Fred Butler on Internet Atheists

I thought the following was a decent article by Fred Butler of Hip & Thigh:

I wrote the following response a number of years ago on an Internet message board where I regularly frequented. Three atheists began posting disparaging comments against religion in general and Christianity specifically. The main atheistic poster who became my antagonist, was named Rob, but two other nameless friends joined him in befuddling and aggravating the Christians who also participated on this message board.

It is sad to say that none of the believers effectively answered their religious objections, nor offered any answer to their questions, even though the atheists were asking the same, re-treaded questions that all unbelieving, God rejecters have always asked. I was troubled by the inability of the Christians to offer any meaningful apologetic for their faith, as well as challenge the foolish unbelief of the atheists. In order to offer up a needed response to these anti-theists, as well as help the Christians learn to argue persuasively for Christianity, I wrote the following post...keep reading

This excerpt resonates with me:

First, is the typical “swarm your opponent” tactic. I have seen this done by Muslim apologists on other lists. The tactic is simple: The agitating unbeliever runs across a Christian posting board and posts a few smart aleck comments to stir the dander of the Christians. They respond with their comments to the unbeliever’s original post. The next time the Christians check back onto the board, however, they discover that the unbeliever must have gone down to his coffee shop/bookstore hangout and told 2 or 3 of his atheist buddies about this Christian message board and convinced them to post as well. It is assumed that swarming the Christians with several posts rehashing the same, lame questions unbelievers have asked over the centuries will somehow make Christianity appear foolish and establish the unbeliever’s position.

Another "swarming" tactic is to generate a large list of objections so that the subject of the attack needs to spend a considerable amount of time in refuting each point. If the objections aren't refuted then the "swarmer" claims victory.

Christians also use this tactic. A classic example is the 95 Theses Against Dispensationalism. Responding to these sorts of lists takes time and energy. Thankfully, Paul Henebury actually took the time to respond to that one HERE. Note his apologetics articles as well.

I've come across similar lists compiled by preterists and posttribulationists. These lists are invariably copied and pasted from some other source and pop up all over the place. People who generate these lists aren't really interested in a two-way dialogue unless it leads to scoring points at the expense of their victims.

P.S. Thought this was pretty good too:

A Sample List of Self-refuting Statements