The only way in which an idea fails is by being incorrect.
If an idea is incorrect, its incorrectness is not shown by shouting
it down, drowning it out, hostility, and verbal abuse.
Think of any commonplace piece of current scientific knowledge,
such as the idea that the earth orbits around the sun. It's not
now accepted because its advocates shouted louder. It's accepted
because the observed evidence supports it.
Truth doesn't come from overwhelming volume or force. It comes
from the patient gathering of evidence and calm reasoning.
The idea that has failed is not the one that is shouted down.
The idea that has failed is the one whose proponents are trying
to shout down a competing idea. They can't support their idea
with evidence and reason, so they defend it by trying to make it
the only one that can be heard.
What we see happening here in alt.atheism is a demonstration
of Christianity's true nature, and a demonstration at a reduced
scale of how Christianity kept Europe ignorant and poor for over
1,000 years.
Christianity is a darkness that proclaims itself to be the only
true light.
--
David Canzi | TIMTOWWTDI (tim-toe-woe-dee): There Is More Than One
| Wrong Way To Do It