guys... rkw is at it again.

[nature boy]

he had a one-sided conversation with himself the other day. my friend posted an article (i forget what it is, i think about md though) and he commented on the post. no one cared, so he WENT AND COMMENTED ON THE ARTICLE ITSELF. it made me lol.

[Duncan]

lol.. who or what makes him the authority on everything? i agree, this insatiable need to be right is why churches split, why there are so many denominations, why actually a lot of people are turned away from christianity. too bad he can't see it. If i ever met him in real life, i'd ask him how many people he's turned towards christ. he'd probably tell me either zero, or in a very confident manner, a specific number. Then ask i'd him how many people he's turned away from christ...

and i agree with jt, moar lol... i kinda wanna befriend your friend just to troll him lol

[tiger]

So this guy is a friend of your friend?

Or does your friend just post stuff up on Facebook and let people comment?

Is this in a "religious discussion" group?

I have no idea b/c I'm not on Facebook.

[Duncan]

this dude is "a friend of nathan's friend" (i have a feeling acquaintance would probably be a better word)

anyone and everyone can post anything on fb, and anyone and everyone can comment as long as the poster allows for it.

probably not in a religious group as people usually just post randomness on their pages and random people will comment randomly

and don't start on fb... there's really nothing there for you, or any of us for that matter. i hate fb. but i use it so i can keep in touch with certain family members

[tiger]

I just find it interesting how much time he spends debating. That time could be better used to do things that actually furthers God's kingdom.

While I do enjoy a good discussion, in the end it just satisfies something in me, so it doesn't do much for others.

"We all possess knowledge. But knowledge puffs up while love builds up."

I totally have an image of RKW patting his own back, by himself, at home, in front of his computer. Not feeling the love from this dude.

Plus I also wonder why the friend posts stuff up on his wall for discussion anyway (or things that could lead to divisive discussion), especially knowing that RKW frequents his page. Has FB become "forum"-like, where people throw crap out there and say..."discuss!"?

[nature boy]

My friend confessed once that he posts stuff on his wall as a way to "bookmark" stuff so he can read later or again. If people comment, he actually rarely even comments back.

I've posted stuff on my wall a lot of the stuff i post in the theology subforum. I post because i like the article or whatever and i think it's worth sharing. It's no different from someone lending a book to a friend because they enjoyed it.

I find facebook very helpful in keeping up with the news and stuff. But then, a lot of my friends are pastors so they all post this kind of stuff.

[tiger]

There must be a better way to "bookmark" stuff that doesn't attract trolls. Plus one of the things he posted was a picture, so couldn't you just save that to look at it later? That seems to be posted for discussion. IMO, either your friend is naive, or there's a small part of him that enjoys the "traffic". It's like a car accident. Have to look, can't turn away.

Plus I find it becomes a less intrusive/modified form of spam. If I want to keep in contact with someone or look at some family photos, I don't want to sort past a bunch of pictures of what they had for lunch, health tips, health scares, videos of kittens/puppies, stupid human tricks, or a family/employee discount at ToysRUs.

Is your friend a pastor?

I find it's one thing to post in a theology forum, but another to post openly on a blog, facebook wall, etc. It attracts trolls, even religious trolls.

Maybe I'm turning in to grumpy old man, but I find a lot of the social media pointless, self-serving/glorifying, and makes people more brave than they really are b/c they'll spew crap out behind a screen when they're too chicken to say openly in public or to people's faces.

If RKW was doing this in a real group setting, there would be people telling him, "what is wrong with you?", "you're making it worse and turning people off from the discussion", and then there will be people who will just physically walk away from him and begin ignoring him. I'm sure he'd turn to the internet to blog about how everyone is afraid of discussing stuff with him. Then there could be the day when he pisses someone off so bad that the other person in turn physically intimidates him back.

Funny/sad to see theology "tough guys". Hey, TOUGH GUY...

