View: Atheists should stop joking about Satan

[UngodlyFossil]

And yet your country still won't let you make Holocaust jokes.

That is not completely true, but also not completely false.
While Holocaust denial is considered hate speech and a criminal offense, elements of the Holocaust were satirically used in the past to mock attempts at politicial censorship.
It is considered deeply, deeply tasteless, but it was covered under "Satire" and thus not a criminal offense.

We developed a culture where we don't mock the victims of industrialized extermination, but rather the people responsible for it.

But it's a fine line between satire and blunt offensiveness, and if that line is allegedly crossed over here, the verdict is usually "pro-satire", meaning that we rather cover something under "satire" than castrating the freedom of speech.

A little example about the catholic church:

On public TV, on public radio and on public weblogs, the catholic church was called "a sect of childfuckers" and the priest's robe was called "child-molester uniform". Catholics still paying their church tax were called "childfucker-supporters". Openly, for every man, woman and child to see.

The church sued several times for hate speech, libel, and "slander of religious beliefs", as did some believers.
They lost in court every single time.

[thesummerqueen]

Btw: I have great respect for your jewish ancestors, Summer. If two of them hadn't found the same penny, we still wouldn't have copper wire.

Don't think that I missed this one, btw.

[Minimalist]

They lost in court every single time.

Perhaps....had they not been child fuckers....they might have won?

[UngodlyFossil]

Don't think that I missed this one, btw.

I won't.
Because I know you notice what happens here, just like a spider notices the slight vibration of it's net when an insect flies into it.

Only that this insect drives a tank, wears a steel helmet and skulls on it's collar patch.

Perhaps....had they not been child fuckers....they might have won?

That was actually - and most amusingly - in other words of course, partly the official opinion of the ruling court.

"if it weren't for the recent scandals, the ruling would probably have been different, but the court acknowledges the perception of the public regarding those events and can't see any grounds for libel, slander or the infringement of religious freedoms, as no individual was accused of punishable acts. Therefore the remarks are covered under the rules of Satire".

[thesummerqueen]

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly...

[UngodlyFossil]

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly...

"Oh no, no, said the little Fly, to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair, can ne'er come down again."

Only this here fly will redecorate the fuck outta your parlor.

[thesummerqueen]

More to the point though:

A more productive exercise, beyond emphasizing our similarities as humans, would be to demonstrate that morals do not come from God.

Even if we were all to be more saccharine than my ex's mother's sweet tea, the fact that we don't believe in God would mean we were obviously capable of becoming raging criminals at a moment's notice. What's to stop us? Which cracks me up - why wouldn't God stop us?

[UngodlyFossil]

Even if we were all to be more saccharine than my ex's mother's sweet tea, the fact that we don't believe in God would mean we were obviously capable of becoming raging criminals at a moment's notice. What's to stop us? Which cracks me up - why wouldn't God stop us?

The only thing that stops us lies within us.
For me, the fact that we are able to empathize with people who suffer, to be able to kind of "feel their pain" is what keeps us from becoming raging criminals.

Because we empathize with people and are able to feel their pain, we feel the need to overcome that pain in ourselves, so some of us will switch off the television, put away the newspaper or navigate to another website, while others will feel the need to actually help, by giving to charity, volunteering or something like that.

A forensic psychologist once told me, that an overwhelming number of violent criminals he worked with, lacked the ability to empathize, due to different circumstances.

[Whateverist]

Just to clarify. I don't particularly care if I offend them or not.

The view I explained above, is about promoting a false image which can cause harm to those whom already exist in fundamentalist societies.

Joke or not, there are those who are stupid enough to believe it, and worse spread it as fact to others.

You may be right or perhaps if they hear lots of people making fun of it all it will shake their faith a little? Bill Mayer may be doing for atheism what Ellen DeGeneres did for homosexuality. If we all go around bowing to their sacred cows perhaps that will have the opposite effect?

In general I'm for respecting peoples right to believe what makes the most sense to them given their life experience. That said, I would prefer to have more peers when it comes to not believing in things like an after life and magic genies.

[jason56]

I've been an atheist for 14 years now and I've never made a joke about satan.

I find it offencive that my atheist worship would be questioned.

I'm going to plant some roadside bombs now just to vent my aimless fury.