How does one keep themselves from exploding like an atomic bomb over internet atheists?

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I mean, really, hate the sin and love the sinner but I feel like hurting someone every time I see these folks online. Or maybe we should just call them New Atheists. I mean, I can handle a respectful conversation with a the normal brand of atheist or agnostic, I have no trouble respecting them (otherwise I would have longed abandoned keeping silent online) but how do you deal with people who sound like they would immediately embark on a commie eugenicide campaign if put into a position of power. It’s horrifying and it just pisses me off so badly. I want to love them, I really do, but I find myself 1) taking it all personally 2) feeling helpless and powerless before them and 3) fighting the impulse to commit a couple mortal sins in thought if you know what I mean. It seems hopeless, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that God will stop any of this.
 
Avoid the ones that are simply there to pick a fight and douse you in poor rhetoric. If you wish to discuss things with atheists, find ones that are informed, respectful, and open to discussion.
As for the Dawkins-types, find something better to do, like cutting your nails, doing the dishes, brushing the cat.😉
 
You are letting anonymous people on the internet disturb your peace,
this is not healthy. 😦
I urge you to take a short break from the internet, maybe for the weekend.
Spend the time you’d be on the internet in prayer.:gopray:
You will receive all the answers that you need. 🙂

Peace be with you on your journey!
 
I find aggressively atheist posts to be a terrible occasion of sin. The only way I have of dealing with the problem is to avoid certain threads altogether, when the heading itself is enough to warn me away, or to limit my involvement to correcting misstatements or offering information, without actually engaging in any discussion.
 
WoundedIcon said:
I mean, really, hate the sin and love the sinner but I feel like hurting someone every time I see these folks online. Or maybe we should just call them New Atheists. I mean, I can handle a respectful conversation with a the normal brand of atheist or agnostic, I have no trouble respecting them (otherwise I would have longed abandoned keeping silent online) but how do you deal with people who sound like they would immediately embark on a commie eugenicide campaign if put into a position of power. It’s horrifying and it just pisses me off so badly. I want to love them, I really do, but I find myself 1) taking it all personally 2) feeling helpless and powerless before them and 3) fighting the impulse to commit a couple mortal sins in thought if you know what I mean. It seems hopeless, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that God will stop any of this.
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You have several approaches.

You can quit posting, or you can learn how to endure their storm of verbage without getting upset. I challenge you to do the latter.

Really. You push little buttons on a machine and later you see little spots on a screen, put there by somebody God knows where and I’m just assuming to be a human being, for whatever reason. Break it down like that and you’ll see that these words have no way to control you except that your mind allows it.

Learn code phrases and how to say things. Like instead of saying, “you’re crazy,” say “that’s an interesting viewpoint,” for example. How about “you might be right? I’m not sure I am with you on it yet.” You can say that any time you disagree. Nobody has to know whether you are taking it personally, and so they don’t know how to play it – they may even play it safe and be nice back. If you do not reveal your emotions, they will not know how to reply to you to put you down like they want to. They can either respond to your question or offer an ad hominem. (Here’s one way I like to reply to ad hominem: “Thank you for letting me know I come off arrogant and selfish. Please help me understand how to become better in this area.”)

In fact, I’ll go one better than that. Take me to one of your hang outs, and if I find it interesting I’ll register and join you there and we’ll see what sort of love we can spread around to these fools. The goals will be to learn to a) not get upset in the first place, and b) respond charitably, NO MATTER WHAT the provocation. And we’ll have each other’s backs. Remember these are goals and not requirements. If you want this, send me a pm with the information.

I’ve used CAF the same way. As an exercise machine in patience. It has paid off big time.

Alan
 
The seldom times I do “debate” these sorts of people or other nutters on the net I feel the something the same way. Sometimes it’s beneficial to put them in place before a community (because a lot of “respectful” atheists who you might talk to in everyday life, to be honest, only let their true colours shine when they become anonymous.)

Earlier in the year I had a lovely discussion with someone on a news website. The topic was Clerical Celibacy but that was far and away not what we were discussing. I felt a real spiritual suffering/attack for the whole 1-2 week conversation. I knew when he posted without even being at the computer, every time of what I can remember. He even posted comments intentionally in a way that didn’t notify me by email he was that cowardly, but I felt the same thing then.

