Friday, October 14, 2011

Troll privileges revoked

I should have known better than to feed a troll. Our anonymous poster who took it upon him or herself to snark religion just got a little too combative for my taste.

Goodness only knows why atheists have such an urge to lurk on Christian blogs and try to convince people that Christianity is bunk. To what purpose? More company in hell, perhaps? What will it accomplish to take a group of people who are perfectly satisfied with their religious beliefs and try to make them doubt?

I have a number of readers whose religious and/or political suasions are different than mine, who are perfectly respectful about those differences. Their comments are kind, insightful, and interesting. But trolls give a bad name to anyone whose perspective, viewpoints, or beliefs are different. Their intentions are to create chasms, not bridge them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is a private blog. It is not a public forum to debate your viewpoints. The purpose of my blog is to illustrate our rural lifestyle and air our particular opinions, all hung on the framework of a religious belief we hold dear.


If you don't like it, go start your own blog.

It was my mistake. I should never have fed a troll.

21 comments:

  1. Good for you, Patrice! In the past, your care and consideration for others often left you open to ridicule and even hate from the many liberal trolls of the world. Yes, I say "liberal trolls," because I have yet to see any true and honest conservatives act that way! Feeding these "trolls" never works, because that's exactly what they want. They beg for attention. Like the spoiled children that they are, they desperately want to be chastised and punished. Of course, also as spoiled children will do, they furiously resist the chastisement that they seek. Spoiled children can be helped and often can change, but once they become adults it's almost an impossible task. Above all, we should NEVER try to reason with them. It never works. Best to say a quick prayer for them and just ignore them. --Fred & Deb in AZ

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  2. sounds like you have your own "billy goats gruff" (and the troll that lived under the bridge). never ever feed a troll! bless your heart patrice...but most of those trolls are toxic and when you feed them they turn into monsters.

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  3. Patrice, I'm with you. If we argue with fools it legitimatizes them. You don't cast pearls before swine.

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  4. very sad, but please don't let a troll put a bad name on those of us who are atheists. I love your blog,and have for a year, your willingness to share even with those who are different. I am a person who is acceptable of other people, religion, race, ideas etc....I always tell people if you expect me to listen to you you should listen to me and just remember we can be different and still get along....:)

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  5. I agree with you this blog is private. If they don't like it move on. I have my options and you have yours, we all have different options. Some just don't have a clue.

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  6. Some people just can't stand another's way of life. Not that it has any physical effects on them in any way, shape, or form; they just can't stand a different point of view. Sad little creatures...

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  7. Anon 7:07, you're precisely the sort of reader I most heartily welcome! Someone who is respectful, kind, insightful, and interesting despite our differences in beliefs. This particular troll happened to be an atheist, but clearly most atheists aren't trolls (wink). Please don't ever leave!~

    - Patrice

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  8. "Scroll over the troll."

    Always.

    Just Me.

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  9. Patrice, I guess you can file this under the "live and learn" category. Hopefully this episode doesn't spoil the exchange of ideas that come to pass from time to time on your blog.

    v/r

    Rob

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  10. If I were cooking in the kitchen and someone got too close to the stove I would warn, "Watch out! That burner is hot!" I would not want anyone to suffer needlessly.I also would not want anyone to needlessly suffer in hell either.

    I had surgery last November and had what I call a near hell experience AFTER I woke up from anesthesia (so we can't blame it on being asleep!) It was worse than delivering my 9 lb. dead baby. Worse than when I had a stroke. It was the worst experience of my life and I understood that in hell the suffering has no end. Fortunately for me, my experience only lasted 2 hours and ended with God telling me, "Tell people hell is real!" and then it abruptly ended and I shocked the staff by bolting out of bed ready to go home NOW! After such heat(and thirst, pain, inability to move, inability to speak, lack of oxygen, despair, agony, horror, etc.) the outside FREEZING temperatures were glorious as I was wheeled to the car and I wanted nothing more than to leave the entire experience behind!

    You've just gotten the condensed version as I only have so many characters I can type in this space. God desires to spend eternity with you but He won't MAKE you do it. Our sinful self can only go before a holy God because Christ willingly laid down His life to cover our sins and make this possible. If we do not make a conscious decision to receive what Christ has done for us, then by default we have booked ourselves reservations in hell. Just as I would know to warn you about a hot burner on my stove, I now know to warn you that hell is real.

    Patrice genuinely loves her readers and it is because of that love that she is patient with those who may see things differently than she. Indeed she must draw the line when language is abusive, when the content gets nasty and is only posted for the purpose of stirring up trouble. But those who genuinely seek will find. Those who knock, the door will be opened to them. Jesus is that door and His love can be seen through this dear family.

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  11. Remember Flip Wilson, and how he would say "The Devil made me do it" ?
    That's what comes to my mind when I read or otherwise witness an atheist in action. Only it's not funny.

