitled to my opinion and you yours.

I'm giving you my perception of you having read your post and observed your interaction with other believers.

 

[Inkachu]

Let's say it's day 1. God knows that you will choose A out of an A/B choice tomorrow. Since you agree you can choose either A or B up until the time you make the choice, let's say you then freely choose B. What does this do to God's omniscience?

OK, you're just kind of repeating yourself, from what I'm seeing. You keep saying "God knows you'll choose this, but then you choose that". God knows what choice you're going to make. Period. I'm not sure how else to say it. If you're going to ultimately choose B, then God doesn't "know" you're going to choose A, He knows you're going to choose B.

 

[Inkachu]

I'll rephrase it for you:

If variable X represents God's knowledge as of our day 1 of what Fred's day 2 A/B choice will be, does variable X have a truth value as of our day 1?
=
Given: As of day 1, God has infallible knowledge of Fred's day 2 A/B choice will be. At point in time of day 1, does God's knowledge of Fred's choice consist of a value of either A or B? And can it change after day 1?

There is no "as of day 1" for God. He's eternal and infinite and exists outside of the constraints of time. He can see the day you're born and the day you die at once, and knows what will occur in between.

So, no, God's knowledge never changes. He knows everything that will occur from the beginning of human time, to the end of it.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

You should do something about your negative assumptions concerning other people´s motives. It isn´t doing you any good.

It helps him feel better at least.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

It's not a preconception about Atheist, I know several Atheist who are content with their Atheism. They live their lives, mind their own business and just want to be left alone by religious people. Activist Atheist have a will to join Christian forums and engage in argumentativeness for the express purpose of debunking faith. You can rationalize your motives all you want, I'm entitled to my opinion and you yours.

I'm giving you my perception of you having read your post and observed your interaction with other believers.

This doesn't make any sense. By this reasoning, you are not a content theist. If you were content, going by this reasoning, you wouldn't bother engaging with anyone.

 

[kristina411]

This doesn't make any sense. By this reasoning, you are not a content theist. If you were content, going by this reasoning, you wouldn't bother engaging with anyone.

Some people, when they feel like they should be confortable to speak freely on religion (because they are on a Christian board), can not help but to defend themselves and their beliefs in a place they should feel safe to freely discuss without their beliefs being challenged and criticized from every direction by naysayers. Perhaps this is the reason some christians engage in such dribble.

But you know, open forum and all.

 

[quatona]

It's not a preconception about Atheist, I know several Atheist who are content with their Atheism. They live their lives, mind their own business and just want to be left alone by religious people.

I don´t want to be left alone by religious people. Most people I interact with in RL are religous people.

Activist Atheist have a will to join Christian forums and engage in argumentativeness for the express purpose of debunking faith.

And I am not one of them, despite your ongoing attempts at mind reading.

You can rationalize your motives all you want,

You don´t know what my motives are.

I'm entitled to my opinion and you yours.

You are even entitled to make negative assumptions about my motives.
It´s just that this results in a statement not about me or "Atheist" (whoever that guy is), but about you.

I'm giving you my perception of you having read your post and observed your interaction with other believers.

Your perception is not only unasked for, irrelevant and mistaken - if you express it openly, it is a pure ad hominem which doesn´t belong in an adult conversation.

 

[Colter]

"To the unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave. The devotional labors and inspirational genius of the best of men are doomed to be extinguished by death, the long and lonely night of eternal oblivion and soul extinction. Nameless despair is man’s only reward for living and toiling under the temporal sun of mortal existence. Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty, and good.

But such is not man’s end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning. And all this doom of darkness and all this destiny of despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the most humble and unlearned of God’s children on earth.

This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity." UB 1955
​

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Some people, when they feel like they should be confortable to speak freely on religion (because they are on a Christian board), can not help but to defend themselves and their beliefs in a place they should feel safe to freely discuss without their beliefs being challenged from every direction by naysayers.

But you know, open forum and all.

If they want to be coddled, then they should post in the Christian-Only section, but even there they aren't likely to be coddled because Christians disagree (sometimes fiercely) with other Christians. So if someone isn't prepared to have their views challenged then they simply need to steer clear of forums where they are likely to encounter people with perspectives that differ to their own.

 

[Colter]

This doesn't make any sense. By this reasoning, you are not a content theist. If you were content, going by this reasoning, you wouldn't bother engaging with anyone.

