Well... I guess this is goodbye...

[Reforged]

What I've noticed is that a lot of the discussions quickly go off topic and deteriorate into angry rants, verbal tirades, name-calling, personal attacks, back and forth arguing, and smear....and it's not just the theists who are being attacked. Look what some of these guys did to Manowar when he gave his opinion against Obamacare, (see thread Obamacare). He was attacked and maligned by other posters who called him selfish, greedy, parasite, cock sucker,....one poster called Manowar a sick f***k and that he hated him with every fiber of his being, hoped that he would get cancer and drop f***king dead (see #31 Obamacare). When Raphiel raised an objection, (again, see thread Obamacare), another poster responded with verbal assaults against his brother, calling him stupid and a complete dumb f**k. I used Manowar and RaphielDrake as examples to show that it's not just the theists who are being attacked, but it's also other atheists who are being verbally attacked simply for disagreeing. There's nothing wrong with heated debates and discussions but when the discussion deteriorates to personal attacks and counter attacks, back and forth verbal tirades, and childish temper tantrum playground name calling then it's no longer a discussion. Could be one of a few reasons among others why people are leaving the forum.

Ha, hes actually kind of right about one thing despite the way he presents it. I mean I wasn't actually attacking obamac-... free healthcare. I was just pointing some things out that had gone wrong with the system in England. I added that if America wanted the system to work they'd need to address some of the traps we had fallen into and that it was a very good idea.
Then someone attacked me, I will not mention who, for daring to point out potential flaws and attacked my country for failing to take into account overpopulation which I had already openly admitted to.
I jokingly referred to my brother having had four kids.
The joke was lost upon him, not content with attacking my country he saw fit to attack my brother.
Easy mistake to misread someones argument, not so easy a mistake to attack their family.
I remained polite clarifying my position aside from a mildly hostile but highly accurate remark at the end.
Gotta say, I don't agree with "A theist"s views often but I find it hard to disagree with the case he makes for childish tirades being present as I myself was the victim of a misdirected one.

Its easy to claim that the person it was directed at was being incredibly childish and insulting so warranted a childish and insulting response. This is no excuse. Yes, I have done it in the past but I do not condone it. We are not children, we are adults and should act as such. A reasoned, informed and intelligent retort should be our natural response. If you don't remain calm in the face of insulting and arrogant behaviour and instead choose to retort with more of the same then you validate that behaviour. Its that simple.
That being said I will once again clarify my position so no-one sees a need to attack my family; I like free healthcare in theory, it will require careful planning to pull it off in practice.