For Non-Believers Only - a New Blog Site

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I invite all " open minded " non-believers to visit the new Brandon Vogt blog site at : strangenotions.com/ . Brandon said the site is an invitation to all " open minded " atheists to discuss their questions about God’s existence, etc. On staff are some thirty well versed men and women of Faith who will give you well reasoned answers.

Personally, I think Brandon is much too optimistic. I haven’t noticed any " open minded " persons among this type of non-believers. At least I haven’t found any in these forums. But we shall see. Linus2nd
 
Linusthe2nd said:
I invite all " open minded " non-believers to visit the new Brandon Vogt blog site at : strangenotions.com/ . Brandon said the site is an invitation to all " open minded " atheists to discuss their questions about God’s existence, etc. On staff are some thirty well versed men and women of Faith who will give you well reasoned answers.

Personally, I think Brandon is much too optimistic. I haven’t noticed any " open minded " persons among this type of non-believers. At least I haven’t found any in these forums. But we shall see. Linus2nd
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Very nice site, Brandon did a good job with it. I like the 20 arguments section. There are missing a few good ones though:

ArguingWithAtheists.com/Pages/Intelligent_Design.htm
 
Linusthe2nd said:
I invite all " open minded " non-believers to visit the new Brandon Vogt blog site at : strangenotions.com/ . Brandon said the site is an invitation to all " open minded " atheists to discuss their questions about God’s existence, etc. On staff are some thirty well versed men and women of Faith who will give you well reasoned answers.

Personally, I think Brandon is much too optimistic. I haven’t noticed any " open minded " persons among this type of non-believers. At least I haven’t found any in these forums. But we shall see. Linus2nd
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I have come across several open-minded atheists. Thinkingsapien, comes to mind, but there are other people I’ve met across the interwebs, anyways.
 
“Open-minded” and “atheist” constitutes, in all but the rarest cases, either a description of a very young person or an oxymoron. (ducks and runs for cover)
 
Linusthe2nd said:
I invite all " open minded " non-believers to visit the new Brandon Vogt blog site at : strangenotions.com/ . Brandon said the site is an invitation to all " open minded " atheists to discuss their questions about God’s existence,.
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Well thanx for the invite! Note: not all non-believers have questions about God. But I suppose the site is for those that do.
Linusthe2nd said:
Personally, I think Brandon is much too optimistic. I haven’t noticed any " open minded " persons among this type of non-believers.
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Well you never know…some one may surprise you.
 
I suppose I am not a non-believer, but it looks like I could glean something from this site. Thank you for sharing!
 
It should be noted that most non-believers converted from the religion of their birth at some point, at least in my experience. This means that at some point in their life, they realized that what they held most dear was inadequate or false, and changed their minds. I, for one, think there is much more open-mindedness in those who have shown that they have changed their minds, than there is in cradle Catholics who have no interest in questioning their own beliefs.

The website looks pretty cool, though.
 
^ I would not say as a rule that atheists are not open-minded. But I became an atheist at the age of 12 because I completely misunderstood Catholic salvation doctrine and the implications of evolution and the big bang. Not really a matter of open-mindedness, in my case.
 
polytropos said:
^ I would not say as a rule that atheists are not open-minded. …]Not really a matter of open-mindedness, in my case.
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Yes, my understanding is that to be “open minded” is to have willingness to listen to new ideas. But one that hears new ideas isn’t guaranteed to agree with them even if she understands them. Additionally because different people have different experiences, different knowledge, and so on there may be variance in how people react to new information.
 
ngill09 said:
It should be noted that most non-believers converted from the religion of their birth at some point, at least in my experience. This means that at some point in their life, they realized that what they held most dear was inadequate or false, and changed their minds. I, for one, think there is much more open-mindedness in those who have shown that they have changed their minds, than there is in cradle Catholics who have no interest in questioning their own beliefs.

