Last Wednesday, I responded to a blog post by a guy called Ex-Narnian where he was talking about how, for the second time, he is having a crisis of faith, doesn’t know what God’s plan is for his life, and no longer knows if God exists. Intrigued since many of the complaints he had were similar complaints that I had at the beginning of my journey to faith, I initially commented sharing my story with the hopes of encouraging him not to lose faith (which admittedly probably wasn’t the best way of going about it, but too late now). A little while later, I got a response from another commenter called Club Schadenfreude, a former Christian turned atheist who began yelling at me in the comments about how I was making “harmful” excuses for a “false” God and then claimed that if Christians can’t agree on doctrine, then there’s something wrong with the religion.
This was where I made my first mistake: responding to a person who was just there to be angry and bitter and not to actually have a civil conversation where both parties could learn.
I asked about what she believed Christianity teaches or if she had studied it in depth and the answer I got was:
“I was a christian, and have studied all of its many contradictory versions in depth.
There is no evidence for any of the many versions, and each teaches something different. Christians teach free will and they teach predestination. They teach all sorts of different things about the bible since they can’t agree on what parts are to be taken literally, as metaphor, as exaggeration, etc.
Each invents what laws they want to follow ignoring those that they don’t like or are inconvenient. They also invent how one is saved, unable to agree if it is belief, grace, works, childbirth, faith, etc.
but do tell what you think which of the many version is the “right” one and what evidence for it do you think is the strongest.“
Mr. Duritz (the author of Ex-Narnian) then commented beneath one of my comments that I had posted to continue to elaborate on my initial comment and as I was writing my response, Ms. Schadenfreude responded to me, continuing to lose her mind over my second comment, making a bunch of random assertions about all the reasons why Christianity was wrong in the most condescending and rude manner that I have ever run across in a comments section (and it wasn’t just me either. Before Mr. Duritz closed the comments section because of how heated the debate was becoming, she also attacked another Christian for asking some good questions about what he believes about sin in lieu of his deconstructing). And I occasionally read Reddit comments where people disagree very heatedly and deal with disgruntled commentors on this blog quite a bit, so the title of being the rudest and most condescending person I’ve ever run across is saying a lot.
Good job Ms. Schadenfreude! You truly are the cat-lady extraordinaire who never graduated middle school in terms of mental or emotional maturity. You have tried to make me and others miserable (hence the meaning of your chosen name of “Schadenfreude”, which is the happiness or amusement we get out of watching others embarrass themselves or get hurt), but instead, it seems that your bullying (because that’s what these comments were is bullying) has only served to backfire on you. Instead of making me question and want to deconstruct from my faith, you have only encouraged me to cling tighter to my faith, spend more time understanding and defending the Bible, and I will be creating a series answering the problems you have with Christianity as I choose to do so. Read and comment if you want.
Finally, I have learned a quite a bit from this discussion. I will admit that this was not my finest moment in arguing for the faith. There are a lot of things that I should have done differently, some of them Mr. Duritz pointed out in his roast of both me and Ms. Schadenfreude, including not mentioning where I’m at in school so much, which, upon reflection, I can see how that can come off as cocky and annoying. From now on I will only mention it if it pertains to the argument at hand or if I’m talking about school stuff.
I’ve also learned to start picking my fights more carefully. One of the things I’ve been told is: “You can be invited to the gunfight, but that doesn’t mean you have to show up.” I was invited to the gunfight; I showed up and ended up becoming annoying instead of helpful. I should have handled it better by ignoring Ms. Schadenfreude and if she continued to comment, store it away for future blog posts.
Oh well. What’s said is said. All I can do is learn and grow from it, take the fight to my own arena instead of someone else’s, and do my best to defend the faith.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
Out of interest, what was it that convinced you of the veracity of Christianity that set you on the path of faith?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess that will have to be a blog post in of itself since it’s a long story that’s too big to fit into one comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, then, I shall wait until you post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
do make sure to include why you chose the version of christianity you did, since it seems you are following what your parents want.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Nice false claims, MJ. I’m the person that MJ is bearing false witness about, which makes her claim to be a christian rather problematic.
“Good job Ms. Schadenfreude! You truly are the cat-lady extraordinaire who never graduated middle school in terms of mental or emotional maturity. You have tried to make me and others miserable (hence the meaning of your chosen name of “Schadenfreude”, which is the happiness or amusement we get out of watching others embarrass themselves or get hurt), but instead, it seems that your bullying (because that’s what these comments were is bullying) has only served to backfire on you. Instead of making me question and want to deconstruct from my faith, you have only encouraged me to cling tighter to my faith, spend more time understanding and defending the Bible, and I will be creating a series answering the problems you have with Christianity as I choose to do so. Read and comment if you want.”
As usual, MJ resorts to false claims and attempts at being insulting. It’s notable that she uses typical maga attacks, which seems to indicates she worships an orange rapist, and someone who has claimed he doesn’t need forgiveness from the christian god. unable to show that I’m wrong, all MJ chooses to do is lie. her god hates lies and liars so she seems to be ignoring it as she finds convenient.
and dear, the name of my blog is Club Schadenfreude, not me. If you had actually cared to learn about me, you’d know that you can call me Vel, and you would have been able to read why I chose the term “schadenfreude”. I am happy and amused when people harm themselves out of their willful ignorance and arrogance.
The comments weren’t bullying, but you find you must lie to claim so since you could not show that I was wrong. You can’t even explain what your “faith” is, and have done a great job of showing how you and your family church shop on your comments on my blog. It’s very unlikely you will do any “series” since you’ve failed so far.
It’s rather amusing that the “ex-narnian” has nothing but being cranky. I do love this>”M.J., I made it clear that I’ve gone down every conceivable apologetic trail I can think of, and you respond by giving them to me, all the while making it abundantly clear (and not for the first time) that your blog exists and that you’re in high school. It’s becoming evident that you’re using my blog to promote yourself and your agenda, not to give me anything I actually need. Also, clubschadenfreude was right about you: You don’t know whereof you speak. Your apologetics, for all the good they have, are filled with non sequiturs and intellectual dishonesty.”
“clubschadenfreude, M.J. was right about your condescending tone, but she should have flayed your belligerence and snottiness alive. Your comments drip with a self-imposed superiority that comes from age and experience and the unprovable position that there are no gods, and you vilify your opponents with insults and bad attitudes and a stunning lack of compassion and restraint. You are a grown woman, and you act like a high-schooler dressing up her comments in grown-up lingo.”
Unsurprisingly, the poor fellow can’t show his imaginary friend exists at all. It’s rather amusing that his attacking of both of us is a lovely demonstration of how his claims simply contradict themselves. One has to wonder which of these attacks are true: it is that MJ’s apologetics are wrong, or that I’m wrong for showing how they fail? Should lies be allowed to stand or not? Duritz seems unable to decide. His attacks against MJ show he has no compassion or restraint. His attacks against me show he is upset that someone dares to show that his faith is a failure and is upset that people can know that there are no gods.
That you, MJ, and Duritz, both can’t show that your gods exist or that your version of christianity is true does a great job of demonstrating that there is little reason to believe such nonsense.
LikeLike
I heard of this Ex-Narnian dude. I was looking for your website, and another blog came up, basically just saying you and another person were bad at blogging. That’s it.
LikeLiked by 1 person