I'm shutting down Google+ for the night and quite possibly for the weekend. Why? This stupid #gifwars thing people are so proud of. This Adam Black guy said he doesn't like gifs and now everyone is mass trolling him. Having been mass trolled like this I can relate to him easily enough. Have an opinion and the collective might of Google+'s lower class denizens jump on a bandwagon. I just saw a post where someone wanted to jump on board and had to get clarification she was tagging the proper Adam Black. She wasn't even connected to him ! Nor was she a part of the original discussion. She just wanted to follow the herd. When I called her out of it she claimed, "one gif doesn't make a troll." Perhaps not, but she's contributing to a larger troll effort. One straw doesn't break the camel's back, but thousands will. So, tonight, Google+ disgusts me. It probably will tomorrow as well. And possibly Sunday. I gave up Google+ for two months this spring
Comments
The brain is a tricky computer because it is so influenced by bio-chemical reactions, often beneath our own consciousnesses.
I've had some amazing experiences with "Jesus" and "The Holy Spirit" and unless you've been there, you cannot imagine the power of these experiences, they are sometimes over whelming.
Add to that the desire to be unconditionally loved and accepted, it's a powerful draw, used successfully by so many cults.
I don't doubt the story or her sincerity, I've witnessed it before and talked to people out of many different lifestyles that came into belief in the Jesus and the mythology surrounding him.
Mike Doygun Or perhaps for frontal lobe epilepsy ;)
Dave Blair If she now believes that a true understanding (orthodox view) of scripture means that a person cannot be both gay and Christian, must she not also believe that the earth is 6000 old. A perfect example of destructive degenerative power of a religion.
As a mere hypothesis, and beside mental illness that could explain some cases, I think it is related with the foundations of their atheism:
People that are first skeptical, and thus atheist, will rarely become believers because the inner reasons they have for being non-believers won't change easily. On the other hand, those that are atheist just because they parents were, or because they hate some religion, or something that way that are mostly founded on external influences, could be attracted by a sect more easily than the firsts.
http://www.loudounprogress.org/?p=4569