Due to unforeseen circumstances, Thomas is forced to go it alone in this episode where he discusses whether or not Christians ought to be nice when dealing with Atheists.
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I disagree on one of the opinions you addressed during the podcast today, and I would be curious to see your response to this alternative perspective.
It is important that the Christian was rude. Firstly, it is a reflection of how atheists are perceived and treated by members of that community. There are polls indicating that large swaths of the US population rank atheists with rapists as far as ethics. There is still a lot of discrimination out there. Sitting silent while another treats you in a manner with which they would never treat other religious people (except perhaps Muslims) only reinforces that it is okay for them to speak to you that way. Secondly, his being rude is a sign that he has no arguments left and must resort to ad hominems and other logical fallacies. You (Thomas) stated incorrectly that pointing out rudeness usually means one has no more arguments left. That is not true. BEING rude means one has no arguments left. It is like a child who can’t verbally discuss their anger, so they express themselves physically. They are violent/aggressive because there is nothing left for them to say/argue. If a parent/teacher/sibling reminds the child that he or her is losing his or her temper, the elder person is not doing so because they have no other response. They are correcting inappropriate behavior, and then will explain the response. The religious side’s saying “respect my beliefs” is not comparable; they do that because they have no arguments left. Telling someone that they are rude is not saying “respect my beliefs,” it is saying “respect me as a person.” Different. Granted, we need to see the letters sent in to be sure, but I’m fairly sure most of those letters weren’t ad hominem as if they were, he would have presented them in another way.
Greetings Thomas & David. Found your show and I like it so far.
Now, about Mr David Robinson, I had listened to a number of shows he’s been on, and find him one of the most dishonest people out there, on the same scale as Kent Hovind.
He is always putting forward the fact he has a history & theology degree, and in these shows, when Matt mentioned that we don’t even know who wrote the gospels, he comes back saying ‘Of couse we know who wrote them’. How can this be David when the first ones found don’t say who wrote them? Not very good on History. He also mentions that Matt has no right to say something is bad, as he has no place to get his morals from, Matt comes back with somethings, and the David seems to no accept any of the autrocities the God commits in the Bible, so He is picking and choosing his morals from his book, at the same time he accuses Matt of doing the same.
He has also in other debates said blatent lies, which when in follow up people have called him out on, he either lies again, or changes what he said.