Is this some weird atheist trap?

[Maia]

So if you go to this lovely site and poke around, you'll find some interesting, thought-provoking, and some might say sad and disturbing threads for your viewing and lurking pleasure. However, when you get to this page, something rather odd happens. You can click on every thread and read it, as far as I can tell, except for the ones entitled "The Irrationality of Atheism" and "Dialogue With An Atheist". Can't read those unless you're a registered member.

What's going on here?? Is this some kind of weird scheme to get curious atheists to sign up for the Rapture Ready board just to read those threads? Is it a cunningly sneaky attempt to win converts? Is there a perfectly innocent explanation? What? Does anyone know?

 

[bookitty]

I'm guessing that those threads attracted some atheists who offered some viewpoints not in keeping with the Ray Comfort-a-thon. If you have to sign up, then they are protected from casual drive-by rationality.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

If atheists read the threads, they'll be able to refute their points. Might just be that.

 

[MG1962]

If atheists read the threads, they'll be able to refute their points. Might just be that.

So you can reply to the other threads without registering? That seems strange. And should I point out the JREF site also has a number of member only forums

 

[Slayhamlet]

It's against the rules to even be an atheist while posting there. My guess is that those particular threads attracted a lot of drive-by refutations from atheists telling them how ridiculous their assumptions were, which is of course against the rules, so they decided to nip the problem in the bud. Only the most curious atheist will now go through the bother of registering there just to read whatever these people are saying about them

 

[Maia]

That could very well be. But the sad part is that I was indeed lured into reading more of those threads. Why, Odin, WHY??? It's fascinating in a sick train-wreck sort of way. What strikes me the most is that I just don't see how they'd tolerate the equivalent of what we have here. I'm not an atheist, and I don't pretend to be one. It's just that I'm not a theist troll, either. But if I started posting on the "Rapture Ready" board-- where I'd basically be in the same situation in relation to posters there, except in reverse, if that makes sense-- they'd never treat me as respectfully as people have here. I shudder to think.

 

[MG1962]

That could very well be. But the sad part is that I was indeed lured into reading more of those threads. Why, Odin, WHY??? It's fascinating in a sick train-wreck sort of way. What strikes me the most is that I just don't see how they'd tolerate the equivalent of what we have here. I'm not an atheist, and I don't pretend to be one. It's just that I'm not a theist troll, either. But if I started posting on the "Rapture Ready" board-- where I'd basically be in the same situation in relation to posters there, except in reverse, if that makes sense-- they'd never treat me as respectfully as people have here. I shudder to think.

I think that has a lot to do with the Mod team, and the calibre of people who hang around here. We see drive by atheist and theist troll threads, and I for one do appreciate when athiests attack the athiest trolls as hard as I do. And I make a point to attack the theist

 

[Lord Emsworth]

There used to be an apoligetics subforum on Rapture Ready. I am not sure if this is still the case today. Atheists and other non-RR-style-Christians could post there as well, however that subforum became only visible once you were a registered member.

It is quite possible that some of those threads were just moved from the Evangelism subforum to that apologetics subforum.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

I'm not an atheist, and I don't pretend to be one. It's just that I'm not a theist troll, either. But if I started posting on the "Rapture Ready" board-- where I'd basically be in the same situation in relation to posters there, except in reverse, if that makes sense-- they'd never treat me as respectfully as people have here. I shudder to think.

A poster here, I forgot her name, said that she was raised an End Timer and that when she went to RR when she started having doubts about her beliefs, she was kicked off the board for being an atheist in disguise. Apparently they run anyone not 100% in line with their ideology out of town.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Why does anyone want to participate in a forum that's just a New York Review of Each Other's Books?

~~ Paul

 

[bokonon]

I just registered over there, and the threads in question are indeed in the members-only Apologetics subforum.

About as long as a typical "DOC" thread too, so I don't think I'm going to be wading through them any time soon.

 

[joobz]

It looks like they have several threads (includinig others that don't have an obvious atheist topic) that were moved into member only sections.

I'm not bothered by that. what I found funny was that they had a "Ladies Forum" section, with subtopics of "Discussions, homeschooling,and recipes".

Why is education of kids and cooking just for the ladies and why isn't there a "pleasing your man" sub topic?

 

[slingblade]

It looks like they have several threads (includinig others that don't have an obvious atheist topic) that were moved into member only sections.