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  12. Anonymous 7:07--even though all of us have different viewpoints on any number of issues, we all get along here because we're all respectful and intelligent adults. You don't agree with Patrice on religion and I don't always agree with her politics but it doesn't matter because we all come to bloggerville and hang out together. Don't worry...we all know you certainly aren't a troll :-)

    Patrice this is your home on the web and you should conduct it as such. I doubt you'd let a ranting liberal fool into the peace and quiet of your brick and mortar home so don't welcome one here either. You go girl!

    I rather love the diversity I find when I come to the conversation at your virtual kitchen table. "Hi" to all my blogger buddies, and to the blathering of fools and trolls I say "Wa, wa, wa, wa...wa...wa, wa....wa, wa" (insert favorite Charlie Brown episode here)

    Happy Weekend!

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  13. Patrice,
    I'm a scientist and a believer in a higher power/ universal organizing consciousness most of us call God. I also believe that such a force is easily capable of creating many things we cannot explain or understand -- at least not in this infancy of our understanding of the universe. Through my university studies to the M.S. level, the complex interdependency of life convinced me of God's existance, rather than the opposite. (pardon my spelling -- no spell check on the comment blocks)

    In my previous job, I was the recipient of some liberal environmentalist 'good will' from an organization that claimed to be pro-endangered species but was on record (in the New Yorker) as primarily being a deep ecology, Gaia-god, anti-humanity organization that espoused a plan to corral most of us in big cities. (They are actually still working that plan in the southwest US and are fairly successful due to sympathetic federal courts)

    What I found, as you are experiencing, is the more entrenched hard-core liberal M.O. for dealing with true logic, conservative conclusions, belief in a higher power(which IS logical from a scientific perspective) and generally differing opinions. We see it in the media often. First they briefly explain why you are wrong. If you attempt to take 'them' through the logic behind your position, and refuse to drop your silly position, you are immediately written off. You must then be discredited as either evil or ignorant. You know the interaction has reached this point when the name calling begins. Depending on the topic, you may be accused of starting trade wars (belief in FAIR trade rather than FREE trade), being a racist (if you disagree with anything our current president advocates), called a 'tea-bagger', or worse. I even had one of these 'enlightened' individuals (under the cover as an 'officer' in an NGO cabal)send a formal letter to my management, about 3 levels above my boss, asking that I be administratively punished because I questioned and rejected the bad science from one of their paid dupes in a local meeting of scientists working a problem (their dupe was a geographer pretending to be a geophysical engineer- big difference). I was fortunate that my hierarchy understood and laughed it off. I have since been promoted, twice.

    The 'true believers' in many of these movements tend to be angry and want the power to control others -- perhaps because they do not connect with a power greater than themselves. I will always pray for them, but have generally lost the patience and the willingness to waste my time engaging with them. I'd rather spend it on less frustrating, more productive efforts. In the process, I have also stopped donating to many of the "Save the XXX" organizations (XXX = whales, rain forests, endangered species, wolves!!!, polar bears, etc.) as they tend to be networked and are essentially working more as anti-liberty than as pro-anything else. Sorry to sound jaded, but I have amassed enough evidence and experience for this to be my logic-based position.

    I am also sorry that you are going through the experience first hand. It was a great disappointment to me when I saw the pattern. You bring so much good to this world, do not be troubled. Even Our Lord had his Judas, so remember that we cannot expect to win over every heart and mind. If it helps, you certainly have mine!

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  14. I'm on your side Patrice, except for one word. No blog is private unless it is set up to be used by signed-in members only. This blog cannot be called private. I also recognize that you have every right to exercise moderation to the comments and every other part of the blog, but you are choosing to "put it out there" for the public to read. Maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but it's not private.

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  15. Patrice,

    Totally off subject. Could you please do a post on what education materials you recommend be stored for your children's provision during a collapse situation.

    If you site particular books that would be very helpful. I don't homeschool but I want to be able to provide for my babies effectively when the time comes.

    Thanks,
    A. Jones
    Florida

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  16. Jimmy, you're entirely correct. What I should have said is, this is MY blog with MY rules, LOL. Boy that makes me sound whiny, doesn't it?

    A. Jones, that's a great idea. I'll start mulling it over.

    - Patrice

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  17. On my blog, I never respond to comments on my blog Unless there is an appropriate question related to the post.

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  18. Hmmmmm....isn't there a chapter in The Screwtape Letters addressing this? lol


    Your house, your rules.

    A.McSp

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  19. Patrice,
    You are full of the wisdom of God and if ever there is a disinterested person that cannot see the the light at the end of the tunnel you have a right and privilage to not borrow their offense. Their offense is none of your Spiritual business. Even the horses and cows spit out the sticks.

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  20. Pray for the poor trolls, for they know not what they do, or say! This is one of the most amazing blogs I've seen!!!

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  21. I'll never understand why those who believe in nothing are offended by those that do. My Grandpa used to tell me if I want to be happy keep my nose out of other peoples business. I guess athiests just have too big a noses...

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