text: why do you ask? if people do not want your opinion, why do they ask for it?  questions like: is divine intervention real? can prayer really help those in need? is god real?  i continue to answer these questions with my honest opinion: that god is a fictional character and the bible is a clever but outdated mythology.  stragely, people keep responding with "core you are dumb"- or much worse- simply because i answered their question with an opinion they found shocking or offensive.  if these people were being honest, they would say right up front that they don't want answers or opinions, they just want to preach.  why do people keep asking questions they don't want answers to?  is there some gratifying aspect of rhetoric that i am missing?  if an opinion contratry to your own is not welcome, should you be asking those questions in a public forum and then chastising others for answering?  to me it seems like a trap- and intentional deception created just to cause harm.  your thoughts? hey core,  while i don't agree with you on the biblical issues, i definitely agree with you on the rest of your statement.  one thing that i would add though, is that it is not just we christians that do that.  i have seen my fair share of "baiting" from the athiests, agnostics, muslims, and every other group that think that they "have it right."  anyway, thanks for making a good point, and here's to disagreeing without being disagreeable.