Dear All,
I've stepped into the godless world of /atheism/ for the past few days or so – I go to all sorts of places really, including oldchan and the homo boards here – and I made a thread presenting myself and our board. And it's been all right!
I've simultaneously conversed on /atheism/ and /b/ (here) and the brand of atheists you'll find on /atheism/ is the better sort. These are the ones who care. There are many ex-Christians there, I found, and they are in earnest. Some seem deeply wounded by the faith and some have deeprooted resentment about Christianity.
So far as I experienced, most are respectful if you stay cool. Most also are all right with the idea of doing some interboard communication. I don't know what shape this could take, but I thought of doing some "official /christ/ thread" where we focus our efforts in responding to atheists; this would require minimising our personal disagreements, which may not interest them as much as it does us.
They're already fed up with /christian/ and they seem to be getting plenty of Christian visitors, few of which offer quality posts (in their opinion), and that's where you guys can make a difference.
If you choose to visit them, please arm yourself with patience and calm and don't lose your cool. See it as a spiritual exercise if you want, but do not insult them or get mad, as much as you can. See my "Preach" thread for more information on how to talk to the atheist audience.
They already perceive me as either a "good Christian" or, in the worst case scenario, a "diluted Christian" who's not far away from atheistm, which of course isn't far from the truth at all. But that's where you guys can make the difference I can't make: you have a denomination, you can speak for it and most of you are well-informed.
Another thing we could do is add "/christ/" to our names when we post there. It'll be a seal of approval of sorts, and it'll also help define our board and give it a separate identity from /christian/, as well as draw more people to us.
If you wear our name, do us proud.
Question: who's game for this? Can you handle the atheism? I will not blame you if you choose not to go there, don't worry. This is perhaps where it's easier for me than for you, because I'm used to atheism more than I am to Christianity and even destructive arguments will not find much to destroy in my case.
So?