I would hope NOT, finally a place for free thinkers. This does not NEED to become a forum for debate .

Please, just don't. They already have a lot place to go. I just found this website and I never saw so many polite and coherent comments together. I'm so tired of people trying to validate their point of view with no sense explanations.

I agree. I came here to avoid the constant nagging of believers I face on other social media. I don't have a problem with arguing, but does it have to be at an agnostic site?

The issue gets brought up quite frequently, although it has been a minute since the last time.

The believers who have joined tend not to last long on the site.
The scammers get weeded out fairly quickly, and those who join just to troll,
don't last very long either.

That said, I will not support any effort to prevent believers from joining the community. They could be questioning. They could be in the beginning stages
of coming to rational and logical thought. This could be the place they need to come to in order to find out that atheists are NOT baby-eating, satan worshipers.

I've been on this site for over a year, and I have yet to engage with any believer who came to argue or convert anyone.
Even if I had, that's not reason enough to bar the inclusion of anyone.
Seriously, if we can't support our own positions, we're pretty lame.
If you don't want to argue with someone, keep scrolling. If someone contacts
you and starts shit with you, block them. It's not that hard.

If you can't bring yourself to keep on scrolling, and can't handle engaging with some of them, maybe the problem lies with you.
I don't like the whole concept of being an "exclusive club".
I think that's bullshit. Just like religion.

Censorship sucks. No matter who is doing it, or why.
Being exclusionary is basically the same as censorship.

Given that a big premise of this site seems to be dialog, if they are open to the ideas of others, if they engage in an open and respectful exchange, sure we should welcome them. As an ex-Christian (fundamentalist cult) I've had amazing conversations with genuine folks who are still in it, maybe for reasons similar to the ones that made it difficult for me to transition. There are Christians (albeit too few) who actually get Christ's teachings and are trying to change their religion rather than leave it. It's to everyones benefit to know and encourage these people. There should be a way to censure those who's only agenda is to convert. In my experience it's pretty easy to tell the difference. I'm new here so perhaps such a mechanism exists.

I'm against it too. The religious have many forums online, in public, in their places of worship, and in government where they can speak without anyone harassing them the way they harass us. I've come to this site so I can be free of anyone trying to convert me or threatening me with hell, or just rehashing the same ol' tired arguments. I think of this as a sanctuary from that. Let us have this one place at least.

Just out of curiosity , how would a religious group feel , about an atheist going into their places of worship and trying to convert them to non-believers . This site is a sanctuary , where we don't have to deal with Jehova's Wittnesses , or Hari Krichners or other religious folks intruding where they are not wanted . We are intelligent adults , who have already given a lot of thought to our beliefs , and are not interested in having your arguments on this topic . Please leave us in peace .

How do I feel? I feel tired of Trolls who come here pretending that they are religious/not religious, or something in between. Trolls that sealion our Users into wasting time with bogus questions and arguments...that is how I feel.

NO, I came to this site to get away from all the religious stuff. I don't care to listen to their reasons for believing as they do. They have plenty of places to go and share their "good news" we don't, so I vote NO.

There are plenty of churches and places of worship for them to congregate. For us there are almost none. I vote NO.

I'm in favor of letting anyone join, but I also favor booting out anyone who proselytizes.

I'll be honest. No.

They have enough places to join. Let them go to church.

The only way to win is to spread the idea and invite discourse.
The "Believer" might actually have doubts and comes here to find mental food for his separation from the belief. I don't think this should be a safe space echo chamber only for the true (Non)-belivers. I think we should be inclusive - the opposite of religions or sects. If for every 20 ignorants we convert one doubter, it is worth it.

I never joined Agnostics.com for it to be an echo chamber for people who share the same views as me. What's the point of that? I want to leave each session on here with something to think about... it's called growth. I'm very open to talking to theists. They don't often give me food for thought, in fact they more often than not re-inforce negetive sterotypes.

One of my favorite drinking buddies is a Anglican Priest - we concentrate on the things that unite us rather than the clear water over religion. You'd be surprised at how many things we agree on.