The website looks pretty cool, though.
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I have nothing against atheists or agnostics or anyone from another faith background. What I find pointless is endless debates with them. By the way, Catholics should not question their faith. That would be an occasion of sin against faith, or could be if seriously engaged in. Catholics should however strive to be better and better informed about that faith. That does not mean that they have to think they can " successfully " answer every question raised by a non-believer. It means they have to actually know what the Church teaches and know it well. Linus2nd
 
Linusthe2nd said:
I have nothing against atheists or agnostics or anyone from another faith background. What I find pointless is endless debates with them. By the way, Catholics should not question their faith. That would be an occasion of sin against faith, or could be if seriously engaged in. Catholics should however strive to be better and better informed about that faith. That does not mean that they have to think they can " successfully " answer every question raised by a non-believer. It means they have to actually know what the Church teaches and know it well. Linus2nd
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A refusal to ask “Is what I believe true?” is a refusal to pursue the Truth. It is relegating the responsibility of discovering the Truth to the accidents of your birth. If your faith cannot withstand questions, what good is it?
 
ngill09 said:
A refusal to ask “Is what I believe true?” is a refusal to pursue the Truth. It is relegating the responsibility of discovering the Truth to the accidents of your birth. If your faith cannot withstand questions, what good is it?
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If you reject the given answers because they are contrary to the truth as you see it, what good is it to ask them in the first place?
 
I guess it depends on what one means by questioning the faith. For me, I’d say my faith has been strengthened by questioning. I now have some basic reason propping up what I believe.
 
Interesting site. I wish the project much success.

I don’t know that dyed-in-the-wool atheists are the only target audience of the initiative. I never technically fell away from the faith, but when I was going through a period of doubt, it was these types of arguments from reason that really brought me back. I would guess there are a lot of seekers who are on the fence and would benefit from such a presentation based on reason rather than revelation.

Plus, I think the mere fact of setting aside the virtual space for such charitable discussions to take place is a great thing. People will rise to the level of expectation. There are enough sites that cater to the lowest common denominator when it comes to these types of discussions (e.g. Yahoo! Answers). We need a designated safe place.
 
ngill09 said:
It should be noted that most non-believers converted from the religion of their birth at some point, at least in my experience. This means that at some point in their life, they realized that what they held most dear was inadequate or false, and changed their minds. I, for one, think there is much more open-mindedness in those who have shown that they have changed their minds, than there is in cradle Catholics who have no interest in questioning their own beliefs.
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Does this mean I am double-open-minded? 😉

And then there is Chesterton’s remark:
“Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
 
I use the Google CHROME internet browser and got the following message,
Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to www.strangenotions.com
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This is very suspicious.

I recommend extreme caution.

It’s not likely you’ll have good done to you on an atheist’s site.

Why has attention been called to this site in the first place? :mad:
 
empther said:
I use the Google CHROME internet browser and got the following message,

This is very suspicious.

I recommend extreme caution.

It’s not likely you’ll have good done to you on an atheist’s site.

Why has attention been called to this site in the first place? :mad:
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It’s not an atheist’s site. It’s a site founded by Catholic blogger/writer Brandon Vogt who has assembled a team of 30 or so of the best and brightest Catholic bloggers, writers, priests, theologians, and philosophers (e.g. Fr. Barron, Dr. Peter Kreeft, Mark Shea, Jimmy Akin…to name but a few). It was featured on NewAdvent’s blogroll yesterday, too.

I’m not sure what’s up with your browser, but it’s not a questionable site by any stretch of the imagination.
 
empther said:
I use the Google CHROME internet browser and got the following message,

This is very suspicious.

I recommend extreme caution.

It’s not likely you’ll have good done to you on an atheist’s site.

Why has attention been called to this site in the first place? :mad:
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The site is run by a Catholic, Brandon Vogt, who often appears on New Advent. The site is an " outreach " to open minded atheists. Most of the contributors are Catholic and well qualified as well. " Brandon Vogt (list of articles)
Brandon Vogt is an award-winning writer, blogger, speaker, and the founder of StrangeNotions.com. He’s been featured by several media outlets including NPR, CBS, FoxNews, SiriusXM, and EWTN. Brandon converted to Catholicism in 2008, and in 2011 he released his first book, The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet (Our Sunday Visitor, 2011). A mechanical engineer by day, Brandon is pursuing his MA in Theology from the Augustine Institute. He lives with his wife, Kathleen, and their three children in Central Florida. Follow his blog at BrandonVogt.com or connect through Twitter at @BrandonVogt1. "

The only thing I have against it is I think Brandon is way over optimistic. All or most of the arguments that will appear on the site have been used here at some point and I haven’t noticed any former atheist admit that one of the arguments was instrumental in his/her conversion. Most of the ones we have here seem to be " hard core " ideologues, it is a religion to them, a faith perhaps part of their " peer " group culture. Linus2nd.
 
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