[nature boy]

there is good and bad to social media. i like it (a lot) because it gives me a lot of social commentary, which then gives me a lot of sermon fodder. but for that to happen, you'd need a decent sized friend list of diverse backgrounds.

my friend is a pastor working as a hospital chaplain. he (and i think i must have too, but i don't remember) met rkw at bible college, where we were all students together.

i wouldn't say that posting articles is self serving, as if you feel there is value in it for others, you post it. people don't have to read it if they don't want to. much like the traditional model of evangelism. you have a good story to tell so you tell it. you can call it self-serving, but i'm sure the intention is simply to share something that has moved you.

but it's true, the internet changes the face of people. we've talked about this in another thread about how there is a level of anonymity when posting anything anywhere. however, that is also true with printed media, but that won't stop newspapers from being printed.

[tiger]

I know that social media has the power to do some powerful stuff, including evangelism.

I'm not familiar with what articles your friend is posting or the ratio of the types of articles he posts up, but it seems more divisive than constructive. But that could be RKW too. To me, there should be some responsibility to the stuff you throw out into cyberspace. But I know that a lot of people don't feel that way. To me it's like driving carelessly on the road, causing an accident which didn't affect me, but then saying technically, I have nothing to do with it. True, but it's a lame excuse.

If it were me, I'd PM RKW to back off a bit since it's my wall, especially if I'm trying to use my wall as a method of outreach. Because it just looks like it's one step away from mudslinging. Not that the article doesn't have merit or could be beneficial to others, but the point is getting lost, so maybe it's time to re-think the approach. But I only have a tiny bit of the overall picture.

[geForce]

[tiger]

Yes, discussion and debate are great learning tools.

But the problem lies that most people who enter debates/discussion aren't open minded and don't go in with an attitude that there is a chance they could learn something. Most people go in thinking they're right and I'm going to show them how right I am, and how other people are wrong. So when there's a good point which shows a flaw in their thinking, they take offense to it because it attacks their world view and they can't handle that, so they get eventually get defensive and resort to personal attacks, mudslinging, etc. People don't like to be told and shown that they're wrong, even partially.

For me, good discussion help steer people to discover the truth, not turn them off. So I find an open forum like a facebook wall is just asking for trouble, and IMO more often than not, it is pretty ineffective. As soon as I see something that doesn't build up, but only tears down, then I generally move along. I know that sometimes you have to tear down in order to build back up, but usually it's just the first part because there is no expressed accountability between the parties. The majority of open forums/comment pages are like this, so I find it unappealing to contribute because people aren't in it for a good discussion, so more often than not, very little good comes from it.

Even for me, to enter a deep good discussion, I need to mentally prepare myself otherwise I'd be prone to reacting the same way. If I'm not in a frame of mind to entertain other points of view, I usually try to stay away, but sometimes I still get sucked in.

[tiger]

[geForce]

Some people just post stuff for the sake of hearing (or seeing, I guess is more appropriate) their own voice/words. It's like, even if they fundamentally agree with what the other person is saying, they have to reply and say it all over again in his/her own words.

Hypothetical example:

Person 1 - I believe the Earth is round
Person 2 - In the 18th century, so-called "scientists" believed the Earth was flat. It was only later discovered through astronomy and logical reasoning that the Earth was actually round, and explorers later proved that to be true through travel around the world.

That's the kind of thing that annoys me the most.

[geForce]

Or also when the person blatantly misunderstands the other person, like how RKW does in abundance. That's where the actual "discussion" part ends and it's just the person stroking his own ego but in doing so, is ironically just making himself look like a fool.

Hypothetical example:

Person 1 - I believe the Earth is round
Person 2 - What's your source? Define what you mean by "round"? You can actually be round and flat at the same time, like a pizza. I really think you should study more about the fundamentals of roundness. The more appropriate description of the Earth would be "spherical". By saying spherical, you would convey more of a sense of roundness in 3 dimensional plane, whereas being round is only 1 dimensional, or 2 dimensional at most. This shows your lack of understanding of the Earth and of roundness. Go back to school, noob.

[se7entse7en]

And then someone tries to derail the topic and says, "I'm in shape! Round is a shape."