Oh, I like this:
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Originally Posted by Aladdin Sane
Where did the absurd notion come from that somehow people have a right NOT to be offended? This is a totalitarian notion that is antithetical to western liberal democracy and to Christianity (to get back on topic). This "freedom from offense" fiction is a slippery slope that demands ever increasing restrictions on free speech and free thought. Christians have nothing to fear from ideological competition and debate. We should fear, however, those who use their twisted logic to find "new" rights for favored groups.
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But this:
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Originally Posted by blade02
...this board has a tendancy to automatically assume that an "open minded" lifestyle is automatically better than one based on faith.
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Are you saying that faith is closed-minded? Because being open-minded IS better than being closed-minded, if by "faith", you mean closed-minded. I don't see faith as being closed-minded, though. I'm a person of deep faith, but I am very open-minded. Faith != closed-minded.
On to the topic...
You can be deeply spiritual, a person of strong faith, and not be a loudmouth whackjob about it. Example: me.
What I see on the TFP, in the realm of "unwelcome", is when people of any faith, race, sexual orientation, etc., preach to others. Preaching comes in many, many forms. Some use their race/ethnicity as a tool in debate, some might invoke scripture during an argument, and others may insist there's a pervasive bias against those of certain sexual orientations, which they then insist makes everyone else's arguments wrong.
People who come for the exchange of free thought are welcome here. All people willing to respect each other and have reasonably friendly discourse are welcome here. This is not a place, however, to be championing your cause- whatever your cause may be. By that I mean, if that's what you do here- preaching to people about this or that, and always trying to push your information on others- you would likely be met with some measure of resistance.
Does that mean it's "unwelcome", or meets with "disapproval"... or is it more an expression of the desire for everyone here to get on without having others' idealogies shoved down their throats? No one, on any side, likes unprompted rhetoric- and it's in the expression of your opinions that you either take advantage of the wonderful opportunities for thoughtful, insightful, informational debate and conversations we can have here, or if you're just preaching rhetoric to people. It's not about what kind of material you present, it's in how you present it.