This is one of the last threads that I started on Reasonable Faith Forum.
If you care to look at it, you will see that it was started by “Unknown Member”. That’s because when I deleted my account, it wipes out your user name and replaces it with Unknown Member. But if you read through, you will see others refer to me by the same Pater that I use here.
Cast of characters:
Mammal - An atheist, a working PhD scientist/biologist.
Lancia - A college biology professor. Used to be atheist, then agnostic a few years ago. Today a believer, but with some caveats. For example, believes that all will be saved. Good friend.
Jabberwock - An atheist. Dont really know his background, but a brilliant person and terrifying opponent.
Kurros - Also atheist. Particle physicist. Probably keenest mind on the site.
Fred - Atheist Professor, I think in the humanities. Very nimble philosopher.
Algernon - Atheist, numbskull, troll.
And finally, jayceei. JC believes in an eastern god. Says Buddha was a better incarnation than Jesus. Fancies himself as a possible successor. A cult leader in search of a cult following. A trollers troll.
If you care to look, you will see this particular thread matches some of my threads here. All about the problem of evil. At some point a few years ago, JC started using ChatGPT, because ChatGPT would tell him how wonderful and wise and smart he is. Accolades that he would post to the forum.
In this instance, you will see me try to politely push him out of the thread. He trolls by derailing threads to talk about himself, and post page after page of AI drivel. The most frustrating thing he does is that when anyone new comes on the Reasonable Faith forum with genuine questions, thinking they are going to get a Christian perspective, he jumps on them and crams his slop onto them. Page after page. If the person doesn’t agree with him, he tells them that there is something wrong with their brain. They never come back.
I started this thread going on two years ago. It recently got bumped up by an ad for Pakistani Electro bikes about a month ago. You might also find a Chipotle menu, or an ad for Chinese blow up (S) dolls.
There used to be 5 to 10 new threads a DAY. And dozens of posts. Dozens of active members. Now, it goes weeks with no new posts. If you click on the “Feed” button at the top, you will see the list of posts. It’s been a two person conversation for a month. Everybody is gone. I have no idea how lancia keeps holding on. Without him, there would be nothing happening at all.
The forum team administration just doesn’t see the value of having a forum any more. No one to take charge. They used to rule with an iron fist pretty much, and kept it healthy.
So this is why I get agitated about AI and trollish behavior.
But back to the subject at hand - you see the interactions with the atheists. They look for any leverage point, that they can exploit and discredit your argument.
Now, you say you “built this argument”. That’s true in a sense. Maybe like, let’s say you hired a general contractor to build a house for you. You get together several times and approve all the plans and pay the money and have it built. Then you invite your friends and family over to see the “house that you built”.
But suppose you live there a month, and you turn on the shower, and cold brown sludge comes out. Do you know what went wrong? No, because you didn’t ACTUALLY build it, the contractor built it. You didn’t swing a hammer, or fit any pipes, or shovel any dirt.
When you post the argument that you built to your atheist interlocutor, it might be true that he knows what ontology means, and what an abstract object is, and that math doesn’t cause anything. When he questions you about it, you won’t know what to say, other than nanny nanny boo boo and how you lifted the universe. But the truth is, you COULD know what to say. You could learn that part. And AI is a helpful tool for that, but you do gotta put in the work.
Going back to my post on Reasonable Faith, as I remember, I eventually tried starting over on a different thread a couple times, but it just got worse and worse. The atheists dont really care if the whole thing dies. But you should have heard them all howl when I grouped JC with them, since he doesn’t believe in the real God. None of them were happy with that. They know he’s a troll as much as anybody. They leave him alone pretty much because he is against Christians. They are delighted that he is there.
Lastly, you should not view criticism of your work that you post on here as personal, or somehow vicious. It’s not. Sometimes contributions come in the form of corrections. As I said, this isn’t a contest, and we all get a participation trophy.
Okay?