Atheists and Youtube, what is the deal?

[derrick09]

Something that I've been wanting to ask for quite sometime but I thought it would sound trival but either way I've got to get it off my mind, is how, why, and when did atheism get such a huge voice on the website youtube.com and us Christian theists are in the vast minority? It seems like atheist videos have high view hits, high ratings, and they get their videos promoted if you will by the youbube coorporation. This is especially true with videos regarding the creation/evolution debate. On the other side, Christian/creationist videos that either respond to atheist videos or videos that basically give arguments and reasons for Christian theism are usually have extremely low ratings. Not only that, atheists on there like to claim that Christians like to use software( called votebots) that goes onto the youtube site, finds atheist videos and gives them multiple low ratings. What has me worried is, does this show that our view is indeed the weaker and less reasonable view? Because since youtube is a very public venue it probably acts as a good guage as to what the vast majority of people believe and support. The last time I checked, atheists only comprised of around 10% of either the world's or the US population, but if what I'm seeing is any indication, atheists are probably now in the 40% bracket and growing. Personally, I don't watch any of the pro evolution and pro atheist videos since I'm afraid it could destroy my faith (my faith barely holding on anyhow) and since that people here and other places have been unable to help me with my list of concerns regarding macro evolution (here is the thread for it http://discussions.godandscience.org/vi ... =6&t=33728) I'm really getting worried that creationism (of any kind) along with Christian theism could be in it's twlight, but again these are just overly anxious worries or so I hope. What keeps me holding on to my faith currently, is the idea that God could still exist even if all of the pro God,creation and Christian arguements and evidences were disproven and the idea that some passages of scripture( John 20:29 and Hebrews 11:1) indicate we are to believe without seeing or having a intellectual base for our faith. Some Christians I know may say it indicates we are to have blind faith at the most and emotional faith at the very least,they would say the proper way to interpret 1 Peter 3:15 is to talk about how their relationship with God makes them feel and that it has nothing to do with intellectual arguements. But anyway, help me out if you can and keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you all for your time and God bless.

[touchingcloth]

A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that religious groups already have communities centered around churches etc. Atheists by definition don't affiliate with any religious group so they don't have a community they can instantly tap into. The internet has become a great utility for any niche group really due to the low cost of communication compared to old media such as TV.

You should definitely check out videos that promote views that are different to your own, though. If it shakes your faith then so be it - faith is overrated. To quote Carl Sagan It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

[derrick09]

I was wanting responses from fellow Christians not atheists, so please be considerate.

[touchingcloth]

I was just giving an atheists view on why the internet might be an attractive medium to other atheists. That's an answer that a fellow christian might not be able to give you.

[derrick09]

I don't want a atheist viewpoint on this and I don't want an atheist to participate in this thread so please be considerate and stop responding. Atheists make my life miserable enough.

[Byblos]

I don't want a atheist viewpoint on this and I don't want an atheist to participate in this thread so please be considerate and stop responding. Atheists make my life miserable enough.

Derrick09,

I understand how you feel and this website serves, to a large extent, as a safe haven for Christians and honest seekers. But to be honest you can't restrict participation in any thread to a specific set of members, as long as their posts are in conformity with the board purpose and discussion guidelines. I haven't seen anything in this thread that would remotely be deemed against the rules.

[touchingcloth]

I don't want a atheist viewpoint on this and I don't want an atheist to participate in this thread so please be considerate and stop responding. Atheists make my life miserable enough.

If you're not watching their videos and trying to avoid them at every turn then I'd be intrigued to know how they're the cause of such misery for you.

[DannyM]

Derick,

I typed out a post for you which just disappeared, so am a little chessed off. I will try to rewrite my points in a straightforward post.

Do not be concerned with what are mostly inarticulate videos of ranting atheists who seek nothing more but to ridicule. Your faith will be misrepresented and then the misrepresentation will be "shot down." Active atheists are a vociferous minority, and I mean MINORITY. Last time I looked around 2.4% of the world's population were atheist.

Christianity has nothing to do with "blind faith" or "blind trust." Faith affects the whole of man's nature. To quote the Anglican theologian, W.H. Griffith-Thomas:

"Faith commences with the conviction of hte mind based on adequate evidence: it continues in the confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction, and it is crowned in the consent of hte will, by means of which the conviction and confidence are expressed in conduct."

This is a good summary of faith for the Christian. Stand fast, brother, and face down the empty and vacuous atheism.

God bless

[DannyM]

I don't watch any of the pro evolution and pro atheist videos since I'm afraid it could destroy my faith (my faith barely holding on anyhow.

The provisional theory of evolution cannot touch us and will not touch us. The birth of life by natural means may not "require the existence of God" as some evolutionists will try to tell you. But more to the point this HYPOTHESIS does not require the NONEXISTENCE of God. Evolution, schmution, it's all good.

