Defending The Catholic Faith

[Farsight one]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1614547' date='Jul 31 2008, 09:53 PM']Prayers, you bet. Try to keep to subjects that you feel confident in. You never want to appear to be defensive. Don't quote from things like the CCC that Protestants don't believe in, instead quote from the bible, or early church fathers. Make sure you have a good bible commentary/index handy.[/quote]Unless of course you're correcting someone on WHAT Catholics believe instead of explaining why. Then the CCC is quite alright.


[quote name='goldenchild17' post='1614863' date='Aug 1 2008, 02:30 AM']It usually (in my and others experiences) doesn't do hardly any good with the person you are debating because a lot of the time if someone is debating an issue there is too much emotion tied up to it. But a lot of the time other people who are just reading the debate can look at it more objectively.

I haven't the time to do it much anymore right now, but it's definitely a useful thing to do if you can dedicate yourself to being on regularly.[/quote]It's mostly true that message board debates are mostly fruitless - to the people you are directly discussing with. But always remember, there are going to be people reading and not participating. These are the people you should worry about. I've certainly received more than one message on facebook from a lurker thanking me for explaining things.

[Paddington]

Don't rule out the people you debate. It can help them tremendously even if it is in the future. You can also change one or two of their perceptions and know that you did some good.