In the end, God won, and unknown to me at the time it was viewed by quite a lot of people, the person also turned out to be an ex-priest (or atleast so he claimed). I can only imagine and hope that it must have been important for somebody, and the devil didn’t like that.

I would say if they cause you to sin, then don’t bother with them at all. But sometimes, I cannot say what situations, your words can help someone that you will likely never know while you are here.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Don’t engage in a discussion with them.
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Best advice. ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑

I myself have little or no interest in the topics that seem to get so many people wound up, so that seems to be the best advice.

Since I was an atheist for a long time (~30 years), and am still not entirely done with those ideas (although I’m back at Mass, confession, communion, praying, etc.) the issues and ideas as I see them discussed have no hold on me. My internal dialog and the ideas I entertain and have to reconcile are now so far beyond what I see going on in such discussions, that I see them as both much too elementary and a total waste of my time.

I’ve had a similar reaction in the past to other topics in TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. and have found that the best thing to do by far is just to drop them. I no longer watch TV, go to movies, or read newspapers or magazines, and count myself as being fortunate in that respect.

I listen to the radio, look for what I want on the internet, pick up church bulletins at Mass, and read books from the library. That’s more than enough for me. And, even if I’m not being spoon fed somebody else’s version of what counts for news, I never really seem to be so out of the loop that I can’t easily follow discussions on any topic I see. Even if once in a blue moon I’m a teeny tiny bit lost, catching up is super easy via the internet.

I’m interested in what I experience vis-à-vis prayer, and not for the most part in what somebody says about some apologetics issue.
 
I just remind myself that atheists are only a minority in the world.
 
Exploding is exactly what they want from you. Instead, pray fervently for their mortal souls and move-on.

One has to wonder why an atheist would want to spend time on a Catholic website. Maybe they are actually believers who are angry with God, and trying to convince themselves of their non-belief. In any event, losing your composure serves no purpose. “Me thinks he protesteth too much.”

If you feel you must respond, speak from your heart, about why you do believe, not why they should.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Don’t engage in a discussion with them.
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Dear Wounded Icon.
I think this is the best advice. I saw one the other night that I just walked away from. You really can tell the seekers/searchers from someone who is just baiting. You just simply don’t have to engage with someone like that. No point in even getting upset. Back out and go to another thread. If it is hard for you to do, go to another thread and discuss your distress. Better yet, start a new thread about the issue. God Bless.
 
WoundedIcon said:
I mean, really, hate the sin and love the sinner but I feel like hurting someone every time I see these folks online. Or maybe we should just call them New Atheists. I mean, I can handle a respectful conversation with a the normal brand of atheist or agnostic, I have no trouble respecting them (otherwise I would have longed abandoned keeping silent online) but how do you deal with people who sound like they would immediately embark on a commie eugenicide campaign if put into a position of power. It’s horrifying and it just pisses me off so badly.

I want to love them, I really do, but I find myself 1) taking it all personally 2) feeling helpless and powerless before them and 3) fighting the impulse to commit a couple mortal sins in thought if you know what I mean. It seems hopeless, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that God will stop any of this.
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As general advice, it’s important to keep in mind that this is the internet: people are often more obnoxious and outspoken than otherwise, and while you need to be mindful that online forums and members are part of reality, this is not the real world at all–and therefore, you need to detach yourself somewhat.

When you find yourself thinking a great deal about a debate or a particular poster–off-line–it means you need to take a step back, I’d say.
 
I still say Internet forums are a laboratories and gymnasiums for our exercise regimen to get all those defensive and sensitive emotions under control.

Why let them get us frustrated? Don’t know? Then why not find out and fix the problem within ourselves?

Quit worrying about the correctness or lack thereof, of people who are annoying you, whether they are trying to or not. Look out for you own spiritual soundness – you should be able to take anything they write without letting it get to you personally. If that isn’t the case, there is opportunity for improvement. And the very same people who are getting to you are the ones who are going to “sign” your graduation certificate.

