Hello, New To Forum, Hope I Don't Get Banned

[TaraJo]

I've been banned from many forums, usually because I tell the truth as I see it and many forums don't tolerate that.

If you've been banned from many forums, as you readily admit, it might be a sign that you're doing something wrong.

I have found a good political forum now and I've been there for many years without being banned because you can say pretty much what you want and they won't ban you.

Yeah, I've seen a few forums like that from time to time. However, some amount of moderation is usually better nowadays simply to deal with trolls and spambots. Usually, the best forums are the ones that are moderated somewhere between 'tyrannical' and 'lissez-faire.'

So we will see what kind of forum this is.

Am I allowed to speak my mind?

As long as you aren't a disruptive asshole (or, at least you aren't too much of a disruptive asshole)? Sure.

Or will the moderators censor me at every turn, give me repeated warnings, and then ban me simply for expressing my point of view?

We shall see.

So far, I haven't seen much that is ban worthy, but I'm not moderator. However, what I'm seeing from you is setting off a few alarm bells.

And the reason I lead with this is that I am a Catholic and I'm here to talk to atheists and see what's going on with them.

Well, hi. I'm Tara, I'm an atheist and what's going to be going on with me is probably working on homework today.

And I was inspired to join this forum because I saw this video with some young lady complaining about the "Atheism +" movement and realized that atheists have conflicts amongst themselves and I want to watch and observe and maybe put in my two cents.

We've had multiple discussions about Atheism+ and, honestly, it doesn't seem to have many fans here. Short answer is, it seems to be a mix of feminist extremism with atheism, and if you reject radical feminism, you aren't going to get along with them, feminist or not. It would be interesting to see how well they got along with a theist who was a radical feminist (and I'm tempted to create an online persona to run a test on that).

And I think, well, everyone knows that Christians have all these fights amongst themselves, but who knew that atheists can't get along with each other either?

Well, thinking back, I should have realized it, but the atheists on my religion forum are pretty good at keeping a united front in front of us Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Anyway, Atheism + intrigues me. It seems to me an effort to graft atheism onto the standard left-wing causes and therefore imply that if you are an atheist you must believe in these left-wing causes or you are a bad person.

Yeah, that is one of many reasons a lot of people aren't fond of Atheism+.

I have simiar feelings about liberal Catholics who try to graft left-wing causes to Catholicism, i.e. "social justice" (voting for Democrats and supporting government food stamps and welfare programs) and "seamless garment" pro-life (opposition to the death penalty and war).

Ironic. My dad had the opposite experience with Catholicism. He used to go to church, dutifully, every Sunday, but he quit going, partially because he's always hated Ronald Reagan and got tired of going to mass every Sunday and listening to him get told he's going to hell because he's always been pro-labor union.

I don't go to Church very often and the Church says its a mortal sin to miss Mass even one time so by now I've piled up enough mortal sins to send me to hell 1,000 times over.

Yeah, I've always thought that was a bit of an absurd aspect of Catholicism. How can they call it a sin to miss church if you can't go? In the hospital? That's a sin. Gotta work? That's a sin. Locked up? Sin.

I am very disenchanted with the Catholic Church right now and part of it is because God has not seen fit to answer my prayers and the other part is that so many priests and bishops were involved with the sex scandal.

I know. Religion is a tool of man, and just like any other tool, it's as good or bad as the person wielding it.

But I am still a believer.

Why?

The problem is, that pedophiles are very common and they deliberately go into professions where they will have access to young people.

So you have pedophile priests, pedophile youth pastors, pedophile Boy Scout masters, pedophile teachers, pedophile coaches, pedophile step-fathers, etc.

Very true. That's a downright analytical way of looking at it.

There's also the fact that people who aren't interested in romantic/sexual relationships with someone they can marry are drawn to the church to avoid people wondering why you don't get married. I remember reading an article a while ago about a large number of gay men joining the priesthood for the same reason.

So the personal injury lawyers targeted the Catholic Church and made what is a widespread societal problem seem like a uniquely Catholic problem.

The problem with Catholicism here isn't so much that the pedophilia happened in the first place but their reaction to it: silence the victim, move the offending priest to another church and sweep it under the rug. In short, they're more concerned with protecting the church than they are with protecting children from pedophiles.

And the media, which is stridently anti-Catholic, played it all up and made things seem even worse.

I see reality as being pretty damn anti-Catholic. And anti-Baptist, and anti Mormon and anti Muslim.

So anyway, if you respond to me with mockery, you will renew my opinion that atheists are nothing but simple-minded morons who can't really debate their way out of a brown paper bag.

Anyway, that's what I've observed from atheists at the political forum I usually spend time at.

I am hoping for something better from you guys. If I don't get it here, I'll go elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias