The question seems stupid. Off course we need to discuss Gods Word and how we can become closer to Christ through a better understanding of His Word. I have spent some time looking at the discussion and I am not seeing anyone change their point of view over a point someone has raised. We all seem content with the theological pathway we chose when becoming followers of Christ.
You could expand that question to, "Does any participation on any Christian forum (not just this site) help anyone?" I have distinctly mixed feelings about that. I have yet to see any Christian forum, or even any forum that was devoted to spirituality in general, that could reasonably be described as a place of "fellowship." Mostly they tend to be very poor advertisements for Christianity and the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
In an unsuccessful attempt to keep supposed Christians from viciously attacking each other, one large site has fragmented itself into so many sub-forums that you can find a sub-forum to hang out with your fellow "Former Baptists who don't believe in the Virgin Birth, do believe in the Rapture, and aren't sure about the Trinity" - but you'll still find your little safe haven regularly infiltrated by those who do believe in the Virgin Birth and attack you. Here, the same attempt takes the form of aggressive moderation - but still, how many threads turn into embarrassments for Christian fellowship and end up being deleted, closed or riddled with red-letter warnings (while some of the moderators themselves regularly commit the same sins)?
A big part of the problem is that every forum such as this is such a mishmash of intelligence levels, educational levels, years as a Christian, depths of faith, levels of understanding and whatnot that it's essentially like throwing a cockroach, a rabbit, a rattlesnake, an elephant and an orangutan into a room and hoping it somehow all works out. Just as at a cocktail party, the discussions are often dominated by those who are simply the loudest and most aggressive but who are pretty clearly lacking in maturity and depth of understanding and have the least to say. Yet everyone is entitled to his or her say, everyone's opinion looks the same on the screen. (One excellent idea on another site at which I used to participate was to limit each poster to no more than three posts per day.)
These problems are exacerbated by the fact that everyone here, including Runner, is to some degree an Internet persona, not a real person. You don't
really know anyone here, even if you exchange 400 private messages. The anonymity is counterproductive in two ways - it encourages posters to say things they would never say face-to-face, and it encourages responses that fail to consider that behind that Internet persona is a real person with real feelings and problems. Nevertheless, cliques inevitably form and tend to dominate, just as they do in groups of real people.
If a Christian is sincerely interested in examining his views or understanding a particular doctrine, an Internet forum is not the place to do it. There are Christian scholars who actually know what they are talking about. There are Christian resources that are actually authoritative. If someone were seriously interested in
substance, an Internet forum is just about the least-efficient, least-effective way to get it.
No, a forum such as this, even with a weighty title like "Theology," is basically just entertainment, a social outlet. This is why longer posts, such as Runner tends to write, are not too popular - people want the forum equivalent of Tweets or Facebook "friends."
Are views changed? There have been a few occasions where one of the more thoughtful posters - mostly people who no longer seem to be here - has actually made me think and sharpened my own perspective, but those have been few and far between.
My purposes in participating on a forum such as this are twofold: One, to hone my own views. I am writing mostly to and for Runner. If someone else gains something from my posts, which I hope they do but can't control, so much the better. Two, I regard the Runner persona as my "ministry" to the Christian community and a form of entertainment for me. Runner is sincere, but in a gadfly sort of way ("A gadfly is a person who interferes with the status quo of a society or community by posing novel, potently upsetting questions, usually directed at authorities. The term is originally associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, in his defense when on trial for his life."). When someone sternly informs me that I am "not even a Christian" and have been relegated to Ignore status, as someone did last week, I know my "ministry" has been effective.
Those two things are the "help" I get from participating on a forum. If I actually learn something, that's a bonus.
The best piece of forum-participation advice I ever heard - and I wish I could remember to abide by it - was from Christian author Elyse Fitzpatrick,
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byl...d-author=Elyse+Fitzpatrick&sort=relevancerank. She said she had learned to post precisely once on a thread and move on - never go back to see what others had said about what she had said, never engage in discussion or debate. If posters followed this rule, and were limited to no more than three posts per day, I think you would have a much better chance at a forum that was a better advertisement for Christianity and actually had some meat to it. This will never happen because, for most participants, Internet forums are primarily a social outlet and the mix of personalities is unlike anything you'd ever assemble in the real world.
