Wondering: What Good Does This Do?

Maybe someone here can help me figure something out.

Someone I’ve never met or interacted with (as far as I know) seems to have thought it would do some good to post this on Twitter:

@BigIdeaSeeker @SecularOutpost @ThnkngChristian @Frank_Turek “Free-will is IMPOSSIBLE in a natural world” (god is needed) #STUPID

Now, either that’s like standing at the edge of the playground shouting clichéd insults, or else it’s got some useful and helpful purpose. It’s hard to believe anyone would want to do the former, but I can’t think of any way the latter makes sense.

It’s not that I feel personally attacked or vulnerable or threatened by it. I’m just baffled. Am I missing something? Is there a third option? Why would someone take the time to post something like that? What good did he think it would do?

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8 Responses

  1. Larry says:

    Just a drive by commenter. No goal or purpose other than to spew their juvenile insults and hope for some attention.

  2. Glenn Gardner says:

    Whether intentional or not the tactic of leaving the opponent baffled is an effective way to occupy resources.

  3. Ray Ingles says:

    “There is no cause so noble it will not attract some kooks.” – Larry Niven

  4. Tom Gilson says:

    Good observations.

    Further to Glenn’s comment, I think sometimes they’re trying to pick a fight; trying to goad someone like me into responding, “Hey, what’s stupid about that? It’s not stupid!”

    That would be a real waste of resources.

  5. Sounds like one of those “internet atheists” who are really just pseudo-intellectual surfers hoping someone will respond so they might possibly be able to use some 4-letter word vocabulary more. In my conversations with Jerry Dewitt (a former pastor now turned poster boy atheist) he expressed such disappointment by those “spouters of rhetoric” who are seemingly beyond any “reasonable” engagement. What a pity!

  6. Billy Squibs says:

    Twitter is very good as a means of sharing links. It also excels as a platform that Richard Dawkins can use to generate some controversy. Apart from that I don’t see its value.

    This said, I wonder if a tweet on a particular hot button topic could have two outcomes. A) It’s so short that it invariably leads to misunderstanding and is therefore worse than useless. Or B) it cuts through the waffle and goes directly to the central beliefs at the heart of a larger message.

    I happened to be listening to an interview on Issues Etc. about “Judgement Porn”. Though perhaps it doesn’t directly speak to the motivations behind the above tweet (which is pretty tame by Twitter standards) it still has some relevance. (Click here for audio.)

  7. Debilis says:

    My experience has been that many of the New Atheists (and, to be fair, people from all groups) use these kinds of tactics to emotionally reassure themselves that they are correct in their beliefs.

    It may well be a call to start a fight, but I suspect it is also an unconscious call for those who agree to jump in and echo the sentiment. If both of these occur, the sender would feel that he’s part of a bigger, necessary movement.

    It’s the closest many New Atheists come to understanding the religious impulse. I think a lot of progress could be made with them if they’d recognize this, and ask themselves how rational (on their terms) it is.

  8. Johnnycanuck says:

    There is nothing worse than an ex-christian who has been “liberated”.