Nice takedown I'm afraid he's already been banned for trolling.

(April 19, 2015 at 12:31 pm)robvalue Wrote: Nice takedown I'm afraid he's already been banned for trolling.

Oh snap 

He couldn't decide if he was pretending to be a super obnoxious atheist, or a super obnoxious Christian, or a super obnoxious theist. Only the obnoxiousness remained a constant.

I'd ignored this thread at first. But since francis has posted such a well thought out response I guess I'll go ahead and post my initial, flippant and much less well thought out reaction.

For atheism to become corrupt there'd need to be more money in the system. That could come about through tithing, televangelism or contributing to de-conversion missionaries. But they won't get any of my money. I'm not invested in de-converting the masses. Educating them, yes. Implanting the mindset that should result, no.

(April 19, 2015 at 12:55 pm)whateverist Wrote: I'd ignored this thread at first.  But since francis has posted such a well thought out response I guess I'll go ahead and post my initial, flippant and much less well thought out reaction.

For atheism to become corrupt there'd need to be more money in the system.  That could come about through tithing, televangelism or contributing to de-conversion missionaries.  But they won't get any of my money.  I'm not invested in de-converting the masses.  Educating them, yes.  Implanting the mindset that should result, no.

Yeah I too went against my better judgement and responded to this thread (only to find out the author of the OP has already been banned, but oh well). Normally, I find it rather pointless to debate with theists, although, there are atheists who share this view (for whatever reason, probably because they haven't been steeped in atheism for very long and they don't have much contact with the atheist community). The idea that atheists in America are anything but a group that's constantly maligned, the underdog by any reasonable estimation, is simply not supported by reality. Anyone who has been an atheist for a while and who's had a healthy degree of contact with other atheists, would know this. 

The only exception is the "angry at god" crowd, who identifies as atheists (but I question their intellectual commitment to atheism, since their atheism is not intellectually based) 

I can't even begin to think what an atheism "televangelist" would sound like!

"Send me your money so I can go on lacking that belief brother!"

(April 19, 2015 at 2:30 pm)robvalue Wrote: I can't even begin to think what an atheism "televangelist" would sound like!

"Send me your money so I can go on lacking that belief brother!"

Cute, but there do seem to be Christians who really are afraid that somehow atheists will prohibit religion by force.   Mostly, I think it's that the poor idiots are entrenched in privilege, much of which is unconstitutional and the they see losing any of that privilege as persecution.  They are afraid we'll start foundations to rid the world of Christianity.  If only they knew how few atheists talk to each other or how very disorganized we are.

Oddly, they tend to worry that we will privilege Islam while we're at it.

Yeah, I think a lot of theists have really bizarre ideas about what atheists typically believe and what our "agenda" is. I've spoken to very few atheists who would even say entirely eradicating religion is a good move, and even less that would advocate doing so by force. I mean, I think religion needs toning down for sure, and its special privileges being removed. Ideally, people just wouldn't do it anymore. But you can't stop what someone believes, after all. If 2 or even 1 person gets some weird ideas and calls it a religion, what are you meant to do? String them up?

My entire focus is on stopping the harm religion does. Once that has pretty much stopped, I'll be happy. That's another common theist problem, an inability or unwillingness to see the harm.

It's weird they would trust a Muslim, who thinks they are so unworthy that they are going to burn forever, over an atheist who thinks nothing in particular.

Yeah it's sort of endemic in Christian circles (in the United States) to associate atheism with Stalin or Pol Pot or whatever (incidentally, the United States supported Pol Pot, but I digress).

But they refuse to understand that many of our founders were skeptics, some of the great enlightenment philosophers were skeptics, many of our greatest scientists and innovators and industrialists were skeptics or full blown atheists.

Anyways, simply people think simplistically .... this should not be a newsflash

Lol yes indeed Unfortunately, religion tends to have a lot of black and white thinking. This good, that bad.

And I'm really so sick of hearing people try to tie all atheists together like it's an organisation, and what one atheist has done every one of us is accountable for. Even when we condemn it, apparently.

Bringing up frigging dictators and madmen from the past is a real sign of desperation. But sadly, that's the propaganda that's been put out there, and it's easier to find a reason to be pissed off at us than to learn about us.

Shame really, because there is almost nothing to learn. The problem every time is people assume way too much.