Argument is war; thus forum becomes battle ground. (atheism, Christians, Christ)

[coberst]

Argument is war; thus forum becomes battle ground.

It seems to me that the forum members who participate in a thread approach the experience invigorated with much the same attitude as does a boxer entering the ring or a soldier going into battle.

Metaphor entailments (to transmit or to accompany) we live by:
He attacked my argument.
I have never beaten this guy in an argument.
If you do not agree with my statement then take your best shot.
I shot down each of his arguments.

We approach a forum response much like we approach a physical contest. We have a gut feeling about some things because our sense of correctness comes from our bodies. Our “gut feeling” often informs us as to the ‘correctness’ of some phenomenon. This gut feeling is an attitude; it is one of many types of attitudes. What can we say about this attitude, this gut feeling?

“Metaphors we live by”, a book about cognitive science coauthored by Lakoff and Johnson, says a great deal about this attitude. Conceptual metaphor theory, the underlying theory of cognitive science contained in this book, explains how our knowledge is ‘grounded’ in the precise manner in which we optimally interact with the world.

“The essence of metaphor is understanding one kind of thing in terms of another…The metaphor is not merely in the words we use—it is in the very concept of an argument. The language of argument is not poetic, fanciful, or rhetorical: it is literal. We talk about arguments that way because we conceive of them in that way—and we act according to the way we conceive of things.”—Lakoff and Johnson

Let us say that in early childhood I had my first fight with my brother. There was hitting, shoving, crying, screaming, and anger. Neural structure was placed in a mental space that contained the characteristics of this first combat, this was combat #1. Six months later I have a fight with the neighbor kid and we do all the routine thing kids do when fighting.

This is where metaphor theory does its thing. This theory proposes that the characteristics contained in the mental space, combat #1, are automatically mapped into the mental space that is becoming combat #2. The contents of combat #1 become a primary metaphor and the characteristics form the fundamental structure of mental space combat #2.

This example applies to all the experiences a person has. The primary experience is structured into a mental space and thereafter when a similar experience is happening the primary experience becomes the primary metaphor for the next like experience. This primary metaphor becomes the foundation for a concept whether the concept is concrete experience or abstract experience.

What I am saying is that for some reason the Internet discussion forum member considers engaging in a forum thread is a competition, it is a combat, and the primary combat metaphor is mapped into the mental space of this forum experience and thus the forum experience takes on the combat type experience. It seems to that is why lots of forum activity gets very combative.

Is it any wonder that the adrenalin starts pumping as soon as we start reading the responses to our post?

Do you feel like you are in a battle with me after reading my claims?

Is this why most replies are negative?

[Tricky D]

I dunno if a forum is a battleground, but it sure is true that you cannot go through life without conflict.
Life's natural state is conflict and not peace.
People who try to avoid conflict are actually trying to avoid life in general.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by Tricky D

I dunno if a forum is a battleground, but it sure is true that you cannot go through life without conflict.
Life's natural state is conflict and not peace.
People who try to avoid conflict are actually trying to avoid life in general.

I disagree with your statement, avoiding conflict sometimes is because I simply don't care what the other person thinks and don't care enough about them to share what I think. Its all about is it worth the trouble, often times trying to explain my point of view just doesn't matter. All too often, people won't listen anyway, they have blinders on and are stuck in their ways so whats the point?

Not everyone feels the need to try and push their way of life down others throats. Doing so is not "life".

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by Lindsey_Mcfarren

I disagree with your statement, avoiding conflict sometimes is because I simply don't care what the other person thinks and don't care enough about them to share what I think.

Well, in that case there can't be any conflict, because you don't care.
I mean I just tell people what I think and I don't care if they agree with me or not. Nor am I trying to convince others of my opinion.

Not everyone feels the need to try and push their way of life down others throats. Doing so is not "life".

Why do you assume that I have this need for you to agree with me?

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by Tricky D

Originally Posted by Lindsey_McfarrenWell, in that case there can't be any conflict, because you don't care.
I mean I just tell people what I think and I don't care if they agree with me or not. Nor am I trying to convince others of my opinion.

Why do you assume that I have this need for you to agree with me?

I was not speaking particularly of you. In my life its normally the christians that want to push their way of life on me because I am not a christian. I don't care what they think, I have no need to try and convert them to atheism BUT they sure have a burden to convert me and it annoys me no end.

[noland123]

One should try to see if one can clarify a problem or answer a question someone might have or ask about a problem one might have. This forum should be about helping one another,supplying information ,instead of one being arrogant or one having a better than thou attitude.

Hey we are are only on this Earth for a short period of time,we are for the most part mature grown adults, lets make the best of it.

[Tricky D]

I just answered the op and reacted to a post who reacted to my post.
I don't see a problem?

[SmerkyGrl]

I don't think argument is war at all. And neither are most of these threads arguments (they only are when they descend into incivility...like when either side begins calling the other side names). I'd say most of these threads are part of intellectual discourse, exploring the depths of religion, belief, and philosophy. Such things are what great and enlightened minds are made of, even if those minds might not agree with each other. Through sharing of ideas, we reach a greater truth.

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by SmerkyGrl

I don't think argument is war at all.

True.
War is nothing but a conflict taken to the extreme.
But whenever arguments turn into wars the truth always is the 1st casualty.

To some people the argument becomes a war (=personal), because that is often how truth works.
You either accept the truth, or you deny it.
But when the truth hits on a personal level many people can't seem to get past their emotional feeling or their intellectual defence mechanism.

[allah truth]

right..but that was fun haha....and there is some sense of war in debate..as to use thoughts facts ideas wordings as wepons to support your position...and because it is your posistion you would want to defend it...but ofcourse using the term war is an exaduration to say the least