Why Do We Do It...

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Singinbeauty

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Well? Why?

I see the SAME arguments to the SAME topics yet no one, as far as I can see, has yet to concede on either side. So what keeps us tirelessly (well ok, sometimes we can see how tired we get of the same topics… :)) awake at night arguing the same points over and over?

If you choose ‘Other’ please explain…
 
I think a lot of times there are new posters popping in here, asking the same old questions, and therefore people here have to post the same old answers, which bring up the same old arguments.
 
Every time I respond to a question about the teachings of the Church it reaffirms it for me.
 
Yes, I asked an apologist (although I’ve yet to receive an answer) when is the appropriate time to realize that your pearls are thrown beneath the swine (which is a Biblical allusion… I’m not calling anyone swine… well maybe my friends and, myself too, ) yeah… we can be pigs. Anyways, good question! When is enough enough?
 
Seeds, it seeds.

What God planted through others in my heart, mind and soul took years before the roots took.

I just sow, it is God who will nourish and then harvest. I just have hope that I’m not one of the weeds.

PAX
 
I think of the parable of the sower - no doubt he knew some of his seeds would not bear fruit (sorry for the mixed metaphor), but did that make him stop sowing seed? No! If anything it made him throw out more seed to make sure the harvest was full!
Also we need to present the truth and defend the faith, if not for the original poster for other people reading the thread and lurking.
 
I persist because appologetics does provide clarity in your own understanding and provokes questions from the questioner which lead to avenues of further study.

There is also the chance that something will click. I mean people do convert to Catholicism all the time. If someone comes here asking questions, we need to have answers. Even if the questioner remains unaffected, someone else, with a more sympathetic attitude might read the answer and be touched by it.
 
FightingFat said:
I persist because appologetics does provide clarity in your own understanding and provokes questions from the questioner which lead to avenues of further study.

There is also the chance that something will click. I mean people do convert to Catholicism all the time. If someone comes here asking questions, we need to have answers. Even if the questioner remains unaffected, someone else, with a more sympathetic attitude might read the answer and be touched by it.
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and from the other side, I suppose there’s a chance that something will click and people will convert out of Catholicism.
 
what’s right about not being able to make up your mind?
how can you persuade someone when you admit ignorance?
 
I have thought about this also, especially since I get tired of retyping the same stuff and have recently just started copying and pasting previous posts. It appears many of us are mostly interested in a few specific topics and we meet each other with the same arguments whenever a new poster appears with one of the old questions.

I guess it is a good way for new people to see several sides of an issue but, except for unique personal questions, these forums could almost go away and be replaced with references to previous discussions.

I have seen many threads in which what appears to be a new original poster starts something and then quickly disappears from the discussion while the old-timers rage back and forth for days or weeks. I suppose the OP was often looking for a simple answer to a simple question and quickly realized they were asking and getting neither.
 
  1. To combat stereotypes and misinformation.
  2. Confirms and strengthens my faith, helps clarify my own reasons and close holes in my arugments–good apologetics practice
  3. practice in discussing things rationally and civilly even in the face of negative personal attacks.
  4. it’s fun.
 
When I was studying Catholicism, I heard the same things over and over again, but they didn’t click right away. Then along came someone with just a slightly different wording of the same thing, and CLICK!

For example, I read several of the popular apologetics authors like David Currie and Scott Hahn. Interesting and I enjoyed them.

But it was when I read Thomas Howard’s Evangelical Is Not Enough that I was won over. His writing style is very beautiful, and I found this more understandable than Currie’s verse-by-verse Bible study style and Scott Hahn’s arguments from history.

Thomas Howard didn’t say anything that these other guys hadn’t said already. But he said it differently, almost poetically, and that made everything clear to me. I LIKE that kind of writing better than straight talk.

In the same way, the song “Gather Us In” is very deep to me because of all the imagery, while I know that others hate it because of the imagery. I LIKE IT, and I find that it resonates with me better than Latin or straight teaching hymns. It’s just the way I’m put together. I would rather read about spiritual battle in the fiction allegory Pilgrim’s Progress than read a detailed Scriptural exegesis of spiritual battle by some great Bible scholar.