Let’s use technology for somebody’s good. If not for the fools who argue against me with inane arguments, then at least for me, that I may learn to let fools be fools without letting it bother me. If my happiness depends on people on Internet not writing things that offend me, then I have a problem.

And I’m an engineer. I see a problem, I want to fix it. I look at people fighting on the Internet and when I see one party wrong about something but the other party is all bent out of shape over it, there are two parties that need help. The latter is the one I’m most interested in ministering to. The one who wants to learn how to speak the truth and not let the replies get them too upset.

If you think you’re going to fix them, you just might but maybe not. Good luck:

Prov 27:22
Though you pound fools with a pestle, their folly never leaves them.

Hope for everything, expect nothing. If you think you are going to fix a bunch of stooges, you will most likely fail. If you go in there to learn how to become more calm amid fools, you just might win over one or more. Maybe not likely, but more likely than if you keep trying to out-argue their non-arguments or trying to get them to see, confess, and repent from the error of their ways.

Alan
 
Give a man a break from idiots, and he’ll be peaceful for a day.

Teach a man how to coexist with idiots, and he’ll be peaceful for a lifetime.

Escape this opportunity if you wish, but what better way to improve and learn patience than by dealing with people who test your patience?

Doesn’t anybody at all get what I’m suggesting? Is my microphone not working or something?

Alan
 
AlanFromWichita said:
Give a man a break from idiots, and he’ll be peaceful for a day.

Teach a man how to coexist with idiots, and he’ll be peaceful for a lifetime.

Escape this opportunity if you wish, but what better way to improve and learn patience than by dealing with people who test your patience?

Doesn’t anybody at all get what I’m suggesting? Is my microphone not working or something?

Alan
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No, I certainly hear you. It’s just that I am extremely sensitive to these kinds of social situations and would rather not test myself. It’s hard enough being a Catholic, and to be a college-aged youth, to add PTSD and Autism… well, ouch.
 
There are atheists who believe that there is no God and agnostics who can’t be bothered to apply themselves to the question. They are entitled to their lack of belief. They are not the ones who make a nuisance of themselves on the Internet.

The nihilistic trolls who like to ridicule and abuse religious belief do so in an effort to prove to themselves that religion in not necessary. It used to be the fashion to lock such people up in long term lunatic asylums, but now we let them own computers and give them odd professorships at Oxford University. In modern terms, they are not mentally ill, but have social and behavioural issues. We should be patient with them and remember that it’s not their fault that they are social misfits. They were probably taken to listen to a sermon from Pastor Winthrop when they were young and impressionable. As with all people with behavioural problems, the appropriate treatment is to correct their errors as politely and succinctly as possible.
 
WoundedIcon said:
No, I certainly hear you. It’s just that I am extremely sensitive to these kinds of social situations and would rather not test myself. It’s hard enough being a Catholic, and to be a college-aged youth, to add PTSD and Autism… well, ouch.
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OK, I understand. As a temporary condition and especially with consideration of your condition, that probably is a good plan.

But really, it doesn’t have to be this way. When we were little, adults taught us conditional love, conditional friendship, and teachers liked to use us as peer pressure against each other so they championed expressing intolerance and anger toward those who don’t fit the mold. We are actually taught to be angry over what others believe and say. Like I say, it doesn’t have to be this way. So to OP is off the hook and my plea goes out to the others who maybe are looking for a way for spiritual self-improvement – when you’re around fools, use the opportunity to learn patience.

Problem is, there are too few role models of people who actually have that sort of patience and self-confidence. (Notice I said self-confidence NOT “self-esteem.”) It hurts a little that somebody has to go out on a limb these days and go against this culture, if one wants to learn to be patient or to avoid stewing over the beliefs of idiots. You’d think that would be the norm and that being easily upset would be the occasional exception – but since the adults haven’t grown up yet they just pass this on to their kids. Our whole society is just altogether too filled with anger and blame; to the extent that it is the unusual person who outgrows it. Just look at one political debate and tell me – how have these kids grown up since playing “king of the mountain” in the sandbox?

Alan
 
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