Post by StyxD on Jul 23, 2016 23:49:35 GMT
I really felt like I'll be rooting for the guy in the video, if only because I think Christians nowadays are doing, on the whole, more harm than good (and me saying this is probably the biggest sign of the Holy Church's decay I've experienced), and the method seems interesting and innocuous enough, but... I just can't stand by the sheer duplicity of what he's doing.
Note, I've only seen the first "dialog". Maybe he comes around in later ones. I highly doubt it. But the video is hella long and I need to watch it in parts.
Curiously, the things I mention here were pointed out in the comments. Polite and insightful youtube comments. Shit...
So, the first thing: say what you want about people who go around asking if you have a minute to talk about Jesus Christ, but at least they are sincere. This guy is, at the core, an atheist apologetic who straight up lies about doing some "interviews" to get people to talk about faith. Because he figures out that they're more likely to talk to him this way. How stellar.
He claims that he's "staying neutral" during these talks and just asks questions, but judging by the first talk, that is bull. Or at least, to him it means not immediately assuming moral and intellectual high ground. Which is not saying much.
You can clearly see he's not really interested in what the guy has to say about his experiences. He's just looking for weak points to wedge into. The way he spun his questions doesn't even completely follow logic, but hey, the guy seems to have been disturbed by them, so mission accomplished.
And yeah, the second thing: what exactly is the point of eroding people's beliefs like that? To me it seems still just like a transaction where they person leaves uncomfortable and sad, while the atheist leaves feeling sooo good about himself. Leaving pebbles in shoes, my ass.
The speaker show an example of a guy who believes porn and masturbation is wrong strictly because of his religion. So that's why his beliefs should be dismantled - because the speaker believes he should be free to enjoy masturbation.
I mean, shit.
Until I see a video of him walking up to and talking down a frothing bigot with a "God hates fags" transparent, I won't believe it's actually about changing the world for good. As of now, it seems more like an exercise in harrying harmless, polite people, to get to feel superior.
To be honest, it was pretty obvious since day one - at least in case of Dawkins' works - that it's just preaching to a choir of little Amazing Atheists. Controversy is good for business, and so is saying "only idiots will not be convinced by my book to become atheists", but I never really got the impression it was effective at all. The author, of course, though that it is. But Dawkins is rather famously dense.
Note, I've only seen the first "dialog". Maybe he comes around in later ones. I highly doubt it. But the video is hella long and I need to watch it in parts.
Curiously, the things I mention here were pointed out in the comments. Polite and insightful youtube comments. Shit...
So, the first thing: say what you want about people who go around asking if you have a minute to talk about Jesus Christ, but at least they are sincere. This guy is, at the core, an atheist apologetic who straight up lies about doing some "interviews" to get people to talk about faith. Because he figures out that they're more likely to talk to him this way. How stellar.
He claims that he's "staying neutral" during these talks and just asks questions, but judging by the first talk, that is bull. Or at least, to him it means not immediately assuming moral and intellectual high ground. Which is not saying much.
You can clearly see he's not really interested in what the guy has to say about his experiences. He's just looking for weak points to wedge into. The way he spun his questions doesn't even completely follow logic, but hey, the guy seems to have been disturbed by them, so mission accomplished.
And yeah, the second thing: what exactly is the point of eroding people's beliefs like that? To me it seems still just like a transaction where they person leaves uncomfortable and sad, while the atheist leaves feeling sooo good about himself. Leaving pebbles in shoes, my ass.
The speaker show an example of a guy who believes porn and masturbation is wrong strictly because of his religion. So that's why his beliefs should be dismantled - because the speaker believes he should be free to enjoy masturbation.
I mean, shit.
Until I see a video of him walking up to and talking down a frothing bigot with a "God hates fags" transparent, I won't believe it's actually about changing the world for good. As of now, it seems more like an exercise in harrying harmless, polite people, to get to feel superior.
And one of my favourite points about the video? How apparently most people ditching religion has little to do with the "New Atheists" directly, and rather blogs and other people doing their thing and so forth. Its rather nice. You can't treat a one on one or even group discussion like some kind of big debate with a huge audience.