[friendociate]

And yes, I do it too

We think our minds are 'fully formed,' and so "anything (in a Facebook-post, or any writing (usually online) that discusses religion or politics or ethics etc.) that goes against something we think we know" instantly makes the rest of the item "WRONG!"

I'm in a few groups that claim to be about 'open-minded discussion between believers & non-believers.' But what'll happen: someone will argue on a point, and "dissenters" will start their response with denial of the condition before the point they're asking about! (e.g. someone says, "If God said such-&-such, what would what's-their-name do?" (or something) and the dissenter would answer, "God is imaginary, therefore no one would ever do that!")

But where it most frequently happens for me: Prayer---Christians frequently insist that "prayer is our communication with God." And maybe they're right, but they're WRONG about 'what they really mean when they say "we'll pray for you"' (and they definitely DON'T mean what Jaron's song says he means when he says it )

It might be a 'Sacred Cow scripture' (a Bible-verse that someone (like me) uses to 'cancel out' any other verses that go against it), but I frequently quote from chapter-6 of Matthew whenever people "parrot-out" about 'thoughts & prayers.' (It's where Jesus--right before He teaches us "the only prayer we ever need to say (out loud)"--tells us that any other prayer is 'just babble we blurt-out to hear ourselves talk.')

My point is that--if my objection catches a pray-er's eye (usually by making some defiant statement like 'They Lie if they say "they pray for you!" ')--they'll respond with one of the Bible-verses where apostles say 'they pray for followers' or -where Old Testament leaders pray for God's help-or-guidance or -where Jesus instructs His disciples to pray for things ...

... never confirming-or-denying 'the words I quoted,' but rather "marking my entire response 'wrong' because of things they think they know." arrrrggggggggggggggh