Thursday, April 12, 2007

Keep CARM

When I first became interested in atheism (when I realised that I was one), I decided to look on the net for other like minded individuals. So, I stuck atheist into Google and whacked the search button. The first link that I followed led me to the atheist forums of a website called CARM (or Christain Apologetics and Research Ministries).

Over the last six months I've been a regular poster to the site, making roughly 1000 posts so far, and knocking up a few reputation points. The trouble is I keep getting banned. One was for "questioning" the moderators; these guys do not like to be questioned.

The thing I have come to realise is that the site is there to try to convert atheists, they are not intersted in discussion because they are right and everyone else is wrong. The difference is stark when compared to the Richard Dawkins forums, here you are more freely able to express yourself, without the risk of being banned.

It's not that I want to be able to insult people, this is not how you have a sensible debate but I find the level of moderation on the site to be very restrictive, and represive.

Perhaps its me? At least I am willing to entertain the thought that perhaps I'm wrong, unlike the people at CARM.

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