I'm not bothered by that. what I found funny was that they had a "Ladies Forum" section, with subtopics of "Discussions, homeschooling,and recipes".

Why is education of kids and cooking just for the ladies and why isn't there a "pleasing your man" sub topic?

Because a good, submissive Christian woman knows her place, praise god.






...sorry.

 

[Foster Zygote]

Just reading through their rules & guidelines for posting section is enough to tell me that I have no desire to post anything there.

Some examples:

[03] No blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in mocking God, His character, or using God's name in vain. God is referred to as God and/or Jehovah, Yahweh, etc.... When discussing Allah we refer to the Muslim god, not the Jewish/Christian God of the Old and New testament.

[04] Defend the Faith and God's infallible Word, not the ways of the world, homosexuality, liberalism, socialism, false translations, false theologies, Mysticism, or deceptive cults and other heresies. We believe in only one true gospel of saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone in His shed blood for our atonement, Old Testament looked forward to God's provision of the sacrifice, New Testament looks back to God's provision of the sacrifice. Do not promote, two gospels, hyper Dispensationalism, Arminianism, hyper-Calvinism, nor other ideologies of religious legalism. Do not play 'devil's advocate' for the sake of argument.

[14] No posts or links from other message boards, forums, or political and religious blogs on this site or posting messages here on other message boards, forums, or political and religious blogs.
The mod team alone reserves the right to post links to responsible blogs when important to the discussion of particular topics. Due to the dynamic and uncensored nature of blogs, the mod team does not have the time to monitor, validate, and approve all blogs on the net.
No blogs are to be posted unless they are posted or approved by the mod team.

 

[Chimera]

I went ahead and registered so I could check them out. I must be a glutton for punishment. Anyhoo, I will copy/paste some of the more entertaining posts for your reading pleasure:

I cant believe Athiests control our universities and they shouldnt be allowed to teach there lies anywhere near science!
They cant be that stupid, they MUST know they are lying.

Ask an Atheist to explain a platypus. Only God could figure out and create that one. Remember the Fool says there is no God! Hallelujah that God Reigns!!!

I'm glad we won't have to hear the screams of those we could not reach when they are thrown into the lake of fire.

At the same time, it takes just as much faith to believe in atheism. To make the absolute statement “God does not exist” is to make a claim of knowing absolutely everything there is to know about everything and of having been everywhere in the universe and having witnessed everything there is to be seen. Of course, no atheist would make these claims. However, that is essentially what they are claiming when they state that God absolutely does not exist. Atheists cannot prove that God does not, for example, live in the center of the sun, or beneath the clouds of Jupiter, or in some distant nebula. Since those places are beyond our capacity to observe, it cannot be proven that God does not exist. It takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a theist.

Well, there was a big bang. Later there was a bunch of stars and planets, see? And on at least one planet there was oceans of gunky goo.
Some of the goo got zapped by lightning and stuff happened...and we got monkeys...and us!
That's evolution for dummies!

And the ever-powerful:

Atheism is a belief in un-belief which in itself is un-believable.

To be fair, there are a few who have pointed out that deriding atheists isn't a very Christian thing to do.

 

[LordoftheLeftHand]

They must have changed their membership polices. I tried to get an account there a few years back and never had any luck. It would always say a moderator would have to approve my account and that never actually happened.

 

[Hokulele]

Rapture Ready has been around for quite a while. They had an admin/moderator melt-down a couple of years ago, but it didn't really change the main thrust of the board. I doubt it is any sort of an atheist trap (we are tricksy ones, my precious ), but rather a method for keeping any chance of alternate viewpoints being presented, atheist, theist, or other.

As someone noted on the other thread, it really is a heartbreaking site.

 

[Lucian]

Does anyone else find it creepy that they use that animated jazz-hands praise-smiley when they talk about their earnest desire for the end of the world?

 

[Third Eye Open]

I went ahead and registered so I could check them out. I must be a glutton for punishment. Anyhoo, I will copy/paste some of the more entertaining posts for your reading pleasure:


(insanity)

Sounds like one giant circle-jerk in there

 

[joobz]

Well, there was a big bang. Later there was a bunch of stars and planets, see? And on at least one planet there was oceans of gunky goo.
Some of the goo got zapped by lightning and stuff happened...and we got monkeys...and us!
That's evolution for dummies!

It certainly is.