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

[jonb]

Am I the only one who finds those lunatics entertaining?
Am I honestly the only person who gets a joyful tingling sensation at the anticipation of a new victim to slice open with occams razor?
Honestly? Love it.

I must admit observing your joy, and the relish with which you set about a new little delicacy to be dissected and tasted, does increase my happyness quota. Its like throwing bread to the ducks, nobody can work out why all humans enjoy this activity, but there must be an evolutionary reason behind it.

---

I just want them to fuck off.

We don't owe these dropkicks shit. It has been my view for a very long time that such people have no place on an atheist forum and should not be permitted.

This is also true, but it is a problem.
An inner sanctum could be set up in which only atheists would be invited, but that would be to create a priesthood of 'selected individuals' which is something I for one would work to bring down as it would just be a new church. Or we just ban anyone who is openly theistic, the problem with that is that It would be like Denmark, cooperative, productive, and seemingly a model of liberal political philosophy, and as dull as dish water, A life without spice.

I understand your frustration, so kick the bastards from time to time, you do it well and it makes me laugh.

[KichigaiNeko]

I do not find arguing with theists entertaining.... I find it draining as both Pad and Min have more than eloquently stated.

On to other news......

What is the difference between Ecofeminism, Free Market Environmentalism and the Christian approach to Environmentalism??
I have no answers and am just exploring this newest branch of religious - isms myself. It was a question posted by my beloved daughter (just to twist her poor mother's mind into knots I think)

[Napoléon]

Am I the only one who finds those lunatics entertaining?
Am I honestly the only person who gets a joyful tingling sensation at the anticipation of a new victim to slice open with occams razor?
Honestly? Love it.

I remember those days...

You'll get bored of it.

[A Theist]

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.

[Tiberius]

I don't know how many times I've said this, but I'll say it again in case you weren't here the last time:

1) The staff team is small.
2) We can't read every post.
3) We rely on our amazing reporting system to have posts flagged up by regular users.
4) If you see a post that violates the rules, click the "Report" button on that post and enter the reason you think it does.
5) It should take no longer than a few seconds of your time, and it helps us stamp down on personal attacks, trolling, flame wars, etc.

With very few exceptions, there is no such thing as a bad report. If you think something violates the rules, report it. Every report generates a thread for staff, and every report gets discussed. Period.

[The Grand Nudger]

Reported- Tiberius for post #15 in "Well.....I guess this is goodbye.."

Reason- I am offended.

[Chuff]

I think after a certain amount of time here, you've pretty much seen all the standard arguments and all of the standard ripostes.

Lets face it there are only a few, real arguments that are ever posed no matter how they are dressed up

I think your newly enlightened atheist comes here, sucks up the knowledge and then interest inevitably wanes due to repetition of subject matter.

Same for theists arriving with their new brilliant and cunning argument that is actually an old seen-it-a-thousand-times-before argument which soon gets gunned down and they toddle off to try it at another atheist discussion board.

[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.

[C.W. Sims]

what napo said. now, i click on this tab and look thru the topics. they're all trounced on for 100 pages of the same convo that was covered in 2 pages. i look up and down for some place i can toss in some comedy or just look for the posters who are making the most sense to me now (or just bein straight funny as hell). then, there's very little else that's interesting and new.

I have to agree with this. I am new to the forums, but quickly grew bored because of the seemingly growing tide of conversations that seemed to be nothing but the same shit over and over. Now that I have read this thread I realize why that might be. In the cases of the ones I noticed it the most it was actually the arrival of a theist that brought this about. Once they interjected the religious idiocy the thread devolved into a back and forth pissing contest that ran on for pages without end.

Debating theists can be fun and interesting, but it should not be done at the expense of the thread. Once the thread gets derailed all efforts should be put forth to get it back on track and if some valid religious debate point was raised it should be started as a new thread.

I took some days off, nearly a week I think, maybe longer and I am back. Enjoying the shit out of the place again, and in general just looking at it more lightly and trying to glean what I can from the posts instead of getting sucked into the mindless tedium that begins to take them over as they stretch out.

It is sad that so many left over petty bullshit like the password change though. Just sad and pathetic really.