Atheists using the comments sections of religious or secular websites to counter religious claims may be following an evangelical call to convert others. The article interviews a couple of these missionaries for atheism:
Matt Davis, a 33-year-old British atheist who engages in religious debate on multiple American religion and atheist sites, says he often feels frustrated by the distance between himself and those he spars with.
“Most people won’t change their minds,” Davis said. “But maybe some of the people reading and not commenting might be on the fence and I might influence them.”
These “super-commenters” follow certain standards to prevent gentle persuasion turning nasty:
A lifelong atheist, Rocky has his own rules of engagement. He tries to be respectful, to place himself in the other person’s shoes, and refrain from name-calling. (One swear word from another commenter and he is out.)
Sometimes, he says it actually works.
Jonathan Bishop of the Crocels Trolling Academy concludes:
“Where the trolling is done to inform, as opposed to harass or stalk, then religious trolling of this kind can be helpful in encouraging those religious or anti-religious groups to look at themselves before pointing at others.”
The article is “part of a series on religious tolerance and combating hate speech online, brought to you with support from Google.”
Posted by Rosalind Hughes
All Content © 2017 Episcopal Café
very nice
Yes, it does seem hard to navigate. I would love to have a list of titles of articles so one could click on the one one wants to read.
I figure eventually all I would have to do is click on “lead” and find the articles.
Gary Paul Gilbert
This is simple feedback on your new format: not so much.
Glitchy. Unnatural to navigate. Really lost coherence. Big BOLD “Donate” dominates annoyingly. Not sure you get anything out of a too-brief sentence fragment and a “continue” button. Then there is the content itself. This bit about atheists commenting was shallow, and all too brief. It basically offered very little as do some other newer postings. This is loser. New does not imply improved.
Thank you for your feedback. I hope that we (I) can grow into the new format.