Maybe there is something broken in your reasoning.

 

[kristina411]

If they want to be coddled, then they should post in the Christian-Only section, but even there they aren't likely to be coddled because Christians disagree (sometimes fiercely) with other Christians. So if someone isn't prepared to have their views challenged then they simply need to steer clear of forums where they are likely to encounter people with perspectives that differ to their own.

This is a philosophy section, not Christian apologetics. And yall (the ones always arguing) seem to forget that quite a bit.

Its not about coddling, its about respect and common courtesy for one another.

 

[Messy]

The title makes me think of what my brother told me. When he was a kid he had all those questions and he asked my mom, who had no idea and got irritated and said: Go ask the reverend!

 

[Archaeopteryx]

This is a philosophy section, not Christian apologetics. And yall (the ones always arguing) seem to forget that quite a bit.

Its not about coddling, its about respect and common courtesy for one another.

It is indeed about respect. As an example, it is disrespectful to claim that, on the one hand, questioning is legitimate and even welcome, but on the other, to feign outrage when one is questioned.

 

[kristina411]

It is indeed about respect. As an example, it is disrespectful to claim that, on the one hand, questioning is legitimate and even welcome, but on the other, to feign outrage when one is questioned.

Lol I like how you phrase this approach as "questioning is legitimate and even welcome"

You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig.

 

[Albion]

It is indeed about respect. As an example, it is disrespectful to claim that, on the one hand, questioning is legitimate and even welcome, but on the other, to feign outrage when one is questioned.

I agree, but it's far from being a one-way street.

 

[FireDragon76]

...what? Do you honestly not understand why someone might wish to speak with people who have opposing viewpoints? My thirst for knowledge and the fact that I value multiculturalism and interfaith dialogue are not psychological issues, thanks.

I value honest dialogue. But sometimes these conversations are dishonest. It ceases to be dialogue and becomes anti-Christian or anti-theistic polemics. The "Angry Atheist" movement is to blame - watch any Sam Harris debate and his whole approach is an unending stream of vitriol against Christianity and religion in general. It ceases to be an honest quest for truth at that point, and is just about ranting against the perceived deficiencies of organized religion (with which many Christians would agree).

For the record, I fully support the right of people to choose any religion, or no religion at all. I don't believe that gives people the right to spread lies and misinformation.

Too often the angry atheists speak as if Christianity is a monolithic movement (it is not), that in itself is part of the misinformation. There is not one single Christian answer to questions about the afterlife, about the origin of the universe, about theodicy, about the interaction of divine sovereignty and free will, or about the exact meaning of Jesus' crucifixion. These things are secondary matters. The heart of the faith, the things that define the orthodoxy of a Christian, on the other hand, are contained in our central creeds, the baptismal, apostolic Creed and the Nicene Creed. Beyond that, a person may question a great many things and still be an orthodox Christian.

 

[Inkachu]

If they want to be coddled, then they should post in the Christian-Only section, but even there they aren't likely to be coddled because Christians disagree (sometimes fiercely) with other Christians. So if someone isn't prepared to have their views challenged then they simply need to steer clear of forums where they are likely to encounter people with perspectives that differ to their own.

So, if we dare venture out of Christiantown, we should expect to be attacked? Why can't we wade into a crowd of atheists and expect friendliness and kindness and civility?

I hope that's not what you meant, but it's how it came across.

 

[kristina411]

There is not one single Christian answer to questions about the afterlife, about the origin of the universe, about theodicy, about the interaction of divine sovereignty and free will, or about the exact meaning of Jesus' crucifixion. These things are secondary matters. The heart of the faith, the things that define the orthodoxy of a Christian, on the other hand, are contained in our central creeds, the baptismal, apostolic Creed and the Nicene Creed. Beyond that, a person may question a great many things and still be an orthodox Christian.

Love this^

 

[Archaeopteryx]

So, if we dare venture out of Christiantown, we should expect to be attacked? Why can't we wade into a crowd of atheists and expect friendliness and kindness and civility?

I hope that's not what you meant, but it's how it came across.

Who is being attacked? No one. Criticism of your ideas is not a personal attack.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Lol I like how you phrase this approach as "questioning is legitimate and even welcome"

You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig.

That phrase, by the way, comes from an earlier conversation with a Christian who recognised my questioning as legitimate, but then became offended when he was questioned and lashed out with personal insults.