Quite a shame how people respond

[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.