Quite a shame how people respond

[lordxenu]

Hi guys.

I've been noticing something bad in almost every thread I go into.

The thread starts usually with something a religious person asks about or posts. And what follows is a long thread of ridicule and senseless attacks.

I am noticing more an more threads that never seem to attack the question and the issue at hand. Threads filled with cheap jokes and insults. Posts that are nothing more than a link or a pair of sentences that don't contribute to the debate.

Meanwhile the religious people use those posts to later on claim that they had a "discussion" on an atheist oriented forum and they won the arguments!
"See", they would say; "I posted some of my religious proof and BOOM! Atheists didn't know what to respond".


Come on guys!


You want to comment on a news piece, do so, but with respect to the readers. Maybe write about how morality should not be derived from holy books and how that piece of news contradicted human rights, the teaching of the people who did something...


Atheists are supposed to be the elite of the educated masses. We are supposed to spread knowledge, not ridicule.

[Faith No More]

Well, for some people, the whole religious debate feels like emptying an ocean with a spoon. The religious bring the same old, tired arguments thinking they have their trump card, and when you refute it, they deny it's even been refuted and claim victory. You can only do this so many times before the only thing that comes across your tongue is ridicule and insults.

Personally, I try to keep from ridiculing people until their behavior dictates it, but I do understand why others cannot.

[thesummerqueen]

Atheists are supposed to be the elite of the educated masses. We are supposed to spread knowledge, not ridicule.

Atheists aren't supposed to be shit except people who don't believe in deities.

Skeptics and the like are supposed to be much more educated.




I used to be like you. Really, I did - you can read my "Dear Atheist Forums" thread, if you please - I think you can find it in the Top Posts page.

The thing that really, really irritates me and made me change is that many of these people, like FNM said, act as if the internet didn't exist. They don't bother researching before spewing their tired crap, they don't bother putting forth any proof, and when we ask for it, they get uppity. Or vague. Google exists for a reason, and so does the search bar on this forum.

If someone came on this site and said "I believe what I believe. I doubt you'll be able to change it. I understand you think it's irrational." and didn't try to preach to me and otherwise engaged in civil, rational discussion, I wouldn't have a problem with them. They're not here for discourse, though. They're here to show us 'wrong'. They're here to 'spread the word'. They're here to prove how much better they understand god than we do, and the scriptures. Over and over and over. As if they haven't thought that we've had hundreds of others like them take advantage of the open nature of the forum and do the same thing. As if they haven't thought that some of us were former theists ourselves. As if they haven't thought that many of us have had the same arguments OFF the internet. They walk in with their assumptions and usually with a smirk or attitude.

I think you'll notice that most of us start off just asking questions. It gets worse from there. We have some really abrasive members. I tend to be one of them. I'm not going to apologize for that - if you walk into the sandbox I'm playing in and draw a line, I'm going to expect you to back that shit up or I'm going to buff it out as best I can.

There was a point where I was going to come up with a list of "suggestions" for new theists letting them know what angers us the most and what examples of preaching are in order to facilitate the communication process. But I got busy with new hobbies and regular sex and said "fuck it." This is why I didn't go into diplomacy.

[Anomalocaris]

Atheists are supposed to be the elite of the educated masses. We are supposed to spread knowledge, not ridicule.

We don't have an obligation to squander our time trying to spread knowledge to those who elected to follow a creed that ridicules knowledge and reposes its trust in ignorance.

Whether a person really values knowledge and is confused, or really values ignorance protected by a shield of bullshit is easy to tell.

[Nine]

Whats the point in the internet if you can't chat shit to strangers?

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

Sometimes the appropriate response is ridicule.

[Cato]

Food for thought:

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.” - Thomas Jefferson

"No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live." - Mark Twain

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." - Voltaire

"The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false." - St. Thomas Aquinas

[thesummerqueen]

I'd also like to say:

Know your audience. If you walk into a room and state an opinion, you better be able to back that shit up IMMEDIATELY, or face the embarrassment when those who are in the room tear you a new one for it. I don't walk into my boss's office with an opinion or decision without having a damn good reason for saying it. He knows a fuck load more about accounting than I do. I wouldn't walk into a botanists office and tell them how to do their job. They have a degree - I'm just a schmuck who likes to dither around with plants.

Unless and until you know the mental capacity and education of your audience, coming in and making assertions is stupid and dangerous. Sort of like the sword guy in the "nut" thread telling me to "read Holy Blood, Holy Grail" when I asked him for some sort of back up on his statement. I've already read that book. He didn't ask respectfully if I had. He just assumed I hadn't because I didn't believe him outright. Can you understand how condescending this is? This happens all the fucking time on this forum. I'm still mad at how jstrodel treated missluckie in this fashion.

We have some incredibly knowledgeable people on this forum who are more than likely never showing anyone more than the edges of what they know. And we have some incredibly ignorant-ass people who come visit this forum who think they have all the answers, and who get immediately frustrated because they didn't think through the fact that they came onto a forum of atheists who are more likely to be skeptics and rationalists and have no time for their bullshit.

[Kayenneh]

[Brian37]

Exactly what is wrong with ridicule?And to say all attacks are senseless is stupid.

Claimant, "Pink unicorns are real"

Atheist, "That is bullshit, no they are not real"

Claimant, "YOU HATE ME"

Are pink unicorns real? Does that claim deserve blind value? Or does it sound ridiculous? When someone tells you the moon is not made of cheese, you don't condemn them, you thank them.

What is senseless is making naked assertion claims and pretending those claims should be valued without being questioned.