Kevin Graham wrote:Yes, ZLMB was a mess. Not nearly as bad as other boards dominated by ex-Mormons, but it was pretty crazy when FAIR was sending their top apologists at the time to do battle.
It was mainly the defenders of the faith complaining about the quality of the board, and insisting it didn't use to be that way. When I dug more into the past, I discovered exchanges just as ugly as the ones they were complaining about today. The main difference was that the antagonists in the early days tending to be evangelical Christian (made sense since ZLMB was triggerred by an exodus from the board associated with the Tanners, which I think was also named lightouse). At the end, the main antagonists were atheists, and the defenders of the faith were robbed of one of their favorite tools (well, the Bible does it too....) I really think defenders of the faith found atheists more frustrating.
That was supposed to be the main thing that set this forum apart from the rest. You could pretty much choose the level of discourse you want by picking your own forum. But I think the problem is the same groups tend to gravitate to the same forums. I haven't so much as clicked on the Celestial/Telestial forums in years. Terrestrial used to be the only one I'd visit but I really don't have that much interest in discussing Mormonism anymore.
Yeah, me too. I only click on Terrestrial to get mormon-related current events updates.
I spent years debating defenders of the faith. But with time and distance, Mormonism seemed pretty much the equivalent of scientology to me, and who would waste time debating a scientologist? As has often been said in the past, Mormonism isn't just a fraud, it's a pretty obvious one, and if people continue believing it they have very personal, deep-rooted issues for doing so that tend to close them to new information.