We’re not in an election cycle right now.

here you can easily replace theist/atheist with republican/democrat in most questions and not miss a beat

The sole purpose of this website is for people to ask questions express their opinions and share our diverse experience and knowledge.

@Smitha that much I know, what I am trying to understand is why so many of the same people want to discuss their opinions, diverse experience, and knowledge of religion over and over and over.

There aren’t always so many. Asking new questions within current questions is frowned upon, so if an ongoing question sparks a new question in someone’s mind, they’re likely to ask a new question about it.

So, sometimes there will be clusters of questions on a topic at the same time, and then there will be no new questions on that topic for some weeks.

When you think about it, there really aren’t many venues outside of sites like this where this kind of discussion is socially permissible. Yet there’s a whole lot of pent up urge to discuss it.

My own theory (based on personal experience) is that many of us were raised in religious households, later rejected the beliefs, but were never really able to say the kind of things we would have liked to say to our believing families for fear of further alienating or hurting them. In many cases, I think, there’s resentment for having been coerced into leading inauthentic lives and putting on a pretense of believing while harboring secret doubts. It seems to me that the discussions on sites like this have such virulence because they become proxy debates where these lingering resentments get vented. It’s a way of saying what we’ve always wanted to say without imperiling relationships that matter to us.

In other cases, people who have never been involved in a faith system and who consider themselves to be dyed in the wool rationalists are morbidly fascinated at how believers can justify belief without (or contrary to) evidence. They kind of enjoy the game of cornering believers with logic and seeing them deny being cornered at all. It seems to confirm that they suffer from a kind of religion induced cognitive disorder, and maybe makes them feel better about themselves for not being among the “afflicted”.

Because religion is a very interesting topic.

@dxs I agree that the topic is interesting, but it seems that for the most part these questions travel the same path, discuss the same things, then tend to degenerate into the same arguments.

@thorninmud thank you for a brilliant response.

@LilCosmo Religion leaves so many questions unanswered, so people keep posting more and more questions on the same topic.

@Smitha so have you seen any of these questions actually accomplish anything or even discuss any new questions? From what I have seen they are all just variations on the same theme – those who feel one way are smart and enlightened, those who feel another way are ignorant and uninformed.

It’s like picking on a dry scab . . . some folks just can’t leave it alone.

Whether there is a God or not and what kind of God he might be is important to everyone who breathes. I think we imagine God so we can justify who we are, a thing we never tire of doing.

Boredom, I think. And the profits from all the popcorn and hot dogs we sell in the stands.

Fluther, which comprises people of many religious beliefs, is a safe environment for discussing this usually highly controversial topic.

The door-knocking evangelists run away too quickly.

Seems to me that some people enjoy repeatedly stirring the same pot even though it never produces soup.

@Seek_Kolinahr I’m not following you. Are you saying that people leave those threads too quickly so new ones are started? In your experience on Fluther who is starting most of the new threads, atheists or “door knocking evangelists”?

@janbb . . . amen.

I mean that when evengelists come to my house to try to convert me to their religion, I take them on. And it usually ends with them whining that they didn’t come here to defend god’s existence, and if I want the hard questions answered, I can call their pastor.

People don’t run away here. They just keep coming back for more. I find it exhilarating.

@Seek_Kolinahr so your first response wasn’t actually answering the question. Thanks for clarifying and for responding to what was asked.

You will notice that most of the religion questions are asked by Atheists. Some really want to understand the belief system of the other but some are just trolling for a reason to bash theists. I’ve been sucked in to those questions a few more times than I care to admit. I have no problem answering a genuine knowledge seeking question but some turn rather quickly.

@Judi That’s funny, I would have said exactly the opposite, that most of the religion questions are asked by people who want to defend their religion.

Look. let’s just put an end to all this nonsense right now!
Do you see the royal Gooswami meditating in my avatar?
That is the High Priestess Sonora, and anyone that knows anything KNOWS the only true god is in the form of a white goose.

Bow now and leave your offerings of hearts of romaine or you shall be goosed and damned to eternal hell.

1. Religion is an irresistible topic to people who like to push other people’s buttons.

2. It guarantees some activity when things seem slow.

3. Some people seem to think that if they pound a subject long enough and hard enough, they’re going to persuade somebody else.

4. There are those who take pride in their ability to spout sarcasm, caustic wit, and put-down humor, and those questions invite such exhibitions.

5. Religion is a very confusing matter, and people who take it seriously have quite justifiable doubts and questions about it.

@Jeruba Except that I would put #5 at the top of the list, and I would say that the comments about “sarcasm, caustic wit, and put-down humor, and those questions invite such exhibitions” are mostly engaged in by those who don’t want to see questions about religion on Fluther (see several such comments above, including yours).

I’ve never understood why people who don’t want to see the questions can’t simply ignore them, instead of seeing them as an invitation for put-downs.

It’s always been a hot topic here, probably because Fluther has a greater share of atheists than most internet sites do. I guess there are only so many places that one can have such discussions.

I don’t mind religious questions, but I sure wish they didn’t so often turn into “us” against “them”. Genuine questions about theology or lack thereof, differences between beliefs or discussion about life philosophies is fine, but no one (atheists or theists) should be looking for converts here. A lot of the religious questions from both sides seem to have that intent.

Here’s the main thing:

In most mainstream chat sites, discussing religion is considered “rude”, just as it is in Meatspace.

If you go to most atheist-specific chat sites, the only religous people you find are trolls, who are good for the occasional laugh, but after a while it becomes a Greatest Hits record.

If you go to religion-specific sites, and they find out you’re an atheist, you get banned almost immediately.

Here we have a decent population of atheists, and a decent population of theists, and both are willing to have discussions without demanding the other side be banned from the site.

Religion has always been a contentious issue and everybody has an opinion. If there is a religious thread, people will always answer.

There are few places on the internet where there are halfway decent conversations on religion. Regardless of the website, however, half of the threads will be: “Are (a)theists really so stupid that…?”

There’s a lot more religious questions on Yahoo Answers and Answer Bag.

@Seek_Kolinahr Meatspace???

@Adagio :: the real world is meatspace.

@johnpowell thanks for that, I have never heard the expression meatspace before : ^)

Personally, my take on it is that a lot of non-theists have questions and they ask because some of us theists are not afraid to answer, or say we don’t know the answer. Sometimes that is enough and other times it is not. Also, some Christians vote Republican and are conservative about some issues like abortion and some people here don’t understand the link between religion and politics.

Once you get over the hump of being lumped in with the religius cults, abusers, door-to-door solicitors, etc…it gets a little easier to have a conversation with those who aren’t just wanting to bash God and Christians.

I personally get defensive when my God is ridiculed because I do take it seriously, and to me, it’s like someone making fun of your mentally deficient child to your face, it’s not cool.

Is this the part where I have to ask you if you just called god retarded again?

@Seek_Kolinahr Nah, I was trying to describe the feeling’s it invokes in me that makes me take it so personally…lol, but I can see how you’d think that. :)