There are plenty of other sites for debating theists (I'm active under this handle on two of them, TheThinkingAtheist.com/forum and city-data.com/forum (the latter has a pretty active atheism & agnosticism form and a generic religion & spirituality forum, although in my view the moderation is a touch heavy-handed and intrusive).

I rather like the lack of theists (especially theist trolls) here, it's not so much a desire for a "safe space" as for exchanging ideas with like minded folks without having to be girded for battle all the time. Sparring is fun, to a point, but just having a discussion is a breath of fresh air.

It's a little like the now-defunct site my current wife and I met on, tbd.com (stood for "to be determined" ). It limited membership to people over 40 (and it wasn't a dating site, either). Man, did THAT elevate the discourse, just eliminating all the youthful angst. This site feels a little bit like that to me -- it's like unbelievers are way more intellectually honest and mature and centered.

Personally I would not want believers on here, it's one of the distinctives of this site that set it apart. There are relatively few knuckle-draggers among us. I'd like to keep it that way.

Another thing I'm discovering about this site is that I feel somewhat more open about discussing my life and thinking on certain topics when I know it's not going to be seized on and distorted by someone who is looking to have them some confirmation bias about some atheist stereotype. If believers think atheists are depressed, nihilistic and miserable, you don't feel like be honest about your personal pain points. Just a thought.

Just take a look at TheThinkingAtheist.com/forum as a guest, look through the threads and you'll see lots of really brainless theists get on there, thinking they have an original argument that is going to slay us, getting shot down in flames and just not quitting. Some of them aren't even coherent, or are outright mentally ill. It's fun, in a shooting-fish-in-a-barrel sort of way, to nuke them, but it quickly wears thin. Life is about way more than anti-theism.

I think that as agnostics/atheists we get plenty of believers all throughout the rest of our lives. It's nice to have a place where we can be who we are. What reason would believers have to be on a site called agnostic.com ? They should go talk to people at church or something.

This site is called agnostic.com. Agnostic means you believe you can't prove or unproved the existence of god(s). There are agnostic theists. If you built this site for atheists you named it wrong.

I am against it. I'm here to deal with people who don't believe in fairy tales.

The Community Guidelines read: "... Please note that we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason. Obviously, we want to keep the discussion as open as possible but we have limits. While we do allow members who say they're religious to join, we not allow any religious proselytisation..."

I think this is a reasonable charter which, to me, implies it hasn't needed modification since this inception.

Why would they join such a site? Could only be one reason and that's to try and save souls which would be like giving telemarketers your phone number. I joined here because I am surrounded by them taunting me in this Bible belt and I'm tired of humouring their crazy thoughts. I have been on other sites to meet singles and it takes so much time tinfoil through profiles to make sure that forgone thing I don't bother to talk to any religious women on any level of faith in god's. So this site would be pointless. I feel comfortable that I have at least one of the most important in common things with each other and that is That we think with logic and not just what the Bible says.

Hell no. They have so much of the world. They should keep out.

Would you go on a vegan forum to talk about eating meat? Maybe you would. I know vegans who go on meat-eating forums to rant at the meat-eaters. ?

The site is specific about its audience. Freethinkers, agnostics, atheists etc. Belivers have their own sites and piss off there. I don’t mind those who have a sense of spirituality, but those who follow organized religion and interject themselves into our community really aren’t welcome, IMO. I have come here to escape stupidity and conflict. They should stick to Facebook.

I don't mind personally. I even find the staunch extremist atheists on this site a bit annoying. Militant believers on any side if the spectrum make my brain hurt. I came to this site to feel more freedom and to be able to talk to others openly. And if a theist wants to join and discuss things openly without being hateful, preachy and indignant... I say cool. It would be nice if all were welcome to join but with the respect for differences being the preference rather then attacking. I do not want to convert everyone to be exactly like me and I do not want others to actively try to convert me to be like them. I want to have open discussions with others without being targeted in some way.

Is this an anti theist site or a site for seeking something different.