(October 2, 2015 at 8:25 am)ChadWooters Wrote: The OP is part right and part wrong. The dominant narrative of a few vocal AF members will downplay the anti-Christion rhetoric of the shooter or try to explain it away. A fair minded reader will see little difference between the shooter's rants and a few I've seen that earned multiple kudos.

However there really is no way to know if his bigotry was the cause or symptom of his hostility.

You really need to do something about the hate in your heart, Chad. I don't want to see you end up like this guy who shot at Christians, in the other direction.

I'm sure his bigotry was the cause as well as a symptom. When you turn those who disagree with you into caricatures of themselves, in order to demonize them, you become like him. For all that you constantly accuse us of being hateful toward Christians (a few of us are, I grant), most of us are just annoyed at assholery, which is typically directed at us by  Christians, and we react to it. When you come here constantly mischaracterizing us in the worst way, and in the worst rhetoric you can manage, it tells me you have very deep-seated problems in your psyche with regard to those who do not share your faith-view. 

For most of us here, the animus toward Christianity is a symptom of a lifetime of abuse and derision from the Christian majority, which we return in contempt, derision, and sometimes hostility. But for the person who stands in the clear majority, who could go his whole life comfortably without having to deal with one single atheists's intervention in his life (provided he does not try to impose religion on another, which an atheist feels compelled to intervene to stop), it is simple bigotry and dominionism. 

This guy was a strange fellow who dabbled in the occult and in Nazi ideology. He is in no way similar to us. That you even suggest so tells me that you may be closer to him than any of us will ever be. I am a little sad for you-- for a while there, you were showing signs of letting go of your hatred and anger, and I thought you might turn out to be a decent guy after all.

(October 2, 2015 at 8:50 am)ignoramus Wrote: religion didn't kill anyone!  guns did!  hello McFly!

No, Chris Harper Mercer did.  If he'd used explosives would you go out of your way to blame the bomb? or the fertilizer? or the man? 

Or a spoon or a rolling pin ...I get it ...
But for some stupid reason, the vast majority use guns? go figure?

No, if he'd used explosives it would have been in spite of the fact that those are not available for purchase as a civil right. Guns shouldn't be either.

This guy was a deranged psycho. If there was no religion, he would have found some other reason to kill people. Yes, religion has a blood trail a million miles long attached to it, but I believe this particular incident was just a crazy individual looking for ANY excuse to go out in a blaze of glory. He picked Christianity over any other number of "reasons" he may have justified in his warped brain.

The difference is, just like when the Atheist shot the Muslims in NC, the vast majority of atheists didn't use "not all atheists" doge like Christians and Muslims, most of us said " There is never an excuse "

I don't give one fuck what your label is or what you excuse is, you are a sick fuck if you think mass murder of unarmed people is a valid form of protest.

(October 2, 2015 at 9:07 am)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: You really need to do something about the hate in your heart, Chad. I don't want to see you end up like this guy who shot at Christians, in the other direction.

I'm sure his bigotry was the cause as well as a symptom. When you turn those who disagree with you into caricatures of themselves, in order to demonize them, you become like him. For all that you constantly accuse us of being hateful toward Christians (a few of us are, I grant), most of us are just annoyed at assholery, which is typically directed at us by  Christians, and we react to it. When you come here constantly mischaracterizing us in the worst way, and in the worst rhetoric you can manage, it tells me you have very deep-seated problems in your psyche with regard to those who do not share your faith-view. 

For most of us here, the animus toward Christianity is a symptom of a lifetime of abuse and derision from the Christian majority, which we return in contempt, derision, and sometimes hostility. But for the person who stands in the clear majority, who could go his whole life comfortably without having to deal with one single atheists's intervention in his life (provided he does not try to impose religion on another, which an atheist feels compelled to intervene to stop), it is simple bigotry and dominionism. 

This guy was a strange fellow who dabbled in the occult and in Nazi ideology. He is in no way similar to us. That you even suggest so tells me that you may be closer to him than any of us will ever be. I am a little sad for you-- for a while there, you were showing signs of letting go of your hatred and anger, and I thought you might turn out to be a decent guy after all.

Chad thinks we should just bend over and take it. He thinks he and Christians like him can tell us we're immoral and deserve to burn in hell without us wanting to fight back. It's no surprise that he has jumped all over this to mischaracterize atheists as a whole and equate the posts here with the views of a mass murderer. Bending the truth to fit a narrative seems to be his M.O.

Fuck this asshole shooter, and fuck anyone that tries to equate the sometimes hostile reaction atheists have to being marginalized and the views of a heartless killer.

(October 2, 2015 at 8:50 am)ignoramus Wrote: religion didn't kill anyone!  guns did!  hello McFly!

No another mentally ill person killed. Notice how many of these shooters have family/friends come out afterwards and say they were trying everything to get them mental help but couldn't? With all the "heated debate" going on about guns (and I do agree on tighter regulations), we are still missing a VERY important factor in this equation- the US is neglecting to provide ADEQUATE mental health care (which might include more involuntary institutionalizations) for DANGEROUS mentally ill people and has instead cut mental health spending or simply diverted funds to "everybody's a victim with a disorder" culture. While psychiatrists/psychologists are wasting all their time on overworked moms and stressed high schoolers, we're missing the portion of the population who is mentally ill and dangerous. Current laws also do not allow for the removal of these individuals from society to receive treatment on grounds of their human rights (neglecting to consider the rights of everyone around them).

(October 2, 2015 at 9:18 am)mediocrates Wrote: No, Chris Harper Mercer did.  If he'd used explosives would you go out of your way to blame the bomb? or the fertilizer? or the man? 

I would blame the man for the killing and the explosives for why he was able to kill so many.

Guns don't kill people. They just make it really easy.

It doesn't matter what tool crazy people use to kill.  My point is not to take blame away from the crazy person just to place it on their tools to make a political statement.  It was completely the fault of a man who would have used any means at his disposal to terrorize the victims.  

I'm not normally one to have political arguments; I'm just saying blame the man.  You cant blame a gun for killing any more than you can praise a hammer for building your house.