Finding pricks to kick.

I really don’t understand some people. (Which probably says something about my limitations as a fiction writer, but…)

A couple of the blogs I follow are by erudite fellows — one an academic, the other an autodidact — who post thoughtful, faith-infused comments on history or politics or apologetics or personal experience from a Latter-day Saint (“Mormon”) perspective.  There is no attempt made to render their blogs either incomprehensible or unwelcoming to non-Mormons (one is hosted on an ecumenical interfaith site), but it’s clear that they post from a context of thoughtful Latter-day Saint faith, largely for those who share the same belief system, or at least a familiarity with and respect for it.

The part I don’t understand is that the comments of both blogs are usually taken up at least 50% with responses from those who argue vehemently against the basic theistic premises of the authors — the existence of God, the divinity of Christ, the continuation of the soul… Heck, the authors don’t even have to bring up any particularly Latter-day Saint beliefs to get the declamatory Wall O’ Comments.  And it’s usually very regular commenters doing this, not just “drive-bys” — they consistently gainsay every foundational premise in evidence in the posts (and sometimes not even those in evidence in that specific post).

I’m not saying this is specifically an “anti-Mormon” thing.  I don’t spend enough time around the other corners of the internet to know if the same thing happens on Jewish blogs, or Jehovah’s Witness blogs, or…  I would suspect you’re going to get drive-by Christians “witnessing” on atheist blogs, but I doubt you’re going to see that kind of sustained participation in comment threads.

Now, I like a good argument as much as the next guy… but I like a GOOD argument. I simply can’t see the appeal of showing up continually where you’re not wanted (but tolerated, in the case of the two blogs referenced, faaar beyond where I would have brought the Ban Hammer down), gainsaying all of the premises on which the blog is based, and consistently make the same dismissive declarations about faith and God and whatnot… You know you’re not changing any minds. You know you’re not even building a bridge of understanding between disparate worldviews.  By your own preference, you’re choosing to spend a goodly chunk of time each day in an utterly profitless effort.

I just don’t understand, but I think that it gives the lie to the militant atheists’ claims to be demonstrably rational.