God bless

[derrick09]

I don't want a atheist viewpoint on this and I don't want an atheist to participate in this thread so please be considerate and stop responding. Atheists make my life miserable enough.

Derrick09,

I understand how you feel and this website serves, to a large extent, as a safe haven for Christians and honest seekers. But to be honest you can't restrict participation in any thread to a specific set of members, as long as their posts are in conformity with the board purpose and discussion guidelines. I haven't seen anything in this thread that would remotely be deemed against the rules.

Well,

The main reason why I wanted atheists to stay out of my discussion thread is in the past (on other message boards) when I or someone starts a threads like this one where I or whomever is wanting comments and advice from fellow Christians, atheists will come on and start posting aggrivating comments which cause all the responding Christians to turn their attention to the atheist or atheists and away from the message of the origional poster they "hijack" the thread if you will just to either get their opinions accross or just to cause trouble. And a popular website message board (whose name I'm not going to mention) just sits back and allows atheists to get away with everything and it causes needs like mine and other struggling believers to go unmet. So I'm mostly just wanting to preserve the meaning of my thread and not have atheists hijack it and have all the attention be on them. P.S. For now, I don't know if touchingclot is that type of atheist or not I haven't seen enough of him yet to know for sure, I just know that many atheists I've seen on that one message board which again I won't mention, like to cause needless trouble and shift the conversations from their previous topic. So that was my reason for concern.

[touchingcloth]

Hi again Derrick

I know what you mean about thread hijacking - you see it a lot on message boards where both faith and science are discussed. Often when certain hot-button topics are brought up the thread will degenerate into both sides essentially shouting "but you're so stupid! I'm right, you're wrong! Duh!", which isn't very constructive. I've not seen that on this particular board so far though. Just about every post I've seen from people right across the religious spectrum has been restrained and threads are more like discussions than flame wars.

For what it's worth I'd encourage you not to lump atheists in a huge umbrella category; I certainly don't treat every person of faith as if they are clones of each other as I've met enough to know that they represent the entire range of human characters.

[Byblos]

Well,

The main reason why I wanted atheists to stay out of my discussion thread is in the past (on other message boards) when I or someone starts a threads like this one where I or whomever is wanting comments and advice from fellow Christians, atheists will come on and start posting aggrivating comments which cause all the responding Christians to turn their attention to the atheist or atheists and away from the message of the origional poster they "hijack" the thread if you will just to either get their opinions accross or just to cause trouble. And a popular website message board (whose name I'm not going to mention) just sits back and allows atheists to get away with everything and it causes needs like mine and other struggling believers to go unmet. So I'm mostly just wanting to preserve the meaning of my thread and not have atheists hijack it and have all the attention be on them. P.S. For now, I don't know if touchingclot is that type of atheist or not I haven't seen enough of him yet to know for sure, I just know that many atheists I've seen on that one message board which again I won't mention, like to cause needless trouble and shift the conversations from their previous topic. So that was my reason for concern.

I promise you we (the moderators) will try our best to keep things on topic and respectful. If you have any specific concerns you would like us to address you can always send us a private message and, again, we will do our best to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

[derrick09]

Hi again Derrick

I know what you mean about thread hijacking - you see it a lot on message boards where both faith and science are discussed. Often when certain hot-button topics are brought up the thread will degenerate into both sides essentially shouting "but you're so stupid! I'm right, you're wrong! Duh!", which isn't very constructive. I've not seen that on this particular board so far though. Just about every post I've seen from people right across the religious spectrum has been restrained and threads are more like discussions than flame wars.

For what it's worth I'd encourage you not to lump atheists in a huge umbrella category; I certainly don't treat every person of faith as if they are clones of each other as I've met enough to know that they represent the entire range of human characters.

No problem, I'm quite glad to see you are not the type of atheists that I was referring to, I guess I'm so accustomed to those kind that I thought you were one of them. But anyway, I apologize, I personally wish more message board could be like this one since thus far from my perspective it is a whole lot better than the more larger ones (like the one I was referring to in my previous post).

[touchingcloth]

No problem, I'm quite glad to see you are not the type of atheists that I was referring to, I guess I'm so accustomed to those kind that I thought you were one of them. But anyway, I apologize, I personally wish more message board could be like this one since thus far from my perspective it is a whole lot better than the more larger ones (like the one I was referring to in my previous post).

No problem.
I find for the most part that message boards reflect extremely badly on the people who post there. The fact that most posters are passionate about the subject of the board they are posting on, combined with the anonymity of the internet is not a good combination!

[ageofknowledge]

I rarely see an interesting atheistic youtube presentation. They normally consist of strings of false assertions made one after the other in rapid succession toward "proving" that atheism is the correct view of the world. Honestly, I've seen so many of them assert so much falsehood I eventually tired of watching them. They are tailor made to exploit the practical ignorance existing in the general public regarding atheism and religion... a result of a modern liberal public education system that stopped teaching a balanced view only since the 1960's.