My own novels are full of Biblical imagery, even though they’re about ice skating! It’s there, underneath the story, like a treasure hidden underwater.

I’m not so wierd. Jesus used parables for people like me, didn’t He? He used sermons for other people. He recognized that there are all kinds of people!

So I think it’s worth discussing things, and allowing each of us, in our own way, to answer the questions. One of us may use the words or writing style that will make it clear to someone who has been confused or waffling.
 
Cat said:
When I was studying Catholicism, I heard the same things over and over again, but they didn’t click right away. Then along came someone with just a slightly different wording of the same thing, and CLICK!
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Don’t you just love how the light :idea:switch suddenly starts working?

God is Good!

[sign]To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see and hearing may not understand.[/sign]

Then ‘Click’ …
 
This is “insight” wow!

Anyone familiar with Father Bernard Lonergan SJ and his work Insight?
 
I ask myself this question with every single post I write. Why? Why? Why did I do it again!

Why did I respond to somebody who was just trying to get me mad? Why did I accomodate them by actually getting mad? Why did I spend 2 hours on a post (fact checking, testing the theory out on a friend, making several drafts, spell checking) only to have it sliced, diced, and the most important points, ignored?
Why do I bang my head against the wall trying to explain something to someone who has know desire to understand? A person who actually would consider understanding my point equivalent to accepting heresy.

It would be different if I were Catholic defending my faith. As it is, I’m trying to defend my non-faith. I see religious zealotry as a very bad thing. I see any zealotry as a very bad thing. The more that people see people as opponets, or sinners, or idiots, the worse the world will be. Unfortunately, no matter how well I argue, I seem to be making the problem worse rather than better. The more heated I get in an exchange, the worse the problem gets still.

I don’t have a catechism I can consult, or thousands of years of tradition. I win if I convince someone to consider a different point of view. Every open mind is a victory, every closed one a defeat. It doesn’t even matter if we wind up agreeing, it is the consideration that matters.

I don’t hope to think that my posts will change people’s minds, but hopefully, I can influence by example. (If I can keep myself out of the debates, and keep on my best behaviour.) If I can get people to see at least one “enemy” as “a friend on the other side” it would make it all worth it.
 
I put “Other”…but I could have just as easily put the “broken record” one.

I am beginning to believe that God is quite unimpressed with whatever mental acumen I do or do not have in arguing Christianity over the internet. But like a bad habit do it anyway.

I think I am going to stop it. Not to say I am giving up posting here or any other place, but that I am going to stop arguing. It is just too tiring.

Back to lurk mode as the piano is more interesting to me now.
 
Singinbeauty said:
Well? Why?

I see the SAME arguments to the SAME topics yet no one, as far as I can see, has yet to concede on either side. So what keeps us tirelessly (well ok, sometimes we can see how tired we get of the same topics… :)) awake at night arguing the same points over and over?

If you choose ‘Other’ please explain…
Click to expand...
i think there are a few factors to be considered
  1. take a look at the breadth of this forum it is one of the largest religious forums on line.
  2. the post are perpetually long so if someone makes an argument on page 10 (about a thousands post later) chances are you might see that same argument again.
  3. The fact that there are so many different threads and each thread has a long list of topics makes it harder to not get distracted by other topics.
  4. Information overload-the fact that we are constantly overconsumed from the media and other outlets about information saturation.
  5. Some of us (like myself who belongs to 5 additional messaage boards and goes to college and has two part time jobs) are often too busy to keep up with minuat arguments in some random religious bulletin board.
  6. The influx of new members who have little knowledge and a slight inclination about the leitmotif of the message board they belong too. As you might’ve guessed this problem is not limited to Catholic answers but other message boards as well. Thats why in journalism timeleness and novelty are two important potential ways a story can develop.
 
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