Not taking any more BS.

[Edwardo Piet]

Ahhh I understand where you're coming from in that case. I've personally been 'foruming' for many years, and have been involved in my fair share of online debates. That being said - I have *never* experienced such extreme idiocy as those times attempting to converse with the religous type. It seems all reason, rules and logic flies out the window. I've had private IM style conversations with some religious folks, only to find it a most frustrating encounter as they end up not being able to satisfactorily explain their beliefs. In the majority of cases, it seems to stem from the fact that they don't really understand their own beliefs and have never questioned them.

In relation to fundamentalists, I think I respect them more than the average christian because they seem less 'wishy washy' with their beliefs. Like the Westborough Baptist Church. They might be the looniest loons I have ever laid eyes on, they may be twisted, demented, sick, mislead, and straight out wrong - but I *respect* the fact that at the very least they don't attempt to twist the words of the bible to fit their own beliefs.
Well... maybe they do, but not as much as the average christian. You just have to respect somebody who stands by their beliefs through thick and thin, regardless of how demented or screwed up those beliefs may be. Either that, or pity them for being too stubborn and blind to percieve how badly their beliefs deviate from reality.

I appreciate that you can see where I'm coming from. I used to have two religious friends on the net several years back because I played an RTS game with them. In the end I had to lose contact with them because we were just too different. And we just couldn't agree at all on a lot of things because of the whole "religion" thing. And there was not much agreement other than within the gaming. But I didn't learn my lesson then because I was quite a lot younger then and I actually thought that they were a rate occurance. When in fact they were probably quite moderate in comparison with most fundamentalists. They never preached anything to me for example. But they didn't believe in evolution. I don't think I ever asked or if they ever told me how old they thought the earth was. I wonder if they thought it was around 6000 years?! Hope not. They seemed too intelligent for that, surely. But I mean not to believe evolution is rather backward isn't it? Pretty mixed, weird. So I thought it was rare. I've only learned the last two years really how common religion is, and particularly how common fundamentalism is compared to how common I thought it was. In fact a few years ago I don't think even knew fundamentalism really existed. I mean I knew there were creationists who didn't believe in evolution. But I thought they thought the universe and earth was as old as we thought. I didn't think the thought we lived with dinosaurs/there were no dinosaurs at all!
I mean ffs! I've learned how common the religion/fundamentalist religion is actually in the last 2 years really, like I said.
Oh, and I guess thats because where I've lived, I've never really come into contact with any religious people off the net. Certainly not really religious people. Until the last two years, but thats since I've moved house (along side my family) I guess. Maybe thats why.
And the reason why I didn't really talk to people about religion and not know about it on the net much. Is because untill the last two months I've only ever used the net for gaming really.
About the fundamentalist part of your post, yeah I'll buy that. I can understand why you respect less 'wishy washy' beliefs more, probably because its less dishonest to be a fundamentalist atleast on average perhaps, but I also agree that fundamentalism is more dangerous because of its usual sheer ignorance.
And like Socrates said: "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." which I don't take as gospel of course, and very probably isn't that black and white. But I can certainly see some truth in it.
But also I think I've heard Dawkins and Sam Harris say for example, that often religious moderates give cover for the fundamentalits. So theres another bad side to the moderates I guess. But of course fundamentalism is more dangerous.
Sorry for long post, I had a lot to say lol.