Atheism and Purpose

[Tiberius]

To the people who think I'm an idiot and incapable of critical thinking. I hope you don't expect me to respond to your questions from here on out. I find your insults hypocritical to say the least, as you have begged me to be hyper-respectful of you and your opinions and your beliefs.

Nobody has begged you to be hyper-respectful. However, when you go around saying things about atheists that are patently untrue, and say these things as if they are fact, you are going to annoy a lot of people. This is a discussion community; we discuss things. Instead of making wild assertions about something you clearly know nothing about, why not ask us what we believe? Don't paint all of us with the same brush.

As for these reputation points. If they are meant to be a way you can all get together and ban me from your group after I collect enough of them, by all means just do it now. I think it's pathetic, but I'm actually a little proud of being in the red.

Reputation points have no effect on the likelihood of being banned. You shouldn't be proud of being in the red; it means you have acted in a way that has made people have a disapproving attitude towards you. Most theists who come here get along well with us because they don't try to tell us what we believe.

Actually, I fully expect to be banned. I don't know why you'd want me in here anyway. It used to be all about debate, there were MSN groups like atheists vs. God, etc., and it was all about the argument. As the years have gone by, it seems more and more that popular atheism, or neo-atheism has become like a religion and a church all on its own. It even has mega-pastors like Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher and the like. Even this group takes in donations now. It used to be about the debate, but the dogmatic nature of neo-atheism, the intollerance, the anger, the attacks, the cause, and even the basically left-wing morality has become a kind of fundamentalism.

I don't think any of us here consider Dawkins & Maher as pastors. I certainly don't like Dawkins' books on atheism, and I think Maher is a fool for his various positions on medicine. We take donations because this is a popular forum, and I cannot afford the server costs on my own. None of the donations go to any person; they go towards renting the server.

Philosophies tend to turn into religions after awhile. Atheism was a philosophy, now it's much more like a religion. The Christians had a fish, the atheists have geek-chic glasses. The Christians had baptism, atheists have tatoos. Christians had Billy Graham; atheists have Richard Dawkins.

I don't have geek-chic glasses. I don't have tattoos. I don't consider Dawkins a "good" thing for the atheist movement. Does that mean I'm not an atheist? No. I'm an atheist because I don't believe in gods. QED.

I can't get into a Christian forum anymore with my ideas. They ban me instantly--no question. Over the years, the atheists have become less and less tolerant as well.

Have we banned you yet? No. You haven't broken any rules yet. Follow the rules, start treating people with respect (starting with not telling people what they believe, and instead asking them what they believe), and you'll do fine here.

So, fire your reputation points. Break your own rules with your insults--no different than Christians do.

We don't have a rule against insults. Insults are allowed on this board. They aren't recommended of course.