I’ve been so frustrated lately that I cannot get other Christians to participate in my religious debate forum. I’ve made announcements at my church and nobody has participated. I’ve sent out emails to other Christian friends and only one has participated. Friday night, I went to visit a college student Bible study group, and none of them showed any interest in participating. This leaves me wondering. Why is it so difficult to get Christians to join my debate forum?
I have come up with a few possible answers.
One is that this is so new to many Christians. To participate in an online forum to debate non-Christians is not a very typical activity.
Christians as a group are non-confrontational. They want peace. They don’t want to stir up the pot.
Christians don’t like to get outside of their comfort zone. Especially when it means engaging with non-Christians. Christians prefer to stay in their comfort zone with other Christians.
Debating is like participating in a boxing match. Each person is giving blows to one another until the bell rings. In general, people don’t like to get into boxing matches. In a boxing event, there’s only 2 people boxing whereas there are thousands just watching. In a debate, only a few have the personality to engage in a drawn out debate where sparks are flying. Most would rather remain on the sidelines and watch.
Christians are not skilled at talking about Christianity so that an atheist can understand it. Christians are good at talking “Christianese” and spouting cliches. But as a whole, they are not good at presenting Christian truths so that atheists and agnostics can understand it.
Religious debates in general is a volatile area. Oftentimes, people on each side hold onto strong convictions and cannot be swayed by the other. Discussions can also easily stray towards attacking each other rather than attacking arguments.
Christians on the whole are less intellectual than atheists. That’s not to say there are no intellectual Christians. But I’d say intellectual atheists far outnumber intellectual Christians.