Reply #12: Yes you are going about it the wrong way [View All]

[HamdenRice]

And since there has been so much confusion about pronouns and rhetorical questions, I don't mean "you" personally, but "you" plural. Unfortunately, standard American English does not have a second person plural pronoun, although regional dialects do -- youse (Brooklyn), yall (the South), you guys (California). So the "you" is in response to your "we" ("are we going about it the wrong way"), which is actually the wrong pronoun because you point out that you personally have discovered a better way, so the question must refer to atheists in general. So I interpret the question to actually be "Are atheists (or is it liberals and progressives?) other than me going about it the wrong way?"

The answer is that some atheists are going about it the wrong way. I have no idea what each of you do in your personal lives, but if your method of changing the views of others in your real lives is reflected by the way you go about trying to discuss or change the views of others in this forum -- the only evidence I would have of your rhetorical strategies -- than I would say it's quite clear that they are going about it in a very ineffective way.